Video - Companion Planting Tips

Here is a short video with some ideas for companion plants to include in your sustainable garden to deter pests, and also plants that enhance the soil for each other, and are helpful to plant together or in succession for a healthier garden - as well as maximizing the space you have available.

How to use companion planting
Instructions on how to improve the productivity of your vegetable garden with companion planting. Peter Kearney works with brassica crops, cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage showing how to greatly reduce pests and produce healthy plants. Good and bad ...


More Companion Planting Resources:
   

Sustainable Gardening Strategy: An Introduction to Companion Planting

One of the secrets to successful organic and sustainable gardening is something called companion planting.  When you wish to avoid chemical herbicides and pesticides, or they aren’t allowed, as they wouldn’t be if you’re gardening organically, then companion planting is an excellent solution.

What is Companion Planting?

Some plants give off scents or chemicals that repel insects, insects like worms and beetles that can destroy your garden.  Other plants help prevent disease or attract insects, which are beneficial to plants. And some plants are exceptional at breaking down the soil and helping other plants absorb vital nutrients.  Essentially companion planting is used to help your core plants thrive without chemicals. 

Companion planting of carrots and onions (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Examples of Companion Planting and How it Works

Marigolds are widely known to have a very strong fragrance.  Many people consider it unpleasant despite the gorgeous flowers. However, many insects also find marigolds quite distasteful including nematodes (roundworms), whiteflies, beetles, and aphids.  To use marigolds as a companion plant, plant them at the perimeter of your garden.  If your garden is large you may want to plant them throughout.  Take care to not plant them too closely to your vegetables because they do attract spider mites and slugs. 

Alfalfa actually helps the soil absorb nitrogen, iron, magnesium, phosphorous and potassium which makes the soil ideal for growing vegetables.  Because alfalfa has very long and sturdy roots, it breaks up hard clay soil. It’s a great plant to help keep your soil rich in nutrients. 

Geranium, another flower with a strong aroma, repels cabbage worms and Japanese beetles, and leafhoppers.  Gardening experts recommend planting them around grapes, corn, tomatoes, peppers and cabbage.

Companion Plantings (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Deciding What to Plant and Where

Before you begin planting your organic garden, do a bit of research to find the best placements for your chosen vegetables. For example, tomatoes do well with a number of other vegetables including garlic, chives, cucumber and mint, however not all veggies get along with tomatoes.  Tomatoes can stunt the growth of carrots and dill, and kohlrabi slow tomato growth. 

Make a quick map of your garden before planting and chart where you want to plant each vegetable.  A quick trip to an organic gardening or companion gardening site will help you make sure each vegetable’s neighbor is a helpful one.

Companion planting is a very sustainable way to affect the health of your garden.  Not only do you help your garden stay pest and disease free, you receive the added benefit of a diverse and healthy garden - which means more tasty and healthy veggies for you!

Note: For some great detailed suggestions on companion and succession planting, see the excellent books below.
   

Four Safe, Home-Made Pest Remedies for Your Organic Garden

Many people love the idea of growing a natural and organic garden but when it comes to pest control, they don’t really know where to turn.  Contrary to what the chemical companies might tell you, there are safe and natural alternatives to chemical pesticides.  And they’re effective too!  Here are four quick and easy ways to kill and repel garden pests naturally while keeping your family safe.

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

* Many pesticides work to repel insects or even kill them.  But why worry about applying these chemicals when you can simply make your plants taste bad?  Take a gallon of hot water and mix in six cloves of garlic, a tablespoon of hot peppers, a minced onion and a teaspoon of soap (hand dishwashing soap works well).  Let it sit for a few days and then drain out the liquid into a spray bottle.  If you apply it regularly to plants, even the smell will keep harmful pests off your plants.  It also helps to deter small animals like mice and rabbits from eating your garden.  Make sure to reapply when it rains since it will wash off.

