Organic Gardening How To Blog

Recently, I had a brother that complained to me that he had too many earwigs in his herb garden. My brother doesn’t like any type of bug and if he saw one earwig, that was probably too many for him. Let’s discuss earwigs in this Organic Gardening How To Blog post.

Earwigs are certainly an ugly and even frightening looking insects. See the picture on the right hand side of this page? Those pincers at the tail of the insect certainly look sharp and menacing, but don’t let them scare you. These insects use those pincers to capture other insects to eat and those pincers are also used for mating.

Some earwigs even have wings, but you will rarely see them fly.

In an organic garden, having earwigs is a benefit. Earwigs eat aphids, snails, slugs, and harmful insect larvae. They have a ravenous appetite.

Earwigs also eat on young, tender leaves and shoots, but the damage they cause to plants is minor. You will find them in your garden because they like moist ground and sheltered areas.

Watch this Organic Gardening How To video to learn more:

Earwigs are a beneficial insect for organic gardeners, but if by chance you do want to reduce their number, here are a couple of ways to do that:

1. You can kill and repel aphids by spraying your organic garden with orange oil . Simply mix 6 ounces of orange oil with a gallon of water and gently spray your garden.

2. Place petroleum jelly around the base of the plants where you are finding excessive numbers of earwigs. Crawling earwigs will get stuck in this jelly.

3. Spread diatomaceous earth around the base of the plants that you are trying to protect. Mix this diatomaceous earth into the top 1-2″ of your topsoil. After 1 week, repeat.

Remember…earwigs are ugly, but they will provide greater benefits for your organic garden than they will do harm. That’s it from the Organic Gardening How To Blog. Until next time…

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I just love to use organic ginger in the organic foods that I cook. The problem with buying ginger root at most stores is that I don’t know if it’s organic or not. That’s why I started growing my own organic ginger. Growing organic ginger in your own organic garden is what this Organic Gardening How To Blog post is about.

I found out that it is amazingly easy to grow organic ginger. And what’s more, I discovered that it’s a beautiful plant that produces strikingly beautiful red, yellow, and orange blooms.

If you live in a tropical region where the air temperature rarely dips below 50 degrees Fahrenheit, you can simply grow ginger right out of the ground. Ginger is a tropical plant and loves warm temperatures.

But, you can grow ginger easily in other areas as well…that’s what I do. In late fall or early winter, I simply replant the plants to pots and move them to my garden dome and to the warmest parts of my home.

Watch this short video to learn how to grow organic ginger in your own organic garden:

Here are some additional tips to help you:

1. Purchase organic ginger root from a local herbalist or health food store. Make sure that the root looks somewhat fresh and has plenty of small “fingers”. At least two of these finger should have small buds on them that resemble the eyes of a potato.

2. Soak the root in water overnight before planting.

3. The best time to plant is in late winter and early spring.

4. Ginger is not a picky plant, but it does like moist soil that drains well. When planting, mix compost into your soil. Bury them 4 inches deep, 7 inches apart, with the “fingers” pointing upwards.

5. Harvest the organic ginger when the leaves dry out…this will take 8-10 months. Keep some of the roots to satisfy your cooking needs and replant the rest, especially those with desirable “fingers” on them.

And, that’s it!

Enjoy not only the flavor of organic ginger, but also the beautiful blooms in your organic garden.

Until next time…

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One of the most hideous of all lawn weeds is crabgrass. It’s a weed that will ruin a beautiful lawn and it will continue to spread unless it’s eliminated. Let’s discuss the eradication of this unsightly weed in this Organic Gardening How To.

Crabgrass is considered a grassy weed and not a broadleaved weed. This means that the root system that the crabgrass has is similar to the root system of typical grass. A weed control spray that would normally be used to control broadleaved weeds will not control crabgrass. Besides, these sprays are not organic.

To control crabgrass, there are two things that you need to do:

1. Manually kill and remove the entire root system – Tough work, but it needs to be done. The problem with just trying to pull crabgrass up out of the soil is that you’re likely to leave some of the root system in the ground. Is so, the crabgrass will likely grow back.

Do this first…pour boiling water over the center of the crabgrass. Boiling water will kill the crabgrass and it’s root system. Wait 24 hours, and manually remove the crabgrass and as much of it’s root system as you can. Level the ground out by applying fresh organic soil and sprinkle with fresh grass seed.

2. To prevent crabgrass from germinating in the spring, cover your entire lawn with corn gluten . Corn gluten is safe for cats, kids, and you. Do this in late winter just before your lawn and weeds begin to grow. This will control not only the crabgrass, but also control other annual weeds from germinating in your lawn.

Watch this Organic Gardening How To video for more great tips:

Maintaining a thick turf with healthy soil is the best way to control crabgrass from even getting started in your lawn. But, occasionally you will likely get some…just get it out before it spreads!

From the Organic Gardening How To Blog…until next time.

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