Go Organic - Organic Gardening and Garden Tips

Conventional vs. Organic Growing

Chris Molnar — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 12:37:01 +0000

There are a number of reasons why organic gardening is better than conventional or commercial growing. Some of the reasons are more obvious than others. As small scale backyard gardeners, there is a tendency to focus just on the plants and practices in our own yards and on our own tables. However, conventional vs. organic growing is a hot topic and has more global ramifications.

What Do the Terms Even Mean?

For the purpose of this article, conventional gardening and farming refers to growing practices that do not take the health of the soil, the plant, or the person into account. Organic is a touchy word in The States that has been regulated by the USDA to mean certain things, and the word can only be used if a garden or farm is certified. However, it is the easiest term to use in a short article when talking about gardening in a sustainable, chemical free and earth friendly way. So that is the word that will be used.

Conventional farming is about bigger, better, faster, and on a large scale. Easy solutions to common food growing issues are used no matter the consequence. Both plants and animals are treated with various chemicals without thought given to the soil, the water, or the nearby humans and animals who may be harmed by these chemicals.

Organic gardening focuses first on the soil, and building the soil through the use of compost, leaves, grass, or manure. This provides the soil with beneficial nutrients and organisms that will ultimately help the plants, and that do not leach out of the soil in a dangerous way.

So, What is the Difference?

There is skepticism about organic food, and why it makes a difference to support this type of farming. Conventional food is cheaper, more conveniently packaged for quick cooking, and looks better than organic food.

Many of these articles are true. However, there are hidden costs of conventional food that no one ever considers.

Conventional farming is very reliant upon fossil fuels. Farming hundreds of acres, then shipping those crops to manufacturers and stores create “food miles“. Sometimes an apple at the local grocer has travelled hundreds of miles to get there.
Conventional farming uses monoculture. What this means is that they often plant the same crop over and over in the same place. This leads to more insect infestation and disease, and depletes the soil of nutrients which leads to more fertilizer use. It becomes an endless cycle that also very often leads to massive topsoil erosion.
Conventional farming releases pesticides and harmful chemicals into the environment. This cannot be undone. These chemicals generally do not stay in the soil, and have to go somewhere. Very often ending up in the water supply, and into the air that we breathe.
Food grown conventionally is bred to be tasteless. It needs to keep for a long time as it needs to get to the store in pristine condition. Vegetables are treated to slow rotting, and sprouting.

Organic food is generally produced in a way that takes the entire ecosystem into account. Gardeners understand that nature will take care of most of it’s own problems, and that adding poisonous chemicals is counter intuitive.

Organic food tastes more like what it is supposed to. When a carrot is pulled from the garden, and bitten into, it tastes like a carrot.
Organic food is generally sold locally. There are not preservatives that will help the food to keep, so it needs to be shipped only to local markets. That is why buying local is another slogan in the organic world.
Organic gardening adds to the soil. Instead of stripping away the precious topsoil that is available, the organic gardening is continually being fed with nutrients and composts that occur naturally. It is the ultimate recycling project.
Organic gardening is no longer as expensive in comparison. As fossil fuel prices rise, conventionally grown food prices are starting to rise, and are not that much less expensive than organic food.

Choosing organic and local.

Conventional gardening cannot continue indefinitely. The practices used are inefficient, lack diversity, and will be compromised as fossil fuel availability becomes more scarce.

It is unclear when and if large scale farmers will begin to get this message. The bottom line for the consumer is that money does talk, and where and how you spend your few dollars does make a difference. Organics are becoming more mainstream as the demand for them increases. If you are unable to grow your own food, spend your food dollars at a local market, on products that have been produced with the earth in mind.

Believing in organics should not be an isolated activity. Share it with your community, your politician, and anyone else who will listen. When people really begin to understand, they may also decide that conventionally grown food is not the right choice.

Compost Conundrums: Solving composting problems

Katie Elzer-Peters — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 16:22:51 +0000

Making your own compost is the best way to add organic matter and natural fertilizer to your garden. Organic matter helps water move through the soil—water stays in the soil so that plants can take it up, but organic matter also helps soil drain properly. Organic matter improves soil structure, helping roots penetrate deeply. Organic matter helps keep the pH of the soil stable, which is important for nutrient availability. Organic matter also decomposes to provide a natural fertilizer for plants.

