Cover crops, sometimes called green manure or living mulch, are one of the best ways to improve the soil in your organic garden and they are also one of the most under utilized methods of improvement. Alfalfa is a great cover crop since it is a perennial legume it will make your soil more nutrient rich. It also has very deep tap roots and will improve soil drainage while it is bringing up the nutrients from deep in the ground. Alfalfa is also a favorite of many beneficial insects who are attracted to its pretty purple flowers.
Alfalfa is a great cover crop to plant in an area for future gardening, or in areas where you want to give a rest. It is best to plant it in spring or late summer and you should plan to let it grow for a year or more. When it is done flowering (before it has gone to seed) I would suggest mowing it. The high nitrogen content of green alfalfa will heat up your compost and cutting it will also encourage more growth (deeper roots). You can also work the clippings directly into the soil of the active areas of your garden, or use it for a mulch.
Roses love alfalfa so mix some of the cuttings into the soil around your roses or use it to mulch around the base. Another helpful tip is to let some of it dry really well in the sun, chop it up very fine and store it in a cloth bags large enough to hold a couple of ounces of dried alfalfa. Later when your garden needs an added boost of energy just throw a bag of alfalfa into a five gallon bucket of fresh clean water let it sit in the sun for a couple of days and waa laa you have alfalfa sun tea a refreshing drink your plants will love!
Christmas time is a time for family and friends and what better way is there to spend time together than decorating the Christmas tree? The simple art of stringing popcorn and cranberries on to some cotton thread is a fun family activity and makes an attractive old fashioned Christmas Tree. If you have a real tree, leave the homemade garland on set it out in the yard after Christmas and enjoy watching the birds that will come to feed on your colorful garland! When the garland is gone you can compost the thread and branches in your compost pile!
Just cut the branches off the tree (smaller the better they compost more quickly) and add to your compost tumbler or pile. The heavier trunk can be added to the compost pile as well but it will take a long time to break down into compost you may want to burn it in your fireplace or wood burning stove instead. The ashes from your fireplace or wood stove also make great soil amendments!
If you have an artificial tree just take the garland off and hang it outside, preferably near a window so you can enjoy watching the birds who come to feed. When the garland is consumed just throw the cotton thread into the compost tumbler or pile. A popcorn and cranberry garland makes a beautiful and sustainable Christmas decoration!
So get the family together, throw a log on the fire, pop some corn, makes some hot chocolate or hot cider and enjoy spending some time together while creating a beautiful organic addition to your Christmas Tree!
Wishing you all a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
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!
In the two previous post we talked about the first fundamental collect, collect, collect! The second fundamental of organic gardening is to compost some of what you collected. I mention in that post that some of the materials you collect should be composted right away because they start to decompose so quickly. Materials like kitchen scraps and grass clippings start to decompose quickly and do not store well while items like diseased or pest infected plants should be thrown into the compost pile as soon as possible to prevent the spread of either the pests or the disease along with weeds which have gone to seed since the heat of the compost pile will help to kill pests, disease and weed seeds.
So you might be asking, if I am not saving all this stuff to compost what else should I do with all of these materials I have collected? If the material is one that will store well like pine needles, straw, leaves, saw dust, shredded paper, etc. then it will also make great mulch! Grass clippings are also a great mulch if you use it right away so if you don’t want to or don’t need to compost your grass clippings then use it to mulch. Mulching is an extremely important aspect of organic gardening. It helps the soil retain moisture, helps control weeds and provides shelter for beneficial insects! So it reduces the amount of time spent watering and weeding, conserves on water and supports the beneficial population in your garden meaning you can spend less time working and more time enjoying your organic vegetable garden! An added benefit of using organic matter to mulch with is that as it is acting as a mulch it is also beginning to decompose and when you go to plant in that area again you simply work the mulch into the soil where it will finish composting and enrich your soil!
In my last article we discussed the first fundamental of organic gardening: collect, collect, collect. The next two fundamentals are about what you do with all of this organic material you’ve collected. As was stated before the single most important ingredient in a successful organic garden is the soil and the best fertilizer for an organic garden is compost.
If you are lucky enough to be starting your garden with great soil compost will keep it rich and healthy. If you’re not so lucky, compost will build any type of soil into great soil. Compost improves sandy soil by adding nutrients and improving water retention. Compost will add nutrients and improve texture and drainage in heavy clays. No matter what soil type you have you can improve it by adding compost.
So now that you have collected all these great organic materials it’s time to start composting some of them. Some of the materials you will collect should be put into an active compost pile immediately. Kitchen scraps you don’t have room to freeze, weeds that have gone to seed, sick or diseased plants, fresh grass clippings (though there is another use for these), garden debris which may harbor harmful insects or their larvae and hay.
