Video - Healthy Organic Gardening

Here is a cool video that shows some BEAUTIFUL produce, and discusses why organic and sustainable garden is so much healthier for you, the soil and plants, and the planet as a whole. Enjoy this short video, and for more info, check out the book below.

Organic Gardening Tips
plc3demo.com I want to share with you not only the joy of producing fresh, delicious food for your family, but also the health advantages. For you (and me) - the gardener - the health benefits of spending some time in the fresh air and sunshine, as w...


Organic Food Gardening Manual

How to Grow Your Own Herbal Remedies

Herbs are a fun addition to the garden, and not only are they tasty in all kinds of dishes, but many also have medicinal properties that can be very helpful for all kinds of ailments. When you hear about someone who grows herbs for medicine, perhaps you picture a big garden or farm, and someone who has nothing to do all day but work in the garden. While that is a picturesque and perhaps enviable scene, Image via Wikipedia (Basil)most of us do not have that kind of time and space. The good news is, you don't have to let the lack of time and space discourage you. There are many valuable medicinal herbs that are easy to grow in small spaces and/or containers. Here are some ideas.

1. Rosemary grows very well in a pot, and overwinters indoors. This herb not only tastes good, but it is a powerful antioxidant due to the rosmarinic acid it contains. It also has compounds to help keep your mind sharp.

2. Lemon balm is very easy to grow - in fact, growing it in a container is advisable since it tends to take over a yard or garden. It is a very powerful antiviral herb that can be used to stave off colds and flu.

3. Fennel is an easy-to-grow perennial herb that can be planted in your yard. Its feathery foliage and licorice-like scent make it pleasant anywhere. Consider planting it by your front porch or back door. Fennel helps increase milk flow in nursing mothers, and it also helps treat gas and other digestive upsets.

4. Lavender can be grown in containers or in the yard. It likes its environment to be sunny and well-drained, even dry. Lavender flowers help promote relaxation and sleep.

Image via Wikipedia (Bee Balm)5. Bee balm (Monarda) is a perennial that thrives in sun or shade, but prefers partial shade. The aerial parts of this plant make a tasty, memory-enhancing tea. It tastes something like the citrus oil of bergamot used in Earl Grey tea, which is why bee balm is sometimes called bergamot.

6. Mints are the ultimate easy growers. They do fine in containers or open ground. All mints make good digestive aids, and mountain mint is an effective insect repellent.

7. Basil grows well in pots or open ground, but it is not cold-hardy. You will either have to plant new basils every year or bring your potted plants indoors before frost. Basil is antibacterial and anti-inflammatory.

8. Oregano will sprawl into a lovely ground cover or thrives happily in a pot. Its pink blooms attract beneficial bees. Oregano has antibacterial properties and is rich in antioxidants.

Herb Gardening Resources:
    

Gardening - A Great Way to Improve Your Emotional Health

This week we are talking about gardening and health. Most people think of gardening as a fun hobby, or a way to have a few extra fresh veggies on hand, but actually gardening offers a number of other benefits. It is a way to grow and harvest your own food - true. It can also create a nice landscape for your yard. It’s also a pleasant and low stress way to spend some time outside. But you might be surprised to know that gardening can also improve your emotional health. Here’s how.

Image via WikipediaGardening Requires Focus
Gardening is a task, like many creative tasks, that requires great focus. Digging, planting, and caring for the flowers, fruits and vegetables in your garden help you turn off an overactive mind. You’re able to instead focus on one thing – gardening. It helps you tune out the rest of the world for a while.

Gardening can actually help you find a meditative state. When you’re in this state your body and mind both relax. You’re able to find calm and awareness. It quiets the mind so those thoughts that have been plaguing you are sent away for a while.

It’s so effective at calming the mind and body that gardening programs are often used as therapy. People who are in mental health facilities and even prisons have been shown to receive tremendous benefit from gardening.

Gardening Stimulates the Mind
Gardening also provides you with a creative outlet. It stimulates your mind and requires you to solve problems too. In addition to planning a garden you also need to pay attention to the logistics.

You want to make sure your garden has all the nutrients it needs. Pest control, insect control, disease management and nutrition are all required for healthy plants. Additionally, you probably want to grow an aesthetically pleasing garden. That means spending time planning not only the location of various plants but how plants work together and fit to create a visually appealing garden.

Gardening also appeals to your senses which stimulate your mind. Your hands are digging in the dirt. You’re surrounded by life and you’re playing an active role in creating it. You can smell the flowers, touch the soft leaves of your plants and see the vibrant colors.