* If repelling insects using the above mixture is just not working, there are natural remedies that will kill them as well.  Try mixing a small amount of dish soap and canola oil in water and spraying down the entire affected plant.  The oil will smother the insect, so make sure to get the whole plant so you don’t miss any.

If insects are a problem in your garden, your first instinct may be to kill all the insects.  But, exercise care.  Many bugs in your garden are actually beneficial.  Use sprays only on affected areas instead of spraying indiscriminately.  You may also just consider adding beneficial insects to your garden to get rid of the pests or adding plants that naturally repel problem insects.

No name baking soda (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

* Often the harm to your plants isn’t coming from pests eating them, but from diseases, fungus, and other infections.  While you may not be able to save a plant that has become infected, you can take steps to prevent the disease from spreading to the other plants in your garden.  Try mixing up some baking soda in a bucket or water and spraying on plants.  This will help prevent a small amount of disease from spreading and wiping out your whole garden.  You can even mix baking soda with oil sprays to help stop pests and fungus at the same time.

* While baking soda helps with fungal infections, you may have issues from mildew.  Try mixing a cup or two of milk with a bucket of water and spray on plants twice a week.  Milk not only kills the mildew, it can help with fungal and other infections as well.

Natural pest control in your organic garden is not only inexpensive, it’s also a lot safer for your family and better for the environment around you. And the above remedies can all be made with common items you probably have around your home already. Hopefully these suggestions will help your sustainable garden grow at its best and with minimal pests this summer!

Video - Healthy Gardens Begin With Healthy Soil

Here's another quick video from Patti the Garden Girl - we love this chick! Here she talks about the importance of building a healthy soil for your garden, and gives some great tips for how she builds hers. Healthy soil is imperative for growing healthy plants, which in turn lead to a healthy you!

Check out this short video to learn how to build your own soil, and make sure your garden is successful and healthy too.

Healthy Soil equals Healthy Plants and People
Patti Moreno, the Garden Girl, talks about the importance of healthy soil in your garden. Be sure to sign up for her newsletter at www.gardengirltv.com. Distributed by Tubemogul.

Growing Healthy Foods In Your Own Garden

You try to feed your family healthy foods, but often it’s cheaper and more convenient just to reach for the closest sugary snack.  While it requires a little bit of work, growing a garden is a great way to have healthy food available right at your fingertips.  Plus you get the satisfaction of knowing that you grew them all by yourself and that you’re providing for your family - and there's really nothing better than that!

Fresh vegetables are important components of a healthy diet. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)The most common healthy foods grown in gardens are fruits and vegetables.  When planting these foods, choose carefully, especially if you have limited space.  You want to be able to choose crops that will grow well in your area, but you should also consider what you have time and space to grow, and what your family will eat.  You may have perfect soil and space for tomatoes, but it your family won’t eat them, there’s not much point in growing them.  A garden is a great way to get inexpensive fruits and veggies that you know are fresh and healthy, and that your family will enjoy.

You can grow fruits and vegetables in your garden as a way to eat healthier, but don’t forget about herbs as well.  You’re probably not eating just stuff you can grow on your own, but you can make the other food more flavorful without a lot of fat and calories by adding different herbs and seasonings.  This way you can have great tasting food that isn’t so bad for you either.

Foods you buy at the grocery store have been grown using tons of pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers.  These chemicals may make fruits and veggies look more appealing and will increase farmer yields, but they can also be dangerous to your health - plus they just don't taste that great. You can buy from an organic food store, but you’ll end up paying a whole lot more.  Growing your own garden is a great way to know your food is safe without having to pay a pretty penny.  Start a compost pile to fertilize naturally and research other Organic garden cloches at Beningborough Hall. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)methods of safe and sustainable fertilization and pest control, like companion planting. You'll find that not only are these foods healthier, but they also taste WAY better than anything you can buy at the store! Not only are they fresher and riper than what you could find on store shelves, but the taste of many vegetables are negatively affected by the chemical fertilizers used in commercial growing operations.

