My OG Blog

Did you know that you can purchase lady bugs to release in your organic garden? Have you tried only to have them all fly away? Here’s a quick organic gardening tip that may help keep this desirable beneficial insect around after you release it.

Thoroughly wet the area you plan to release the lady bugs into. Plan to release them in the evening and release some of them under a damp straw mulch. You may also consider spreading a sponge with some commercially made beneficial insect food (should be able to buy it where you purchased the lady bugs). These added steps may help keep your lady bugs form flying away!

Container gardening is the perfect solution for the Urban Gardener who is short on space. Container gardening doesn’t take much room and they are simple to care for. Much of the difficult work associated with gardening has to do with weeding and tilling. Weeds rob important nutrients and water from the plants in your garden. With a container garden weeds are almost nonexistant especially if you use a good sterile organic potting soil to start with! Since the soil is in a container your not walking on it and packing it down so there is no need to till. Just make sure it has at least six hours of sunlight and water regularily. You will be enjoying fresh organic fruits and vegetables before you know it!

The choices of what to grow in a container garden are not nearly as limited as you might think.  Some of the more obvious choices are tomatoes, peppers, stawberries and herbs. Pole beans and cucumbers grow nicely in a container, just train them to grow on a trellis, the leaf variety of lettuce also does well in a container even in a sunny window where it will keep you in fresh delicious salads all year round.

What you want to grow in a container is really only limited by your imagination, be creative and you can find a way to grow most of the fresh vegetables you love in a container. Admittedly there are a few vegetables such as corn that are not very practical to grow in a container since the yield per plant is poor in comparison to its size but there is still an abundance of choice! So don’t let a lack of space keep you from growing your own organic vegetables start a container garden today!

The fourth fundamental of organic gardening is planting cover crops.  Cover crops have more benefits than just just covering the soil. They can be used in several ways: to cover soil in unused parts of the garden, to protect beds over winter, to a help block weeds under fruit and vegetable plants (living mulch),  and to help block the growth of weeds in new beds. Cover crops will improve drainage , help prevent erosion, attract beneficial animals and insects, when you mow or cut a cover crop it is like an instant supply of mulch for other parts of the garden! Cover crops preserve nutrients which otherwise may leach out of the soil.

Stay tuned I will be starting a new section of posts on the different types of cover crops highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of each!

One very important aspect of companion gardening is companion planting. There are a lot of great organic gardening books out there that can help you find companions for the fruits and vegetables in your organic garden. One that I found to be extremely helpful is “Great Garden Companions” by Sally Jean Cunningham. She emphasizes the idea of plant families and neighborhoods, which really simplifies the whole companion planting system.

In her system there are four types of plant families: Botanical families, Feeding families, Performance families and Pest-fighting families. Botanical families are genetically related and often have similar needs and pest problems. Feeding families have similar needs for nutrients. Some plants require fertile ground and some will thrive in average or even poor soils. Performance families are plants which help each other grow and are a very practical way of grouping families. Then there are the pest fighting families, where one family member may help repel pests away from another family member or lure it away (a sacrificial plant).

Once you have decided which fruits and vegetables you want to grow it is time to group them into the appropriate families. This can be a little confusing at first and I highly recommend reading “Great Garden Companions”. If you don’t want to purchase it check out your public library to see if it is available.

Once you have created your garden families you will want to find their friends. When we put garden families with garden friends we create garden neighborhoods! Next time I will go into more detail on what a garden friend is!

In the last article on companion gardening I mentioned that many creatures should be welcomed into an organic garden. I went on to discuss how beneficial birds are in the garden but birds are not the only creatures you should encourage to make a home in your garden! Bats, lizards and salamanders, snakes, toads and frogs are all wildlife that should be welcomed in your garden.

Now I know that these animals are sometimes considered a little creepy. When I am organic gardening, it still scares me when a snake or a lizard startles me! Truth is they are harmless and more frightened of you than you are of them.

There are only four types of snakes in the U.S. that are considered dangerous, they are very rare, and they most likely will not be visiting your garden. The ones you see control rodents, insects and even slugs and snails. Snakes like the shelter of rocks, woodpiles and brush. So find creative ways to use these features near your garden.

The common brown bat can consume up to 3,000 insects/night including mosquitoes. You can build or buy house created just for them, they’re also attracted by ponds.

Lizards and salamanders are completely harmless and will consume thousands of insects. They like cool damp places to hide like under a rock pile.

