In a previous Organic Gardening How To Blog article, I discussed the proper procedure for pruning your organic roses (if you haven’t read it, read it here Organic Gardening How To – Pruning Roses). In this article, however, I want to discuss the proper tools that the organic gardener should use for pruning plants, bushes, and trees.

If you need more information on the procedures for pruning different types of fruit trees, I found a great PDF called Training and Pruning Fruit Trees that was free to download. It’s a 16-page report written by by North Carolina State University.

You can’t prune properly if you don’t have the right tools… and pruning tools need to be kept sharp. Here is a list of pruning tools that you can use.

1. Bypass Pruner – Also called hand pruners, these are operated with one hand and are similar to snips. Bypass pruners are intended to cut branches that are 1″ and smaller in diameter. Cutting brances any larger than 1″ can damage the tool and your fingers.

2. Loppers – Loppers are for cutting bigger branches and are operated with two hands. This tool looks similar to bolt cutters. Due to their long handles, you have greater leverage.

3. Hedge Shears – Hand operated hedge shears look like over-sized scissors and are intened to cut mall branches and leaves. Their handles are typically shorter than the handles on a lopper and the cutting face is longer. When choosing hedge shears, choose one that fits your hands comfortably.

Almost any organic gardener needs a set of loppers, bypass pruners, and hedge shears… these are basic.

4. Pruning Saw – Also called folding saws and limb saws, this tool is intended to cut branches that are 1″ and thicker and small diameter limbs. You operate this tool with one hand. The blade is typically bow shaped and tapered towards the end. When choosing a pruning saw, choose one that cuts in both directions… both when you are pushing and pulling the saw blade.

5. Pole Saw – These saws are intended to cut branches and small limbs that are out of reach when standing on the ground or on a ladder. They consist of a saw (similar to the blabe on a pruning saw) that is attached to a long pole. Be cautious when using this tool, especially while on a ladder… moving the pole saw back-and-forth could throw you off balance and cause injury if you fall from the ladder.

All of the tools mentioned above are hand operated. Of course, in today’s world, there are many electrical and gas powered versions of these same saws. These powered saws are powerful and work much faster, but they are more costly, require more maintenace, and can be very dangerous.

Following is a Organic Gardening How To video that shows the proper use of some of these tools:

When brand new, these tools will be very sharp and will work very effectively for you. But, after using for a short amount of time, these tools will become dull and you will need to take them to a saw sharpening shop to have them re-sharpened or you can resharpen them yourself…which is what I do.

I found a great tool online for sharpening saws and I found it on Amazon.com. It’s called the GardenSharp Tool Sharpener and it really works great… it’s easy to use and it only costs $11.99. This tool has 24 user reviews on Amazon and has received 4 stars. Read those reviews and see what you think.

I also found a YouTube video that demonstrates on how to use this saw sharpener. Now, in this video they are sharpening knives (I’m not sure exactly why!?), but I use it basically the same way to sharpen the blades on my saws. Watch this video:

That’s it for now… until next time from the Organic Gardening How To Blog.

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who live in the northern hemisphere, and I know that most gardeners are not raising an organic vegetable garden during these cold months…at least, unless you have a green house or an inexpensively constructed dome house. That’s why in this Organic Gardening How To article I wanted to take a few minutes to encourage others to give organic gardening a try in this coming spring.

Organic gardening is no harder than any other type of gardening, it only takes a little bit of ingenuity. For example, if you have pesty aphids in your garden, instead of buying harsh chemicals, use what Mother Nature has naturally provided you to rid your garden of those pesty insects. Our environment will be much healthier and you can be proud of what you have accomplished.

Organic vegetable gardens results in produce that is better than anything else that you can buy. The produce is nutritional and much healthier for you and that’s why most of the world’s major chefs are now using only organic vegetables and fruits.

If you haven’t tried organic gardening before and if you might be interested in giving it a try, I found this great video on YouTube that will show you how simple it is to get started. Watch this Organic Gardening How To Blog video:

If you are new at organic gardening, start your vegetable garden out in a small plat of ground…this will allow you to get your “feet wet”. If you run into problems along the way, return to this blog and enter some search terms into the Search Window on the right sidebar of this blog…you should be able to find answers to any of your questions and/or problems.

I encourage all of you that are not already doing it, please give organic gardening a heart-felt try…I think you will be glad (and healthier) for doing it!

