Garden Mulch - Five Excellent Reasons For Mulching Your Garden Beds

The use of some sort of material to be spread on the ground to a certain height, which acts as an insulating layer between the soil's surface and the atmosphere, or mulching in short, is a technique being increasingly employed by professional horticulturalists. Some home gardeners may still be insufficiently aware of its importance, so in this article I'll tell you why a mulch layer is so important, then I'll go into the different types of mulch, their various qualities and how they should be used.

Amongst many benefits, a mulch on the soil -

* Significantly reduces weeds. This is true of annuals although mulching does not generally prevent the growth of perennial weeds

* Significantly reduces the evaporation of moisture from the soil surface and is therefore an essential part of water conserving gardening

* Reduces soil erosion caused by wind and rain. This is a fantastically important benefit

* Moderates the top-soil temperature. So in the winter a layer of mulch can prevent freezing, and in hot- summer climates, prevent the top soil reaching temperatures that inhibit plant growth

* Is aesthetically superior to the sight of bare soil and irrigation pipes

Taking aesthetic considerations into account, there are broadly speaking two types of mulch which are viable in a garden. Organic mulches such as wood chippings, and natural inorganic mulches such as pebbles. Which is preferable?

The use of decorative pebbles is often part of an overall design. They are particularly appropriate, associatively, in dry climate gardens. But there are a number of drawbacks involved. Some aggregates such as dark stones of volcanic origin have been found to actually increase the top-soil temperature. Furthermore, adding organic feeds to the soil, something that should be done once or twice a year, becomes difficult and tiresome. The use of a chemical fertilizer pump offers a way round this, but sets in train a number of problems. Relying on chemical fertilizers as the only method of feeding is dreadful gardening! For further discussion on the automatic fertilizer pumps, see a previous article of mine called "The truth about fertilizer pumps."

On the other hand, while wood chippings may in some cases be less attractive, they help to create a better habitat in which your garden plants grow. Organic mulches definitely moderate the soil's temperature, they provide raw material for essential organisms like earthworms, (see article called "The world's greatest gardener!") and as they break down they contribute humus to the soil. All these factors reduce pest and disease infestations, improve the soil's structure, and in the long run help to provide balanced nutriment for the plants

For organic mulches to be effective, they need to be spread to a depth of about 10 cm, after the initial quantity has settled. This means you need to spread about 15cm in order to end up with a layer of some 10 cm, and you'll need to add a bit each year as the chippings closest to the soil's surface break down. Be careful to keep the mulch away from tree trunks and shrub stems. It could cause rot to set in.

For FREE hands-on, expert information on gardening click here

http://www.dryclimategardening.com

And this is especially for gardeners in a dry climate! Grab hold FOR FREE chapter 1 of my book

"HOW TO GARDEN IN A DRY CLIMATE"

Go to http://www.dryclimategardening.com/Products/tabid/55/Default.aspx

Jonathan Ya'akobi

Your Personal Gardening Coach

Take Your Garden Off Drugs

Why Organic?

When we talk about 'Organic' we are talking about a method of working with nature and natural products to improve the soil and the environment. As you know, the environment is in danger and we have need to adapt our way of gardening to compensate for global warming. Artificially produced fertilizers and pesticides have been cited as the two major soil pollutants in many countries.

How do we stop our dependency on these synthetic substances? We need to build soil health so that plants will become stronger and resistant to pests and diseases.

Soil that is balanced is said to have 25 % air, 25% water,45% minerals and 5% humus and living organisms. The other component of soil is made up of small rock particles that give it it's structure.

When I walk in my garden, my goal is to turn unhealthy soil that usually has a poor organic component, lacks air, and is chemically unbalanced, and turn it into the kind of soil that will support my plants and help them to grow, this means that I must provide the basic nutrients and then let nature take it's course.