Compost Problems Cause Headaches

Compost is not just about throwing food scraps in a bin and letting them rot. Several potential problems plague homeowners that compost. However, most of these problems are easy to overcome.

Smelly Compost – Your should not be able to smell your compost pile from inside your house with the doors and windows shut. If you can—you have a problem. Compost gets smelly when there is not enough air circulation in the pile. Turn the compost pile, and add some twigs and sticks to the pile to promote air flow.

Cold Compost – Compost can carry pathogens and weed seeds if it does not heat up properly. Additionally, it takes much longer for cold compost to decompose into rich soil. The pile needs to remain at 140 degrees for three days to kill diseases and weed seeds. To stimulate heat buildup within a compost pile, shred dry materials and add blood meal or horse manure.

Four Legged “Friends” Visiting the Compost Pile – Compost piles for home composting need to contain only vegetable matter. Do not compost meat or dairy products. A good rule of thumb is “if it doesn’t grow on a plant, don’t put it in the pile.”

Compost is too Dry – Add green matter such as vegetable scraps or grass clippings. Also water the pile, and make sure that the water soaks into the pile.

Composting is good for your garden and good for the environment. It reduces waste and is an inexpensive way to improve your soil fertility and increase your yield for vegetables, and the bounty of your flower garden.

Brewing the Perfect Cup of Tea

Katie Elzer-Peters — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 20:17:57 +0000

Tea, the second most popular beverage, after water, has a horticultural connection. In fact, if you want, you can grow a tea plant on your patio. Black, green, white and oolong tea comes from the plant Camellia sinensis. Tea leaves are just that: the young leaves from the tips of the branches of this plant. Each type of tea mentioned above is dried and prepared differently, resulting in a different nutrient profile, and different health benefits. Herbal tea is an infusion of herbs, fruits, nuts, or any plant that does not come from the Camellia sinensis plant.

C.sinensis grows outdoors in zones 8 and higher, but they do well in pots, as well. Bring them inside during the winter, and keep in a sunny spot that isn’t overly warm. A garage window facing south is best. During the summer, they need to stay in the shade, so they don’t get sunburned. They need slightly acidic, sandy soil to thrive.

Brewing Tea

Katie’s Teavana 16 oz Perfect Tea Maker. It really is the perfect way to brew looseleaf tea: easy, inexpensive, and quick

Even if you don’t grow a tea plant, you still might want to experiment with different types of tea. One of the most interesting (and fun) places I’ve become addicted to is a Teavana store, or on their website. They even have a free iPhone app now that assists you in concocting your own delicious brews! You can also create your own herbal teas from herbs and edible plants growing around your garden. Always use plants that have not been treated with pesticides, and always look in a trusted medicinal herb reference before using herbs you harvest yourself.

Each type of tea requires a different temperature of water and length of brewing time. Green and white tea needs a cooler temperature—around 175 degrees, Fahrenheit—or, when the water is just steaming. Herbal and black teas steep best in water that has just BARELY begun to boil.

Health Benefits of Tea

Tea leaves are full of antioxidants, compounds in plants that help neutralize the affects of cells that have oxidized or are missing necessary components, and travel about the body causing damage to other cells. Tea leaves themselves, have many anti-oxidants. Herbal teas, and tea blends with fruits and other herbs also contribute other vitamins and beneficial compounds to the diet.

To your health!

Walking Through Wildflower Gardens

Guest — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:20:41 +0000

A few years ago I took one of my sons camping in the Wasatch Mountains near our home. It was early in the spring and after hiking until dark, we set up camp in a small meadow. In the morning we realized the opposite end of our small meadow was covered with wildflowers. As we ate breakfast and the sun lit up our camp, the wildflower colors really came alive. I decided the difference in these colors and those in my flower garden were that they were unique. It wasn’t the common marigolds, petunias and pansies that seem to dot our neighborhood every year. I decided then that my yard was going to have wildflowers.