When we consider how healthy our foods are for us, we usually just consider the calorie content, but what about taking into account what it takes to get them?  We all know it takes more work to grow your own veggies than to buy them at the store, but we usually don’t take into account all the calories that work is burning.  Gardening is a great workout!  Growing your own fruits, veggies, and herbs can actually help you stay in shape.  That’s a lot healthier than picking something up off a shelf - wouldn't you agree? 

Gardening isn’t just for pretty flowers anymore.  You can grow a great garden to feed your family tasty, nutritious foods - which is doing a great thing not only for you and your family, but even for the rest of the planet.

How To Turn Toxic Soil into Safe Soil

Growing vegetables in your own garden is a great way to save money and eat more healthily.  However, many of us grow our own veggies so that we will have less chemicals, only to find our soil is already polluted. Before you start a new garden, the first step is to be sure your soil is safe to grow consumables in. Here are ten quick ways to help make your soil safe for your family.

1.  Location, location, location!  Different areas of your yard may have different chemical content.  If you plant near a busy road, or an old building, you’re more likely to have chemicals leaking into your soil.  Try to plant away from these and other hazards that might contain toxins.

Home soil testing kit. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)2.  Test your soil.  You can’t get rid of harmful chemicals until you know what they are.  You can collect samples of your soil (how many you need depends on the size of your garden) and send them to be tested.  If you don’t know where to get soil tested, ask at your local nursery.

3.  Add mulch.  When you add mulch, this not only helps conserve water and keep the soil from overheating, it also breaks down into organic matter.  The organic material binds with harmful materials like lead instead of it binding with your plants.

4.  Plant things that "eat" the bad stuff.  For example, mustard will take lead out of your soil.  Instead of eating the plants, just pull them and throw them away.  This will take lead out of your soil and can be used for other harmful chemicals.  This is actually a common practice called phytoremediation.

5.  Avoid using chemicals.  It may go without saying, but if you don’t want unnatural chemicals in your food, don’t put them on your garden.  There are natural and safe ways to repel pests and fertilize your garden.  This will help your soil stay healthy and make beautiful tasty veggies for years to come. 

6.  Use elevated beds.  Toxic chemicals like lead generally leak down into the soil.  So, if you put, fresh, clean soil on top of your old soil, it will remain safe as long as long as toxic chemicals can’t come in from the sides.  Building an elevated bed will take some extra work in the beginning, but it will remain safe through the years.

7. Start a compost pile.  It’s fairly simple to do:  just throw all your organic waste, like grass clippings, fallen leaves, and kitchen waste, into a compost bin in your yard and turn regularly.  Eventually this will break down into great organic material that will bind with the harmful chemicals to keep them out of your food.

An early July new garden containing a variety of vegetables to help condition the soil and test the environment for susceptibility to wildlife pests. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)8.  Plant some mushrooms.  Mushrooms are decomposers, which means they break down old matter.  In addition to turning trees to soil, they may also help break down toxins in your soil.  You can do some quick research to determine which ones are right for you.

9.  Choose the proper veggies.  Some veggies are perfectly safe, even if they’re grown in toxic soil.  If you have toxic soil, or are in the process of cleaning it up, you can still grow above ground veggies, as long as you don’t eat the leaves.  Avoid eating below ground vegetables like carrots.  And always wash your vegetables before you eat them.

10.  Grow veggies outside the soil.  If nothing else works and your soil just isn’t safe for growing food, you can always grow fruits and veggies in pots and other small-space garden solutions like garden socks and hanging vegetable gardens. There are also a number of other gardening systems which don't use soil at all, like the new hydroponics and aeroponics systems that are becoming popular.

In most cases, most toxins can be removed from your garden soil within just a few years, if you follow the tips above. Maintaining a clean and healthy garden environment will make your garden sustainable and productive for years to come.

Video - Make Your Own Compost Tea

Here is a short video on how to make a rich, nourishing compost tea for your garden. You can use this to water your plants, or even dilute it and feed it aerially by spraying it on the leaves to really pump up your plants. This recipe shows a couple of extra additions, but really for the most basic compost tea all you need is water, compost, and a sugar (such as molasses) to really get the bacteria growing. You can buy a cheap air pump like he mentions for less than $10, and I love the pantyhose trick!