Image via WikipediaWhen your mind is stimulated creatively and is involved in problem solving, it can help you learn to manage other things. If you’re dealing with fears, depression, anxiety and stress, gardening can help you learn to manage those emotions.

Gardening Provides a Purpose
There are many reasons to have a garden. The most basic is for beauty. A Zen garden for example can provide a tranquil escape. A wildflower garden can provide unfettered beauty. A vegetable garden can provide sustenance. When you have a purpose and can follow through on that purpose, it helps build self esteem and confidence. It gives you a reason to get up in the morning (sounds silly, but I know at times when I've been depressed, few things make me feel better than going out to play in my garden for a while). You can watch your efforts pay off by creating the garden you desire.

Good for the Body is Good for the Mind
Finally, gardening is good for you physically. You’re moving your muscles and spending time outside. Time in the sun produces vitamin D which has been shown to be essential for mental health. Fresh air and sunshine is always good to help you relax and alleviate stress. And when your body is moving and active it produces endorphins. They are the feel good hormones produced by exercise. They help provide emotional well being.

Gardening provides an abundance of benefits for emotional well being. If you need to relax, ease depression or find a little joy, consider gardening. It helps you take great care of yourself, both body and mind.

Video - Rain Barrels

Here is a short video explaining the benefits and use of rain barrels. If you're already familiar with using a rain barrel system, this may not tell you anything new, but if you are pretty new to the concept, it's worth a couple of minutes to watch.

And if you're already ready to get your own rain barrel, or this video convinces you why you should, stay tuned, as next week we will share a video on how to build your own rain barrel system - much more cheaply than you can buy one.  (Of course if you want to skip the work and just purchase one now, some options are listed below for your convenience.)

Rain Barrel How To
© Insurance Bureau of Canada. All Rights Reserved A short informative video about using Rain Barrels to capture rain water. This video talks about how rain water can ease the strain on water supply and drainage if captured and used wisely.

Related Articles on Rain Barrels:

• Rain Water Barrels (groundtoground.org)
• Free Rain Barrels for New Yorkers (myronlmeters.wordpress.com)
• Adding Rain Barrels to your Landscape (greenflbroker.com)
• Rain barrel workshop (thewmeacblog.org)
• Rain Barrel Fixes (greenflbroker.com)

A Few Pre-Made Rain Barrels:

   

Using Rain Barrels to Survive Droughts

If you’re a gardener that has an unlimited supply of water, consider yourself lucky. There are many who live in drought zones where the garden and lawn watering rules are very constrictive to the healthy growth of gardens and plants. Many people just give up when they find out how few gallons of water they are permitted to use, but some have just found ways to cope with less water. There are many ways to optimize ones garden to conserve water while still keeping it lush.

Some of the ways include drip irrigation (the use of a pipe or hose with small holes to gradually seep into the roots of the plant), the placement of plants in groups of equal watering needs (to prevent wasting water on plants that don’t need it), and using compost or mulch to insulate the soil and prevent drainage.

Image via WikipediaBut one of the best ways to keep your garden alive during a drought is to take preventative measures. Occasionally a drought will be predicted in advance, or those already experiencing a drought will be given a few days of heavy rain. When this occurs, you should take the opportunity to set up several rain barrels. Some people think this would be a time consuming, silly thing to do. But it can save you many gallons of water, and hardly requires any work.

Finding the barrels will probably be the hardest part. You can use your own garbage cans, or head to your home improvement store to get a few 55 gallon plastic drums. These can sometimes be expensive and difficult to transport - especially if you have a small car, so keep that in mind before you go to the store. You will probably want to cover the top of the barrel with a screen of some sort to filter out any unwanted leaves or debris that might fall off the roof of your house (or you can just use a skimmer later to skim out any leaves, if that's easier).  For a  more permanent solution, you can also find much larger specially designed rain collecting barrels or tanks, which can be hooked up to a corner of your gutter system, and can actually hold hundreds of gallons in some cases.

Once you have your barrels ready, you’re faced with the decision of where to place them. Usually during rainfall, there is one corner or segment of the house that rain tends to pour off of. If you are taking the simple approach to barrel placement, just place the barrel under all the places where you see large amounts of drips. However, while this might be the easiest way to place them, you might not see very high volumes of rain in the barrels.

Image via WikipediaIf you want to take a more complicated approach to placing the barrels, you should consider tweaking your gutter system a bit. If you remove each individual segment and place it at a very slight slant so that all the water is diverted to the nearest corner of the house, you can place a rain barrel at each corner. So essentially your entire house acts as a catcher for the rain, instead of just a few feet worth of shingles. This is how to maximize the amount of water your rain barrel will catch.