A common myth is that wildflower seed can be scattered on any bare ground and they will flourish. This simply is not so. You need to prepare a proper bed, just as you would for your vegetable garden. Invest some time removing rocks and raking out a smooth surface. I chose an area that was slightly bermed up to a flagpole. It presented some challenges keeping the seeds in place until germination but it still worked out. Flat areas are nice but not essential. Larger areas seem to do better but I have had success with wildflowers in something as small as a well drained container.

For seeds, I used our Wildflower Dry Land Mix from www.HometownSeeds.com . I chose this seed mix because it works well with our dry climate and low maintenance always appeals to me. You may be tempted to harvest your own seeds or plants from the wild. Do yourself and Mother Nature a favor and purchase some seeds that you know are viable and have a high germination rate. Some areas have laws against harvesting so be careful if you choose this route.

Choose a calm day to sow your wildflower seeds. Too much wind and you will be planting for your neighbor. In general, spring planting is best for the northern states, and fall planting is best for the southern areas. A couple of tricks for planting are to use sand or potting soil mixed at about 4 to 1 with your seed makes it easier to spread. I have also covered my newly planted seeds with a thin covering of straw. Once they are on the ground, gently walk on them or use a roller if you have one. I made the mistake of letting the kids help with this part. I had to teach them later that walking on the wildflowers was only a one time deal. Now gently water them in and keep them moist until germination.

Now just be patient. Keep weeds out of your new garden and fertilize it occasionally. It takes time for wildflowers to get well established but, once it does, you will have a continual maintenance free garden. Different varieties will grow and bloom differently if you use a mix. This adds a great dynamic element to the garden. You will see more improvement in the second season as the garden gains some maturity.

Scott Peterson is owner of HometownSeeds.com. They have a wide variety of garden seeds, including wildflower seeds.

Ladies and Gentleman, Start Your Seeds!

Chris Molnar — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:51:25 +0000

APS Seed Starter Kit, available at Gardeners’

It’s the middle of winter, but it’s already time to begin thinking of seeds for this spring. Crops that are best transplanted during cool, early springs (lettuce, spinach, onions, broccoli, cabbages, and kale) need to be started indoors between early February through late March. That means the time to select seeds and prepare for planting is NOW. Other cool weather crops like peas, radishes and turnips grow best when direct-seeded into the garden.

Seed Starting Supplies

You can start seeds in just about any old container with a hole poked in the bottom and some potting media, or seed starting mix. (NOT topsoil – it is too heavy). However, it is easier to do your seeding with some equipment:

Grow light – You don’t absolutely have to have a grow light, but some seedlings grow very slowly, spindly, and anemically without certain wavelengths of light. Unless you have a room with a pop-out window that receives a lot of natural light, if you want healthy transplants, consider a grow light. The one in the link from Amazon has an adjustable stand, and you can grow four flats of seedlings under it.
Heating mat – An increase in temperature of the soil increases the metabolic processes within the plant. Translation: a little bit of warmth helps seeds sprout faster and grow faster.
Seed flats – Dixie cups work well, too, but for super-easy seed starting, get a tray specially configured for starting seeds. It isn’t necessary to keep seeds covered with a plastic dome or plastic wrap, except, maybe, before the seed sprouts. Once the seed leaves are up, remove the cover. (This is why we are not recommending a seed starting kit with a cover. You don’t need one.)
When selecting a seed starting kit, or materials for your organic garden, STAY AWAY from peat moss. It is a non-renewable resource, and has no place in an organic garden. Instead, try coir fiber, an organic alternative made from coconuts.

Thanksgiving Centerpieces from the Garden

Chris Molnar — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:01:17 +0000

Leave the tissue-paper turkey on the shelf at the craft store this year, and adorn the center of your Thanksgiving table with one of these centerpieces, instead.

Tree of Thanks

Go outside and find interesting branches and twigs. Fill a vase with them, and string a garland of small red beads throughout your “tree.” Make little tags by cutting off-white card stock into two inch squares, punch a hole in the top and thread a cranberry-colored ribbon through the hole. Place one at each table setting with a golf pencil. Before the meal, ask everyone to write something they are thankful for on their tag and tie it to the tree. During dessert, ask everyone to share their gratitudes.