There are many different methods of composting find the ones that work for you. I personally have two or three methods going at the same time. Check out some of my other articles on composting to discover what works for you.
The most important factor for any garden to be successful is the soil. If you have great soil already you will want to keep it that way and if your soil is not so great you will need to improve it. There are four fundamental things you can do to improve the soil in your organic garden. This will be a short series of articles which will allow me to discuss each of the fundamentals in more detail.
The basis for all of the fundamentals is ORGANIC MATTER. You can never have too much! Fundamental #1: collect, collect, collect. Find a place to keep all of the materials you collect, a corner of your garage, in your garden and old shed whatever works for your situation. Keep in mind some of the materials you collect will need to be used right away since they will turn sour if they are stored.
Some examples of organic matter to collect are:
Newspapers
Leaves
Pine Needles
Grass Clippings
Kitchen Scraps
The grass clippings are an example of material that should be used right away. Kitchen scraps are another, unless you have enough freezer space where you can freeze them in old milk cartons and save them for later use. Freezing kitchen scraps is actually a great way to save organic matter since the process of freezing and then thawing helps break the matter down more quickly. Things like the newspaper, leaves, pine needles, etc. can be stored indefinitely in a dry environment.
Don’t have enough organic matter around the house? Ask friends and family to save their old newspapers, leaves and grass clippings for you. There are almost always bags of leaves, and better yet pine needles, in the spring and fall sitting on the curbs waiting to be picked up by the garbage truck. Have a coffee pot at work? Bring a plastic pail to work and ask your co-workers to put the grounds in it.
Be resourceful there are hundreds of resources out there for you to collect all of the organic material you need! Your organic garden will love you for it and as an added bonus you will be helping reduce the waste that gets into your local landfill helping to create a greener, healthier planet!
Before we look at whether composting weeds is a good idea or not it might benefit us to ask the question: What exactly is a weed? A weed is a plant just like any other plant. Unfortunately it is growing in a place where we don’t want it to grow. Example: beautiful green grass growing in your lawn is usually considered quite desirable, however if it is growing in the garden it’s a nuisance and becomes a weed. This being said there are two schools of thought (kind of 3 if you count me) about what to do with the weed once it is removed.
The first says you should burn it or dispose of it. That you should not use it in compost pile as it may have weed seeds which will survive the composting process and reestablish themselves in your garden when you add the compost.
The second thought process says you should compost the weeds. Since they are very rich in trace minerals and other nutrients which will help your garden flourish. Some weeds even have beneficial qualities if they are not allowed to get out of control, but that’s a topic for another day!
I personally take the middle road. If you are keeping up on the weeding in your garden the weeds have not matured enough to have developed seeds and should be composted. Why not take advantage of the extra trace mineral and nutrient rich composting material? On the other hand if you have missed a weed or two and it has matured to the point where it has developed seeds I would probably choose to throw it away instead of composting it. I really don’t need the extra work later. I like to keep it as easy!
Organic gardening is the process of growing and sustaining a garden using all natural methods. By starting an organic garden you will be utilizing the latest trends in environmental controls, green living and sustainable living habits. You will become more self sufficient and reduce your impact on the environment while saving money both in food costs and waste disposal costs.
Step One: Set up a composting bin or pile. Add organic waste such as vegetable waste, grass and garden cuttings, dried leaves, un-dyed shredded paper, sawdust and manure from herbivores (grain eating animals). If composting in a pile make sure to turn I regularly with a fork or shovel. If using a drum turn the mixture by tipping the drum on its side and rolling it two full rotations, then resetting it upright daily. After two or three weeks you will have organic fertilizer to spread over the garden. There are many composters on the market that can make composting easier but they are not vital to making good compost.
Change your impact! New articles will be available soon on the next steps for creating your very own organic vegetable garden.
composting cycle
First of all what is compost. Compost is a form of decomposed organic matter. It is usually dark crumbly and earthy smelling. It is made from organic materials like leaves, wood chips, grass clippings, kitchen scraps, newspapers, etc. When broken down these materials provide one of natures richest fertilizers.
Compost is made up of materials high in either carbon or nitrogen and while most people think of these materials as waste it could be argued that they are only waste if they are simply thrown away. By composting these “waste materials” you not only help keep our already overburdened landfills from filling up, you also create a valuable resource for increasing the production of your organic garden.
So, why compost? Because you and your family will enjoy all the wonderful healthy fruits and vegetables you harvest from your garden and you will be helping to make a greener healthier earth!