After a heavy rainfall, each individual barrel might only be partially full. If it looks like it won’t be raining more any time soon, it’s a good idea to empty each barrel into one main central barrel. Seal it and save it out of the way, for whenever you may need it. Then the next time it starts to rain, you’ll be able to quickly put all your empty catching barrels into place without having to lug around all the water you’ve accumulated so far.

The use of water barrels might sound like an antiquated idea. However, when you’re in the midst of a drought and you’re able to spare that extra couple of gallons for your garden in addition to the city allotment, you’ll be grateful for every bit of time and money you spent on collecting all that rain. All it takes is a few trips out in the backyard every time it starts to sprinkle, and you’ll be a much happier gardener when water isn’t so abundant.

Rain Barrels for Sale:
 

Resource: Eat Local in Ohio

Here is a great website I stumbled across today. If you live in Ohio, Fresh Connect is an awesome resource for finding sustainable, locally grown food. From CSA and farmer's market Image via Wikipedialistings, to pick-your-own-produce farms and community gardens, to restaurants and grocers offering locally-raised fare, there is a ton of great information here.

Check it out for more ways to find fresh local food in  your area:
http://local-matters.org/fresh-connect

(And feel free to share your own favorite local food or sustainable gardening resource below!)

Video - Organic Pest Control Options

Here is a pretty good video interview with the editor of Organic Gardening magazine, detailing a number of different options for keeping pests from destroying your organic garden. I may have to try a few of these, but the problem is knowing which one....right now I am stumped.... Something is eating just about every plant in my garden (around the edges of the leaves), but I can't see the culprit! I have looked and looked, morning, and evening, and I see no bugs, no caterpillars, no worms, no webs, no droppings - nothing - just gnawed plants....  The only things that seem okay right now are the gladiolas, the moonflowers, and the tomatoes.  Ahhh, the trials of an organic gardener!  :-)

Anyway, enjoy the video, and some of the suggested resources are also offered below the video.

Organic pest control - Natural bug and insect repellents
www.howdini.com Organic pest control - Natural bug and insect repellents When it comes to insects in your garden, it's a bug eat bug world, so don't panic. Some bugs are good for plants. But how to control the bad ones without chemicals? Here's great...


Organic Pest Control Options Mentioned in the Video:
   

Wise Use of Natural Insecticides

This time of year, organic gardeners are enjoying their vibrantly growing gardens, and maybe not so much enjoying seeing their beautiful plants being eaten by pests! Many natural insecticides are now available on the market, but there are a few things to consider before using them.

Image by Jason A. Samfield via FlickrThe word natural sounds safe and welcoming.  It indicates that something is safe because it comes from nature - it sounds like something you can trust.  But anything used in excess can become a negative thing.  Anything used in the wrong way or in the wrong combination can become harmful.  So it is with natural insecticides.

Wise use means using responsibly.  Wise use means you know how the product can be harmful so that you make no mistakes with it.  Natural insecticides have become more popular as the concern about the earth's safety and preservation has become more and more prevalent.  But natural insecticides can still be damaging to pets, to plants, and even to people if used improperly.

You have to know the proper application, how much to use at a time (more is not always best), and what precautions to take while you are using the insecticide.  If you plan your garden wisely, you may not even need insecticides at all. There are certain plants that repel insects, and many good insects that can safely dispose of the not-so-good ones.

Image via WikipediaFor example, many people think wasps are bad.  And they can be if someone is allergic to them and gets stung.  They can be if a mischievous child irritates them just to see how angry they can get.  But wasps are also good for our environment.  They are not just insects that can harm; they are a positive force as biological control for our agricultural crops.  They help keep caterpillars under control.  If you wonder why this is helpful, ask the farmer or gardener whose crops are ruined by the caterpillars.  If the crops suffer, we suffer as prices rise because of the damage that is done to reduce availability.  Developing a pest management program is wiser than over-use of pesticides, whether they are natural or not.   If you must use a pesticide because of the location of the wasps or because they have become out-of-control around your home or property, at least wise up about the best way to do so.

There are natural insecticides that are so toxic that we must cover our faces to avoid ingestion while using them.  One such product is the dust of diatomaceous earth.  Even though it is a form of calcium, and calcium is a useful mineral, we must take care when applying it for insect control.  The minute particles are not good for our lungs.  Any dust that is inhaled excessively can be harmful. (I use this one a lot - it's not so hard to keep from inhaling it - just be sure not to apply when it is windy!)