Pumpkin Centerpiece

Hollow out a medium-sized pumpkin. Soak a piece of oasis foam in water until it is saturated and place it in the pumpkin. Cut greens from your yard and cover the foam to hide it. Divide a cash and carry bouquet from the grocery store and spear the plant stems into the foam. Instant arrangement!

Cranberries and Candles

Buy some in-expensive pillar candles and a shallow glass dish. Place the candles in the dish (or a candle in each dish if you are using several), and fill the dish with cranberries. Arrange the dishes artfully on the table. Light the candles during Thanksgiving Dinner and you’ll have a twinkling, cozy centerpiece.

Indoor Worm Composting

Katie Elzer-Peters — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:03:29 +0000

This winter, try indoor worm composting to digest your kitchen scraps and create some nutrient-dense soil for your garden. You can generally feed one pound of worms one pound of garbage and they’ll produce one pound of compost a day. (By garbage, we mean “things we don’t need, but that worms will eat.) You can purchase an indoor worm bin, or make your own form a small trash can with holes in it. Either way, you will follow the same procedure for the worm bedding.

Bedding Down the Worms

You can’t just throw a handful of worms and a bunch of food scraps into a trash can with holes in it and expect results. Well, you could try that, but you might end up with a giant mess. Here’s how to do it instead.

Put about three inches of gravel in the bottom of the can.
Fill with 1 ½ inches of water.
Top with a divider that has drainage holes in it.
Add a mixture of shredded leaves, shredded newspaper and garden soil that has been thoroughly wetted on top.
Let that mixture sit for 48 hours.
Add the worms.
Start slowly feeding the worms vegetable scraps. (Plant material only—no meat or dairy.)
Give them ¼ of what they can eat in a day (1/4 a pound per pound of worms to start) and gradually work up to one pound of food per day.
Turn over the bedding material (gently!) after two weeks.
Add more bedding (leaf/newspaper/soil mix) every month. Eventually you will need to empty the box/compost and start a new worm box.

Worm compost is some of the richest and best compost available to feed your garden. Take advantage of it!

What Is The Best Garden Shed For You?

Guest — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:01:00 +0000

Have you ever heard that life today is a rat-race? I’m sure that we have all felt that at some point in our lives.

Perhaps that’s why so many people find solace in gardening. No stress. No pressure. There’s just you and nature working together peacefully. And when you are done you can enjoy the calming effect that a garden can bring.

But what do you do with all of your gardening tools, equipment and the myriad of sundry items that you need for your gardening when you are done your “chores”? Left unkempt, they can nullify the hard work and reduce the calming effect that your beautiful gardens can bring.

Enter the garden shed.

Which Garden Shed is Best?

Garden sheds come in all shapes and sizes. They can come in a multitude of materials as well. But which building material is best for your garden shed?

Concrete

Concrete and masonry garden buildings can be quite expensive, cumbersome and messy to construct. They can also be a time-consuming build taking much longer than other building materials.

Wood

Wood framed structures can be less expensive and usually can be constructed in much less time than concrete or masonry. However, wood framed structures are using up a valuable resource – our forests. A wood structure is not a very ecological building.

Plastic and Vinyl

The manufacturing process for plastic and vinyl buildings can be quite polluting. And when their active lives are done plastics and vinyls are pollutants in our landfill sites.

Metal

What is left? Metal garden buildings of course.

Metal buildings are the best choice for picky gardeners for a number of reasons. We can’t possibly detail all of benefits of a steel or metal garden storage building in this article but I will outline a few for you.

First and perhaps most important for some gardeners are the economics of metal buildings. For those of you who are looking for an inexpensive small storage shed, metal garden shed kits offer a wide range of sizes and styles for a very affordable price. These kits are easily assembled by anyone with even minimal handy-man type skills.

When properly installed and anchored, these light-weight structures can withstand some very wild climatic conditions.

For those of you who are looking for a larger garden storage building, steel and metal have a lot to offer you as well. There are light gauge metal framing kits available for buildings the size of a garage. If you are looking for something more structural in nature small pre-engineered metal and steel storage buildings are available. These buildings can withstand the worst conditions that Mother Nature can dish out.