Toads and frogs are great for controlling insect populations. One toad can eat as many as 10,000 insects in a year including slugs! Toads like cool dark places, so make a little shelter out of rocks or an upside down clay pot (just make sure there is a way for the toad to get under it. Ponds and water features are a great attraction for both frogs and toads.

So take the time to add a few features in and around your garden to attract these wildlife companions your organic garden will love you for it!

tansy

The final step for starting your organic garden is to control pests. You have decided to grow an organic garden so this means ABSOLUTELY NO CHEMICALS. How do you accomplish this? Well it really goes back to proper garden design and planning. There are some really great organic gardening books out there about companion planting and companion gardening.

The key to controlling pests in your garden is to create an environment which is friendly to the beneficial insects and animals which will control the population of the pests. For example tansy is a great companion plant it attracts many beneficial insects such as lady bugs, spined soldier bugs, spiders, hoverflies, praying mantis, predatory wasps and many other beneficial insects. So it is a great idea to plant tansy in amongst your veggies, and they’re pretty too! Marigolds, basil, garlic and a host of other strong flowers and herbs act as a repellant keeping pest away. Plant a ring of them or set pots of them around the outside of your garden and it will help keep the pest from entering.

There are many plant combinations, features you can add to your garden and crop rotations that will help you control the pest populations in your organic garden. This is an area of organic gardening that I find truly exciting and fascinating and I will be adding many more articles about it in the future.

If you have decided to go with the traditional organic garden the 5th step consist of breaking ground. If you have decided to go with a raised bed garden you get to skip this step. However I would like to point out a couple of important points about raised beds.

First when you add the soil to your raised bed make sure you put in enough soil so it is at least 6 – 8 inches deep, you should be about 2 – 3 inches below the sides of your raised bed to leave room for water and the addition of compost. Remember since you are adding already loosened soil it will settle, so you need to overfill it.

Keep in mind what you want to grow in the bed if you are growing deep rooted vegetables like carrots and potatoes then you should have closer to 12 inches of depth. If the sides of your raised bed are not deep enough to achieve this remove enough soil from the bottom of the bed to get the depth you need.

Put a weed barrier on the bottom of the bed. The weed barrier needs to allow for drainage you can use a landscape fiber but personally I use several thicknesses of old newspaper. It works just as well maybe even a little better and it’s less expensive.

If you have decided to go with the traditional style of garden you will need to break up the ground. Use a spade or garden fork to dig down into the soil and turn it over. Remove weeds and their root systems as you go. You should dig down to a depth of 8 – 12 inches I would recommend closer to 12 because it will help to better control the re-growth of weeds in that area. Keep working the soil with the spade or fork and a garden rake until it has all been turned and loosened.

Change your impact! Stay tuned for the next Steps for Starting an Organic Garden. Applying fertilizer.

Step 3 for starting and Organic garden is planning the layout of your garden. First you need to decide what you want to grow. Plant root vegetables next to bush vegetables this will help you make the most of the space you have chosen. If you are planting early season vegetables plan to plant a late season vegetable there, this will allow various nutrients to be taken and returned to the soil throughout the growing season. There are many organic gardening books available about companion plants (see a chart) that will help you make the best possible use of your space.

Next you will want to plan to plant some flowers and herbs in your garden. Flowers and herbs will attract beneficial insects to your garden like ladybugs and bees. Flowers will also attract birds which has its up side and its downside, the birds will help control not so desirable insects but they also enjoy dining on some of the fruits of your labor. For the most part birds are a good thing and I will discuss ways to control the not so good things in the future. Plan to plant a ring around the garden of marigolds, basil, thyme or garlic this will help keep deer, beetles, undesirable insects and rabbits out of the garden.

Change your impact! Stay tuned for the next step for Starting an Organic Garden, Preparing the Soil.

When planning your organic garden it is important to consider what plants will like growing near each other. Some plants will take on the flavor of the plants they are planted near or they may attract insects that are harmful. Sometimes the harmful insects they attract are bad for both plants and you are creating a paradise for them by putting the foods they love in such convenient proximity to each other, and sometimes what is good for one plant is not so good for another.

Another thing to consider when planting your garden is nutrient exchange. Nature gives and takes. What one plant takes another plant may give back and vise versa. If you can find the right combination of these both will thrive off of each other. This is also an important concept to keep in mind when looking at crop rotation when planning next year’s garden. There are many organic gardening books out there that will help you learn the ins and outs of companion planting so you can take full advantage of your gardening space! I have included a table of good companions and bad companions to help you on your way.