Rotenone is a botanical insecticide extracted from the roots of certain plants in Asia and South America.  If you use this substance unwisely, you can damage your fish and beneficial insects.  It causes stomach poison in insects, acts slowly, and loses effectiveness a week after being used on the plants.  But if you inhale unsafe amounts of this insecticide, you could be sick longer than a week.  Wise use of it can control aphids, some beetles, fleas, lice, and some caterpillars.  So, if you don't want to hurt your butterfly population, you may want to choose another type of insect control.

Of course, some natural insecticides are more harmful than others. Some can be very helpful for your garden when other methods have failed. Just remember to always wash your hands, cover your nose and mouth, avoid using them on windy days, and be careful with them around small children and animals.

Non-Edible Composting Items

In addition to the acceptable food scraps you may have heard you can use for your compost, there are many different organic items you can add too.  Some of the items on the list may surprise you, while others will be ones you have heard of before.  Just remember, by composting these items you are reducing the amount of waste that your home produces - which is beneficial to everyone.

Image via WikipediaAdditional Composting Materials:

*    Lint collected from your dryer
*    Cardboard, cut into strips or small pieces
*    Hair (make sure that is isn’t put in as one large clump)
*    Manure (from a horse, pig, or cow; do NOT use dung or droppings from meat-eating animals such as cats or dogs - these can carry diseases)
*    Tree leaves (cutting or chipping them helps them break down faster)
*    Newspaper (considered brown food), cut into strips.  Do not use the glossy pages and do not add too much (it can dry out the pile)
*    Pine needles and pine cones
*    Coffee grounds and paper filters
*    Sawdust and wood chips (or shavings) as long as it is from untreated wood.
*    Straw -  even better if it is used straw from horse or other animal bedding
*    Grass clippings (green food)
*    Seaweed or algae (you can get these from your home aquarium, or pond, if you have one)

There are a few considerations to think about when choosing from the above list of items.

If you do use dryer lint, it would be wise to only use it from cycles when you washed clothes with natural fibers – man-made fibers would not break down well in your compost.  If you are using your compost for your garden be extra careful that everything you add has not been treated with chemicals – such as grass clippings.   If any type of commercial fertilizer or pesticide has been sprayed on the grass do not add it to your compost bin.  Larger items should be broken down as much as possible to speed up their decomposition.

That should give you a few ideas for reducing and using other household waste in your composting efforts. Feel free to share your own below, as well!

Video - Growing Organic Food the Easy Way

Here is a longer video on the method I mentioned on Thursday. This video gives you a bit more details on the system, and how and why it works. This minimal-work method is great for a small space, or even in a larger space, and helps you utilize empty spaces in your garden that typically get filled with weeds. He describes a very interesting method for keeping weeds out - it is very natural and holistic - operating your garden as a natural system, the way that it would occur on its own, only with the stuff you actually WANT in your garden.

Pretty cool!  Check it out, and if you want more info after watching, just follow the link below the video.

The Easy Way to Grow Food in your Vegetable Garden
Jonathan White, Environmental Scientist and Horticulturalist, points out important methods to reduce your effort and increase your crop yield in your vegetable garden with Food4Wealth.


Click here for more information on this easy and sustainable organic gardening method.

Organic Gardening - The Easy Way?

You know what I dislike most about organic vegetable gardening? Running one is hard work, and fraught with difficulties! And I'm not just talking about weeding, watering, and all that - I'm also talking about the frustrations of having your beautiful garden eaten by pests, having plants die and not knowing why, and other challenges.

Image via WikipediaAs a result, not many folks are willing to do it on a serious level. In fact, you may have entertained the thought of having your own organic vegetable garden for years, but have been put off by the amount of work involved to maintain it.

However, I recently discovered a highly efficient and simple gardening method that requires an extremely limited amount of maintenance work, and is also a lot of fun!

The method is called ecological organic vegetable gardening and according to the experiences of many gardeners, it appears to be one of the easiest and most convenient ways of running your own organic vegetable garden.

For more info, and to view a quick video introduction, just visit www.food4health.com.

Weed Control for Efficient Gardening of Vegetables

A true garden aficionado must know that cultivation or weeding is required for growth control. Weeds are your garden's most persistent and cloying enemy. You need to be able to know how to handle weeds in order to foster growth in your organic garden. If you let weeds take over, they will completely obliterate your capacity to yield a rich number of vegetables.

Image via WikipediaWeeds are the number one stealer of nutrients, sunlight and revenue for farmers, so the earlier you try to eliminate them, the better will it be for your gardening. This can certainly eat up your time in certain seasons, depending on the size of your garden, but monitoring weeds and eliminating them is definitely worth your time and effort.  