Compost tea can be an awesome way to get your garden off to a great start, so check this out to learn how to make your own:

How To Make Compost Tea The Easy Way
Thought I would share with all of you how I make compost tea in a five gallon bucket. Compost tea is one of the best ways to feed your plants and also the soil they grow in as your adding millions of beneficial micro organisms into the soil. Hope you...


Materials For Making Compost Tea:
   

Building Peat-Free Soil for a Sustainable Garden

Many sustainable gardeners believe potting soil should be peat free. I've heard several arguments on both sides, and while peat is an organic substance, there are several good reasons for building a peat-free garden.  Let’s discuss why you might want to go peat free and what you can use instead.

What is Peat?

Peat is a collection of partially decayed vegetation matter, which forms a soft, spongy mass which is light, yet holds water well.  This rich matter forms in wetlands and bogs and really is a rich soil additive that’s good for plants.  However, there are three big drawbacks to peat.

Bog at Derryloughan The peat is being harvested for garden compost. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)1. The first drawback to peat is that in order to make it to your garden or houseplants in most areas it has to travel thousands of miles.  When there are so many other alternatives to fertilize your garden and enrich your soil, there’s really no reason to ship something by airplane and truck thousands of miles across the globe.  That wastes fuel, as well as wasting resources harvesting the peat - thus defeating the purpose of sustainable gardening to begin with. 

2. Additionally, when peat breaks down, it emits carbon.  Yep, that matter contributes to greenhouse gases and it sucks up the oxygen around your plants, thus decreasing their environmental value. 

3. Finally, to harvest the peat, the world’s wetlands are being destroyed.  Inside these bogs, moors and marshes, valuable wildlife lives and thrives.  Take away their wetlands and they suffer.  Harvesting peat is an environmental disaster - although in some areas of Canada, I've heard they are starting to use more sustainable practices now.

Alternatives to Peat

With those three important drawbacks, many sustainable gardeners have opted to utilize peat-free alternatives. They include composting your own soil and soil fertilizers. 

Composting at home doesn’t need to be a large production.  If you try vermiposting, you can create wonderful fertilizers with just a small box in your laundry room or under a sink in the kitchen. Or for a more traditional compost, many of the newer compost tumblers are very space-efficient and easy to use. (We've got a lot of good compost articles on this blog, so just browse the archive if you need to brush up on this topic.)

Another idea is to enrich your soil with worm tea (or compost tea).  Worm tea is made by adding water to worm compost.  You can also buy it at your local farmer’s market or at your local nursery.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)If composting and worm tea aren’t your thing, you can buy peat-free organic potting soil at your nursery.  Many of these are made from a larger scale composting operation and are rich and sustainable products - often made locally - just ask the nursery to be sure.

While there are still people who believe peat is an okay product for gardens and plants, many are beginning to become more conscious of sustainability practices.  To make your garden and houseplants thrive you don’t need to use potting soil harvested from a bog in Russia.  You can make it yourself or buy it from a local operation, thus reducing carbon emissions and improving the health of the planet - and your garden.


A Few Resources For Making Your Own Compost:
   

10 Tips For A Healthy Organic Garden

Organic gardening is the healthiest way to grow flowers, fruits and vegetables. When you consume your homegrown fruits and vegetables, you ingest whole, fresh foods at the peak of nutrition that are free of pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers.   Additionally, organic gardening is environmentally sound and keeps those toxins out of the soil and water supply.  Here are a few organic gardening tips to help you get the most out of your organic garden this year.