Steel and metal garden buildings can be quite attractive as well. Metal buildings do not have to look like a “tin box”. In fact there is one pre-engineered steel building that looks like the Titanic complete with the iceberg that led to its demise! A custom designed metal storage building kit may be less expensive than you think.

The components of metal garden sheds will not warp, twist or crack like wood structures. They are impervious to damage by insects and rodents. They require much less maintenance than do wood structures. This all means more time for you in – and enjoying – your beautiful gardens.

Is a small greenhouse required as part of your new garden shed? That’s no problem for a metal building either. You can add a lean-to greenhouse on to your metal garden shed. If you have a larger steel garden shed the greenhouse can be incorporated right into the building with glazed walls and roof.

In the case of ecology, metal gardens buildings have the definite edge over other building materials. Over half of all structural steel and light-gauge metal products are manufactured from recycled steel. That’s right. Over one half of that metal post is made up from recycled steel.

If your garden shed outlives its usefulness for you, it can again become recycled steel and be used in the manufacture of some other useful metal products. You will not be clogging up the landfill with your metal building!

Pre-Fab Steel building kits have become the building material of choice for small and large buildings. They are used for office buildings and shopping malls; manufacturing plants and aircraft hangers; recreational facilities and churches; large warehouses and of course garden sheds.

Steel buildings can be designed and engineered to have any look you like while being able to withstand the ravages of hurricanes and earthquakes. These buildings are non-combustible as well. Oh yes… and did I mention that they also require much less maintenance than other building types?

It’s no wonder with all of the advantages that steel and metal buildings offer that industrial, commercial and low-rise residential businesses have embraced them with open arms.

Now you can have all of the same benefits in your own gardens!

Brian A Schmidt is author and publisher of a www.prefabmetalbuildingkits.com. His home is in a small community in Southwestern Ontario, Canada with his lovely wife Carol. Brian and Carol have three fantastic grown children and four wonderful small grandchildren. As the owner of a small construction company and construction manager for a few companies over the years he has had extensive experience in all sectors of the construction industry. These include commercial metal building kits, industrial buildings, residential buildings and institutional building. Gardening, woodworking in his hobby workshop and cruise vacationing take up his “free” time.

Don’t Throw it, GROW IT! Book Review

Katie Elzer-Peters — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:20:22 +0000

I enjoyed pilfering from the publishing table at Garden Writers this year. However, I always review books, often on multiple sites, so I feel less guilty, sort of. The book Don’t Throw it, GROW IT! is an adorable little gem, re-published in 2008 by Storey Press, and written by Deborah Peterson and Millicent Selsam. Peterson is the founder of the Rare Pit & Plant Council, and according to the back cover, has lectured extensively on gardening with pits. Out of the several books I picked up, I am most excited about trying the projects in this one, especially with Winter coming fast. (Or, in the case of Chris, because winter has already been at his house for, oh, about a month. LOVE YOU CHRIS!)

Neatly Encapsulating my Husband’s Kitchen Philosophy

Author Peterson says that there’s no such thing as a green thumb. Well, I don’t believe her. My Mother-in-Law, Susan, has the greenest thumb of pretty much anyone I know (sorry Mom! and Grandma!). She routinely coaxes the orchids we send her back into bloom, and has HUGE avocado plants, papayas and other tropical monstrosities growing in her sunroom, all from the pits of a fruit purchased at the grocery store. I believe that her indoor jungle is why my husband, bless his heart, NEVER wants to let a seed or pit go without trying to sprout it. I don’t think he knows that I have this book yet, but he will once he reads the blog. I’ll be sure to report back with pictures of his forthcoming experiments. With Peterson’s thorough explanation of how to grow “68 Windowsill Plants from Kitchen Scraps,” anyone, even my husband, should be successful.

“One to Eat and One to Plant”

This little book was really a labor of love for the two authors, who met at a lecture about Pits that Peterson was giving. Selsam and Peterson became best friends, and set off on a journey through New York City’s ethnic markets to find interesting plants to grow. This was all around the early 1970s. The new addition takes into account that things have changed, and more fruits and vegetables for experimenting are available at conventional grocery stores. When they began their adventure of buying, eating and growing weird plants, the ladies adopted the philosophy “always buy two-one to eat and one to grow.” If one was out and about without the other, she would buy four, so each could have two for eating and experimenting. I love that!