Weeds are usually much harder to remove when they have matured. So your best plan of attack will be to monitor your garden closely, and eliminate them at first sight. Cultivating your soil regularly in the garden will help eliminate the younger weeds. Once you let those young weeds take hold and become firmly established in the garden, it will become a more herculean task to try to remove them. 

Seasons also affect the appearance of weeds. Warm-season and cool-season weeds proliferate at different times of the year, and it will be your advantage to recognize which weeds are in season so you can more easily expect them in your garden and prepare your anti-weed arsenal more effectively. Some of the weed seeds may also lie in your garden for a while before germinating, so make sure that you are able to cultivate your soil properly to prevent them from ever taking root and sprouting up.

Make sure that your garden space is filled up with the good stuff - the things YOU want planted there. If you leave any portion idle or bare, the weeds are more likely to secure that area for their growth. If you are unable to fill the entire area with desired plants, you may want to consider planting a ground cover crop to keep the weeds from invading your plant territory. (This can also be a great fertilizer later, as you can till the ground cover in at the end of the season, to provide extra nutrients for next year's garden.)

In the case where weeds have already grown large by the time you discovered them, chopping them off from the ground may be the most efficient way to remove them. Some of these weeds however may have deep roots, and will continue to sprout up even after you cut them down. But repetitive cutting down of those weeds will help eliminate them for good after some time.

Image via WikipediaThe use of herbicides and pesticides is not advised, and should not be necessary when you are able to do good cultivation of your land. The pesticides and herbicides, especially the commercially available ones, may prove to have other harmful effects. They may also pose as a threat to other useful organisms living in your garden, so they are not a viable option for organic and sustainable gardening.

Mulching and composting are other great ways to help maintain the soil and ward off the weeds. Ultimately, you should not encounter huge problems in weed management if you are able to keep them from gaining a foot hold in your garden in the first place.

If you are really consistent in cultivating your space, and eliminating weeds at their first sign, you will have taken a big step towards making the most out of your organic vegetable garden.

More Organic Gardening Resources:
   

Keeping Mosquitoes Out of Your Summer Garden

Our summer gardens are filled with all kinds of pests at one time or another. One pest that has potentially nasty health consequences to many species that may be welcome additions to your summer garden habitat is the very unwelcome mosquito. Keep reading to discover steps you can take to keep mosquitoes from invading your personal space and keep friends, families, and animals safe and protected in your summer garden, without using toxic chemical sprays.

Image via WikipediaOne way to minimize your exposure to mosquitoes is by minimizing their ability to procreate. They must lay eggs in still water in order to breed and you can remove as many sources of potential breeding ground as possible by keeping your lawn and summer garden area free of any debris that will allow even a minimal amount of standing water to collect after a rainfall. This means you must keep your gutters clean and free of debris, and make sure all cans and bottles are picked up and placed inside a garbage can that is lidded. Keep lids on garbage cans at all times, and change animal bowls daily.

Burn citronella oil. This is highly effective at dusk when the mosquitoes seem to be at their worst as it not only provides a natural repellant for mosquitoes so that you can enjoy your summer garden a little better but also because it provides its own mood setting light that is well suited for enjoying in a summer garden environment. In addition to the oil you can also choose to burn citronella candles and use repellants that are created to spray or rub onto the skin using natural ingredients for added protection for you and your children from these dangerous pests.

It is also possible to find natural garlic based mosquito repellants that are highly effective at making your garden inhospitable to mosquitoes, fleas, and ticks. This is a little different than citronella as it is applied to your lawn and garden area rather than burned or applied to the skin.

Another thing you can do to make your garden inhospitable to mosquitoes is to fill it with creatures that prey on mosquitoes. There is nothing like a bigger fish in the sea to run the smaller fish to different hunting grounds! Plant trees, shrubs, and bushes that attract the birds that eat mosquitoes. This will provide plenty of nutrition for these birds while diminishing the mosquito population one snack at a time. Purple Martins are well known for eating mosquitoes and a great addition to any summer garden (though not for this reason alone). (Bats also love snacking on mosquitoes at dusk!)

Image via WikipediaPlant lemon thyme in your summer garden. If you crush the leaves it is believed to be an effective repellent for mosquitoes. Choosing this plant for your garden can help you naturally repel mosquitoes without smelling bad in the process, which is something that most rubs, sprays, and oils cannot always claim.

Mosquitoes can be a huge problem in summer garden areas largely due to increased fears of West Nile Virus and other diseases they may carry from one person to the next. For this reason it is now more important than ever to control the population and limit our exposure to these harmful insects. Most of us wish to do this without adding new risks due to chemical exposure. Hopefully this article has given you plenty of natural alternatives to consider when it comes to controlling the mosquito population in your summer garden.