Cover via Amazon#1  Rotate crops.  Different vegetables and fruits absorb different nutrients from the soil.  If you plant tomatoes for example, in the same spot every year, eventually they’ll deplete the soil of the nutrients they need - and they'll also attract pests who think they've found a restaurant serving their favorite food year after year! However, if you rotate your garden, planting flowers where you plant veggies and veggies where you plant flowers, or different vegetable families in succession, or simply rotating where you plant your veggies then you’ll have healthier and tastier produce. Additionally rotation also helps prevent attack by disease and pests. (We'll post a longer article on crop rotation next week, so be sure check back to learn more.)

#2  Use friendly insects as natural pesticides.  Ladybugs are a great tool to eliminate aphids from your garden.  You can buy wiggly bags of them at your local nursery or even order them online.  Place them in your garden and prevent infestation.

#3 Organic insecticides can be used to prevent things like beetles and worms, when absolutely necessary. But don't overdo it - remember the principles of organic gardening are to keep everything in balance, which means not trying to kill off any particular species, but keeping things in harmony. 

#4  Use specific plants to attract or repel insects.  For example, Sage repels cabbage moths and black flea beetles and marigolds repel a variety of insects.

#5  If you’re sowing your own seeds, then you’ll want to sow them from organic fruits and vegetables.  If you’re buying plants to start with, you’ll want to make sure they’re organic. Otherwise you are starting your plants off right away in an unhealthy and artificial environment.

Organic vegetables (Photo credit: Wikipedia)#6  Plant vegetables in a rich soil. Compost is a wonderfully sustainable and nutrient rich way of providing everything your plants need to grow and survive. 

#7  If you’re sowing seeds, sow several times more than you think you’ll need. For example if you’re only going to plant one tomato plant in your garden, sow 3 or 4 seeds.  Seeds don’t always grow well and you can then choose the strongest looking to plant in your garden. 

#8  Read the information on the back of the seed packet or the tag.  This information will tell you how much sun and water the plant needs. This is all good information that will help you grow the healthiest plants. 

#9  Label your plants.  Use the tag attached to the plant when you bought it or make your own.  Mid-season, it can be easy to forget what plant is what, and you'll also want to write down what is planted where, so that you can practice crop rotation properly.

#10 Prevent fungus and disease. The biggest killer of most vegetable gardens in damp areas is fungus and mold.  Keep your plants pruned and keep the soil damp but not soaked.  Additionally, you'll want to mulch most plants to keep soil from splashing up on the leaves when it rains, which can cause some fungal diseases. But make sure there isn’t too much of an accumulation of mulch right around the plant stems - mulch only up to about 3-4 inches away from the stems to avoid the mulch holding water too close to the plants, which can foster mold or other fungal growth.

Organic gardening is a fun and easy way to bring fresh produce into your home.  You can grow flowers, herbs, vegetables and even fruits organically - knowing you're doing something good for both yourself and the planet!


Organic Gardening Resources:
   

Video - Why Native Plants Are Great for Beginning Gardeners

Here is a short video on some of the benefits of growing native plants, and why this can make starting a garden easier for beginners, and help you grow a sustainable and low-maintenance garden right in your backyard, no matter how much space you have available.

Check it out and learn a bit more about why growing native plants is so beneficial and can help your gardening efforts go so much smoother:

Basic Tips for Beginner Gardeners : Planting Native Species in your Garden
Learn how to plant using native species for a unique flair in your garden from anexpert in this free gardening video. Expert: Allan Watts Contact: www.anythinggrows.com Bio: Allan Watts has been the owner of Anything Grows, a store for Gardeners for ...


Helpful Resources for Finding and Growing Native Plants:
   

Want to Try Native Gardening?

Avid gardeners take great pride in their flowers. They plant them with loving care, water and fertilize them frequently, and work diligently to prevent pests and disease from harming them. For a large flower garden, this can be a near full-time job.

I think it's a Lavatera species. Not sure though. It was cultivated in a California native plants garden in San Diego, California, USA. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)But planting a garden doesn't appeal to everyone. Many flower lovers would like to have beautiful plants adorning their property, but they don't have enough time to spend tending them. Even those who do have gardens often find themselves wishing they didn't require so much work. But in many cases, they're creating more work for themselves by planting the wrong kinds of flowers.