Easy Instructions and Surprising Results

Some of the plants described in this book won’t produce fruit or vegetables for you, but, rather, are fun to grow on for a few months as unusual houseplants-an antidote to peace lilies in every corner of the house. The first section of the book describes basic horticultural information for a novice grower. The next section covers propagation, or how to take the seed, pit, root or stem of the plant you have and get it to sprout into a new plant. The final chapters detail different types of plants and how to grow them. In addition to a good primer on how to grow weird plants, this little book is also an interesting source of information about where the food we eat comes from.

Is it Organic?

So, I hate to even put this in my review, but since I’m reviewing it for an organic gardening blog, I have to mention this: the book does detail how to create a “moist, humid environment” for pit sprouting by using peat moss or sphagnum moss, both of which are not environmentally friendly. I’m wondering if we could get the same result with perlite or vermiculite? I might give that a whirl.

All in all, I think this is a cool little book for people who enjoy tinkering with houseplants. And, because of its great price, you can get one to keep and one to share with a friend.

Wicked Plants, by Amy Stewart

Katie Elzer-Peters — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 06:20:17 +0000

Wicked Plants, by Amy Stewart, was published this spring or summer. I already forget when, because it feels like we’ve had this book around forever, or at least had Amy around forever doing PR for it. Her PR guy is a genius! If you’ve seen this book everywhere, and you have wondered if it is worth the hype, I’m here to tell you: IT IS. If you like reading about weird and wonderful plants, garden with small children or pets, or want to clandestinely poison your neighbor (JUST KIDDING), you need to get this book!

The Plant that Killed Lincoln’s Mother and other Botanical Atrocities

That’s the subtitle. It promises all kinds of fun, especially near Halloween. The plant that killed Lincoln’s mother was Eupatorium rugosum, white snakeroot. If a cow ate this weed, it would pass along the poisons in the plant through its milk. People who drank this milk were said to have “milk sickness.” The symptoms: weakness, vomiting, tremors and delirium. Sounds LOVELY. It is possible to buy cultivars of this plant in the garden center, notably Eupatorium rugosum ‘Chocolate’ which has dark leaves.

Here are some other delightful plants described in this book, which are probably in your home garden:

Aconite, also called “monkshood” because the purple flowers are shaped like hoods. This beauty causes paralysis, and stops the heart.
Oleander, which causes nausea and vomiting, slowed heart rate and other symptoms, is common in southern gardens. If you have kids, DON’T PLANT THIS IN YOUR GARDEN.
Yew, which is THE FOUNDATION PLANT OF CHOICE around houses built during the 1970s and 1980s, has toxic seeds, leaves, stems, etc.

Try to Control Your Terror

If you pick up this book, you might be afraid to plant a garden or let your kids run around outside. Right after the book came out, there was even some pretty heated discussion about whether plants should be labeled as poisonous. The books is a handy little reference if you are a serious gardener and want to stay away from poisonous, weedy or otherwise unpleasant plants. On the flip side, the author has a poisonous plants garden at her house, and you can too, by finding the varieties discussed in the book.

In addition to discussing plants that are poisonous to humans and pets, Stewart also highlights plants that are invasive, weedy, and, in the case of Kudzu, plants that have basically smothered an entire region of the country. It is a fun and functional book. I enjoy reading the back stories and historical information about the notorious plants I already know are poisonous, and I learned some new stuff, too!

Pretty Pictures

A bonus in Wicked Plants are the botanical etchings by Briony Morrow-Cribbs and the drawings by Jonathon Rosen. Both add to the overall creepy atmosphere of the book, which is great for a conversation piece or coffee table book in addition to a reference.

If you want to watch the AWESOME trailer video for the book, visit Amy’s website. If you’re one of the, like, THREE people in the WORLD who don’t already have this book well, get it from us! You won’t be sorry, (cue cackling laughter) heh heh.