Until next time from the Organic Gardening How To Blog…

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Your once bountiful garden has been invaded by pests intent on devouring everything they can get their grubby little hands on. Maybe your spider mites treatment isn’t working, bacteria has infected a number of your plants, or even bigger pests such as rabbits or deer and have decided to feast upon your luscious fruits and vegetables. No matter what the pest is there are a number of measures you can take to save your garden without using harsh chemicals and pesticides or other invasive methods.

The Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences offers one such approach to pest control, it’s called Integrated Pest Management or IPM for short. This first step is identification. It may go without saying but to know how to get rid of a pest you first have to know what it is. The preventative measures used against insects are not going to be the same against mammals or other species.

The next step is Prevention and Exclusion. What this means is preventing invasive pests from showing up in the first place by eliminating their foods sources and water supplies by fixing leaky plumbing, cleaning your kitchen, making sure garbage is securely wrapped. This also means caulking any cracks and making sure pests have no way to enter your home.

Another preventative measure is to add coffee grounds to your garden. Not only do coffee grounds add nitrogen to the soil they are also acidic and can raise the PH of the soil to plant friendly levels. These grounds can also repel many pests such as slugs and deer. Introducing strong scents, such as scented soap and cheap perfume, is one method that can deter larger pests. In addition to adding coffee and strong scents to your garden you can also bring in some of the pest’s natural predators, such as spiders and some snakes, to reduce the pest population.

All the preventative measures in the world can’t save your garden if you don’t adhere to the next step in the IPM approach, Monitoring. You need to keep an eye on any new infestations or pests so you can stop them before they do extensive damage to your garden. One way to do this is to place traps and to keep a detailed document concerning where and when problems occur.

Lastly, Multiple Tactics, especially non-chemical tactics if possible, is the last step to maintaining a healthy garden. See what works best for your garden through trial and error and apply these measures accordingly.

The Integrated Pest Management approach focuses on preventing pest problems. This long term process is more environmentally friendly than spray based approach and as a result can reduce the need to use pesticides. If pesticides are needed than it is important to use organic ones that won’t contaminate the water supply, do even more damage to your plants, or do harm directly via exposure to toxic chemicals. Until next time from the Organic Gardening How To Blog…

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Many types of vegetables, such as zucchini, cucumbers and peas, are viny plants and take up a great deal of garden space if planted solely on the ground. You may be especially shocked at how much space it takes if you grow more than one of these plants.

To solve this type of problem, grow these types of plants on a trellis. The trellis can be made out of wood, PVC, steel pipe, or even wire. I’ve provided a video below that shows a number of different ways to build a trellis. Watch this Organic Gardening How To video:

My favorite way to make a trellis is the third way that they show in the video…making it out of PVC pipe. I’ve used that way of doing it this year and it was simple to do, inexpensive, and worked very effectively. Best of all, come Winter I can disassemble it and store it in a small space in our carport.

Another cool thing about making a trellis in this manner is that I can start growing lettuce much earlier in late Fall because the lettuce is shaded from the heat of the sun.

An added benefit to growing viny vegetable plants on a trellis is that the leaves get more exposure to the sun and will stay much greener. And, cucumbers grow much straighter due to the force of gravity… this makes them much easier to peel and cut.

Until next time from the Organic Gardening How to Blog…

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Last November, I wrote an Organic Gardening How To Blog article that I need to make a correction on. That article was called Mold On Azalea Stems – Organic Garden Pest Control.

In that article, I reported that I had learned that “mold” that I had seen growing on some our azalea plants was Sooty Mold and all I had to do to control it was to do a better job controlling some of the insects in our organic garden.

Well, Sooty Mold can certainly be a problem that you might need to control in your garden, but after vigorously trying to control insects in our garden and the problem persisted, I figured the author of this Organic Gardening How To Blog needed to do something different.

So, last week I cut a branch off one of my azalea plants that had this “mold” on it and I took it to a field office of the Clemson University’s agricultural department… this office was about 30 miles away.

A professor there immediately identified my “mold” problem as that of being lichen (which is actually an organism…fascinating, huh). He told me that the lichen was harmless to the azaleas, but the fact that I had lichen on the azaleas was an indication that the plant was not healthy…something was wrong with the plant’s health.

The professor could not tell me exactly what was wrong with the health of the plants, but he suggested that I get a pH testing kit and test the soil immediately around the base of the plants that had lichen in them. Azaleas are very picky about their soil and like an acidic soil between 5.0 and 5.5.

He also suggested that I prune and fertilize the plants with an organic fertilizer (See all Fertilizers) that had a NPK ratio (nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium ratio) of 4-5-4.