Many of the seeds and bulbs we buy from stores or online come from far away. They will usually grow in different places, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're well suited to your environment. Similarly, the plants that grow in nature in your neck of the woods might not be able to grow in another state or country.

When you look at it this way, it's not hard to see why native plant gardens have become so popular. These gardens incorporate plants that have grown naturally in the surrounding area for centuries - meaning they are much more sustainable. Here are some of the advantages of going native in your garden:

* Native plants generally require much less maintenance than non-native ones. Their sunlight and water requirements are in line with what nature provides in the area. And the soil has provided the nutrients they need for many years, so there is little need for fertilizer. All garden plants require some care to flourish, but native plants require much less than those introduced from faraway lands.

* Using chemical fertilizers and pesticides to maintain non-native plants that don't grow well in your area without artificial encouragement can cause cancer, birth defects and other health problems for those who are exposed to them. The reduced need for these chemicals when growing native plants is better for your health, as well as the health of others in your community.

Dahlia is a genus of bushy, tuberous, perennial plants native to Mexico, Central America, and Colombia. There are at least 36 species of dahlia, (Photo credit: Wikipedia)* Planting a native garden is a great way to celebrate what's unique about your part of the country! Plants that grow where you live might not often be seen in surrounding states.

* You can sometimes get native plants for free. People who have wild plants growing on their property are often happy to let you have them if you're willing to dig them up. Keep in mind, however, that transplants usually need special care until they are well established.

* Native plants tend to attract birds, butterflies and other wildlife more than non-native plants. If you love watching wildlife, a native garden is great for bringing it close to your home!

Native gardens are beautiful, and their maintenance takes up much less time than that of your average garden. Whether you're a life-long gardener or a novice, it's certainly worthwhile to give native gardening a try, especially if you're interested in a sustainable, natural, low-maintenance gardening experience.

How to Plant Your Own Flower Meadow

Spring is so amazing - there's nothing like a blooming field of flowers waving in the wind! Flower meadows are so beautiful. And although you may think of a flower meadow as something that only occurs on wild, untrimmed banks beside the road - not in your own garden - they really aren't too hard to plant yourself, assuming you have some space available. Here are some tips on how to plant a pretty flower meadow of your own.

- (Photo credit: Wikipedia)1. Find out what grows in your area. You will have a much easier time and better (and more sustainable) results if you choose plants that grow well in your local climate. If possible, choose native species.

2. Interestingly, wild flowers (especially native ones) will do best in poor soil that is basically bare. Wildflower meadows work well in areas where you have trouble growing grass. This is good - there will be less competition for the wildflowers.

3. If there is already grass growing on the site, you can still plant wildflowers as long as it is not the dense, manicured sort of grass. If it is, you will need to till the ground first. This is best done in autumn or very early spring.

4. Choose your seeds. If you have checked into finding the proper species in Step 1, this shouldn't be too hard. You can actually collect your own seeds at various times of the year, too. But probably the best advice is to purchase seeds of a wildflower mix. Something to consider is blooming time - plant both spring and summer blooming flowers to have flowers for a longer period.

Also think about what you want to accomplish with the wildflowers. Do you want color? How about attracting wildlife? Do you want to provide flowers for bees or seeds for birds? Once you determine the purpose, that will help you narrow down the seeds.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)Choose perennials that will not need to be replanted each year - unless you want to replant them each year!

5. Scatter the seeds evenly and broadly, covering the whole area in a single layer.

6. Rake the seeds into the soil, or just walk over it. These are wildflowers, after all - in nature, they simply land on the ground and sprout without any help.

7. Scattering the seeds can be done in autumn or spring, depending on the nature of your mix and how much traffic is in the area.

8. Water the area lightly, then wait. You will need to cut back some of the weed growth that first year so that weeds do not take over (weeding the whole area by hand would get tedious). But once the flowers are established, you will not have to do much of anything year after year.