Organic Gardening How To Blog

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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Have you ever been cooking and wished that you had some fresh herbs to add to your family’s meal so that it would taste even better? You probably have and I know I use to make those wishes up until a few years ago when I started growing my own herbs in my organic garden.

Most people consider herb gardening too time consuming and not worth the trouble. But, it’s really not hard to do and having fresh herbs tastes so much better than using those dried out packets that you get at the store.

In most cases, you can grow an herb garden either indoors or outdoors…either way will work. But, the first thing you need to decide upon is what type of herb seeds is it that you want to grow.

Herb garden seeds can be found at almost any organic garden store. You could make a herb garden using small plants that others have already grown from seeds, but I think you’ll be much happier growing your own herbs from seeds….it’s kind of like being a mother…most mothers would rather have her own child versus adopting an infant.

To begin, choose the herb seeds that you want to grow. When choosing, closely read the “recommended climatic conditions” information that is usually printed on the back of the seed packet. Some herbs won’t grow in certain types of climate. Thyme, basil, oregano, rosemary, dill, and parsley are some of my favorites. Consider the things that you most often cook and think about what flavors would go with those recipes.

Once you have purchased your seeds, you will need to sprinkle them on top of moist soil and cover them with another light layer of soil to keep them moist. Read the instructions on the back of the seed packets to ensure that you are planting them correctly. A great way for beginners to start is to consider purchasing a herb garden kit . These kits have all the components for growing an herb garden successfully.

Many organic gardeners start their herb gardens indoors in pots and then move them outside to their organic gardens when the conditions are right. You can do this although you may decide just to keep the herb garden permanently inside.

Once the seeds start sprouting, it’s important to give them proper care. Weed and water your herb garden regularly. To furthur assist you on growing your own herbs, watch this short video…it’s just over 9 minutes long:

And, remember, if you grow more herbs than you can immediately use, you can naturally dry them and use for months in the future. A while back, I wrote an instructional article on doing that and if you haven’t read that article, you can read it here…Organic Gardening How To – Drying Herbs Naturally.

Believe me, growing your own fresh herbs is easy! And, all of your efforts won’t be wasted when you find yourself picking fresh herbs from your organic garden and adding them to your family’s meal.

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