These are now the things that I’m working on in an attempt to save our precious azaleas.

There is an important lesson learned here… if you have problems in your organic garden and you’re not sure how to correct those problems, seek out the help of other professionals. Many colleges and universities have field offices that can help you… for little or no charge.

I want to say “Thanks” to Clemson University for the help they gave me… and I’m not even a graduate of that University!

That’s it for now from the Organic Gardening How To Blog…

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It’s June and you know they’re coming…if they haven’t already arrived. Bugs, that is…bugs by the thousands. Don’t wait. Act now! Spraying your plants with organic insecticidal soap is today’s Organic Gardening How To tip.

Rather it be your roses, organic vegetables, or hibiscus you know that insects are going to soon be chewing away on your tender loving plants. Don’t wait until they’ve created damage…attack them before they attack your gardens.

One of the easiest and least expensive remedies is to spray your plants with an organic insecticidal soap. Here’s the recipe that I use the most:

• 2 Tablespoons of Dr. Bronner – Pure-Castile Soap Peppermint
• 1 Quart of water

Simply mix and transfer to a spray bottle.

This spray works best on soft bodied insects such as aphids, thrips, mealybugs, white flies, spider mites, leafhoppers and caterpillars. The fatty acids in the soap disrupts the outer membreane of the insects and their cell contents are able to leak out killing them quickly.

For larger insect or insects with harder outer membranes, spray with a pepper spray that I discussed in an earlier article…it’s also inexpensive to make.

Organic gardening is not difficult, but for the best results the gardener needs to be pro-active. Don’t wait until your garden is infested with these un-wanted insects…spray now and spray often!

Watch this Organic Gardening How To video for some more info on organic insecticidal soap:

Yes, you can buy already prepared insecticidal soap , but use the recipe I gave you above if you want to save money.

Also, a few words of caution…always spray your organic insecticidal soap on a few leaves of all the different types of plants that you want to spray and wait 1-2 days. Some plants will have a negative reaction to organic insecticidal soaps. If the leaves wilt, don’t spray!

For more info on controlling insects in your organic garden, check out one of my other posts called Pest Controls From Your Kitchen Cabinets.

Until next time from the Organic Gardening How To Blog…

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A few days ago, my husband and I had dinner at a local seafood restaurant. As they delivered menus to our table so we could decide what to order, they also delivered a small bowl full of raw sliced jicama along with a Ranch dressing dip… “on the house” our waiter said.

My husband and I were pleasantly surprised and we found the jicama to be extremely tasty. My husband looked at me and said, “How come we’ve never grown this?” That’s why I’m writing this post today in the Organic Gardening How To Blog.

I had never thought about growing jicama before and I feel a little foolish about it considering how tasty this root vegetable is. If you’ve never eaten it before, it tastes a little bit like water chestnuts, just a bit sweeter.

Having never grown it before, I started doing some research. Here are some things that I found out about jicama that you might be interested in:

1. Jicama is also called Yam Bean, Mexican Potato, and Mexican Turnip.

2. Native to Mexico and Mexico is still where most of it is grown.

3. Farmers in California’s fertile valleys have been largely unsuccessful at growing it.

4. A long, warm growing season (up to 9 months) “under relatively short day length is required to initiate good quality fleshy root development.” But, the plant can be grown in shorter growing seasons, but the roots will not be as big.

5. Jicama is grown from a green vine that can reach 3 feet in height. It’s a beautiful plant with heart shaped leaves. The vine blooms with white to lavendar colored flowers.

6. After blooming, the vine produces a pea-like pod. CAUTION: These pea-like pods are toxic and narcotic. Pinch these off to prevent children or animals from eating them. However, if you let them fully mature, the seeds can be used to grow next year’s crop.

7. Jicama is propogated by seed.

8. Jicama can be eaten raw or cooked.

And, here is one last Organic Gardening How To fact…. followers of this blog realize that I always include a video on my posts. Well, I could not find one video on YouTube or the internet that showed how to grow this plant… thats got to be a first!

It’s already June and too late for me to try to grow Jicama this year. But, you can bet it’s on my list of things to do next year!

My challenge to you is to try it, also. If you would like some more info on how to grow it from seed, read this eHow article for more details. Seeds can be purchased from Amazon.com … they’re inexpensive.

Until next time from the Organic Gardening How To Blog…

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Not only am I stuck on organic gardening, but I’m also stuck on the water features that I keep adding to my garden. The peaceful sound of bubbling water on the other side of my red roses seems to make my gardening experiences even more pleasurable. That’s hard for me to believe, but, that’s what I wanted to discuss in this short Organic Gardening How To article.

You see, I’ve always enjoyed my garden. My garden give me comfort and pleasure. Working in my garden is a real joy and gives me a sense of accomplishment. It’s been that way for years.

So, why am I now feeling even more comfortable in my garden ever since I started adding water features two years ago? I’m not sure that I have an answer for that.

Two years ago, I first added a small bird bath next to my vegetable garden. Last year, I added a bubbling rock close to my roses. Now, this year, I’m adding a Koi Pond next to our cedar deck…I’m building it myself.

These water features are enhancing the beauty of my garden…they are giving it a new dimension…at least, that’s what I believe. And, since it’s my garden, I’m the only one that needs to believe that.

Until next time from the Organic Gardening How To Blog…

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Plant your organic garden seeds early and you can enjoy your plants for a longer period of time and harvest more vegetables. In this Organic Gardening How To Blog post, I want to show you one of the best ways to do that.

The length of time that it takes seeds to germinate depends largely upon soil temperature. Soil temperature also influences the percentage of seeds that will germinate.

The optimal soil temperature for a given plant varies depending upon the species of the plant. For example, onions germinate best when the soil temperature is about 68 degrees F and cucumbers prefer a soil temperature of 86 degrees F. Most seed packets will designate on the package the ideal soil temperature. Or, examine Tom Clothier’s Germination Database for more information.

So, does that mean you have to wait later in the season to plant cucumbers than you do onions? Well, if your planting the seeds outdoors and directly into the ground, you probably should wait.

But, if you want to start your plants early, all you have to do is control the temperature of the soil that your germinating the seeds in. You can do that with a Seedling Heat Mat.

Watch this Organic Gardening How To video to get a better idea on what I’m talking about:

One of the best Heat Mats that I could find I found at Amazon.com. It’s called the Hydrofarm MT10006 Seedling Heat Mat and it’s inexpensive at $19.43. It has worked well for me.

I initially chose this Heat Map because of all of the positive reviews that customers had given this product. There were a total of 80 reviews and 70 of them had given this product excellent reviews. I didn’t figure I could go wrong.

So, if you’re anxious to get your garden started early this year, invest in an Hydrofarm Seedling Heat Mat… you will enjoy your organic vegetables and flowers much longer this year and for years to come.

Until next time from the Organic Gardening How To Blog…

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Growing onions is really simple to do and home grown onions taste so much better than store bought onions. In this Organic Gardening How To, I want to discuss how you can make those onions taste even sweeter than you would ever had imagined.

First, to get you started, watch this short Organic Gardening How To video on how to plant and grow onions. By the way, this video was filmed in the Pikes Peak Region of Colorado and if you live in a warmer climate, you can plant your onions a few weeks earlier than what they do in the video. Now, watch…

Onions are really simple to grow…but, here is the secret to making them even sweeter:

1. Let the onions grow until their stalks are about 9″ tall…cut the stalks in half so that the stalk remaining on the onion is only 4-5″ tall.

2. Allow the onion to continue growing until the stalks are about 12″ tall…once again, cut the stalk in half so that the stalk remaining on the onion is about 6″ tall.

3. Repeat this process one more time…after the stalks are 12′ tall, cut them in half.

Trimming the stalks of the onions forces more energy into the bulbs of the onions and will cause them to grow bigger.

4. After you trim them 3 times, allow the onions to mature naturally.

5. When you see about 4″ of brown on the ends of the stalks, discontinue watering…leave them in the ground and don’t harvest for another 4 weeks. This increases their storage capacity and improves their sweetness.

6. After 4 weeks, using a hard rake, knock the stocks of the onions 90 degrees so that the stalks are horizontal to the ground…but, the onion should remain in the ground.

7. After one week, pull the onion bulbs out of the ground, but place them on top of the groung…laying them down on the ground on the same side that you had them on in Step 6 above…leave them there for two days.

8. After two days, turn them 180 degrees so that the other side of onion bulb is on the ground. Leave them this way for 24 hours more.

Allowing the sun to dry these onions for 3 days causes the enzymes of the onion to turn into sugar and improves their sweetness.

9. Now, you can complete the harvesting…however, leave as much dirt on the onions as you can. The dirt remaining on the onion fools the onion into believing it is still growing and your harvested onions will last much longer…sometimes up to 8 weeks longer. Simply braid the stalks of the onions together and hang in a cool, dry place.

Enjoy your sweet onions!

Until next time from the Organic Gardening How To Blog…

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