I never used to think that I had to bother with soil tests, seemed like a waste of time to me , but I have now got a lot smarter and know how important it is to know what my soil is made up of. This allows me to know what plants to buy, saves wasting money on plants that will not survive, and also allows me to amend the soil to provide a good solid base for growing plants. A soil test will tell you how much organic matter, minerals, and elements are in your soil. It will also test the PH and other chemical levels. It is recommended that you have your soil tested each year, and to take the sample from the same area.

Soil sampling has become much more common, and you will be able to find in your local phone books, companies that offer this service. Soil also needs air, compacted soil has little room to allow air to penetrate. Turn the soil over with a fork or tiller to loosen it up. When you have the results of your soil test, it's time to get the mineral content of the soil back in balance. This means finding the right kind of fertilizer, try rock phosphate to achieve the correct balance.

Now you must also consider feeding the organisms living in your soil (did you know they lived there?). The best way to do this is with compost, this organic matter stimulates the earthworms (yes they live there too!) to produce more humus and nutrients for the soil. When they die, they in turn become food for the decaying process and other organisms. The upshot of all of this attention is that your soil becomes rich with nutrients, available to plants.

You need to apply at least one inch of finished compost to good soil or three inches of partially composted material for very poor soil, and mix into the top six inches or so.

Mother nature supplies leaf litter and plant debris, this debris becomes food for the earthworms and other organisms. It also holds moisture in the soil, prevents erosion, and shelters the soil from the drying effects of sun and wind. Place three to four inches of mulch on beds and around plants to protect the soil.

To prevent rotting, be sure to keep the mulch about three to four inches away from the trunks of trees or plants.

Please do not use insecticides or pesticides, these toxins only help to kill the good organisms that you are trying to encourage. In a later newsletter I will give you some easy' make at home' recipes for basic plant care, which will allow you to take care of many plant problems, without chemicals.

As each piece of land starts to grow healthy plants, it attracts wildlife looking for a place to live, eat, and reproduce. By gardening organically, we help keep the cycle of life going for the benefit of generations to come.

Ena Clewes is an author and an avid Organic Gardener. She frequently contributes to Go Organic Gardening.com, a website on organic gardening methods. Ena has just published an ebook " How to Master Organic Gardening," available here.

A Brief Guide to Organic Gardening

The term organic gardening means gardening without using any synthetic pesticides or fertilizers. Apart from that, everything else is the same. Not using synthetic materials does make controlling pests, insects, weeds and even some diseases different from the usual methods. Also, special care needs to be taken to keep the soil healthy and meet nutritional requirements.

The first aspect of organic gardening is the soil. Organic matter is added frequently to the soil to maintain its nutritional quality. Compost is largely used, because it keeps the plants quite healthy. Compost is prepared from organic remnants such as dead leaves and flowers, peels of the fruits, shorn grasses, etc. Soil that is healthy will have a deep color and a sweet odor. It will also be teeming with earthworms. Some other organically permitted additives for soil are greens and, rock phosphates and bone meal. These can be added after checking the pH of the soil.

Most gardeners - even hardcore organic gardeners - cannot resist using pesticides when they spot insects on their plants. For an organic gardener, the best way to deal with insects is to take the right prevention. Keep the plants as healthy as you can (insects love unhealthy plants). If the plants are healthy, they will not be affected by the insects. Maintain the right moisture conditions for the plants. Also, cultivate different species of plants, which keeps particular insects away.

One organic method to keep the insects away is to include organisms that feed on them. Ladybugs, frogs, lizards and even birds are good choices. A water source near the garden helps to keep the insects away. Or you can use mechanical devices such as barriers, plant collars and sticky traps. You can even use simple household ingredients like garlic, hot pepper and insecticidal soaps.

Disease in plants can be avoided organically by planting only disease resistant plants when they are in their prime. Do not allow moisture to retain on the plants much, and take care of the air that circulates in the garden. The way you water your garden can decide how much disease-prone your plants will be.

One more point that harasses organic gardeners is weed management. You can use organic mulch to keep the weeds away, and for improving its effect, you can use cardboard, construction paper or even a simple newspaper below the mulch. Before planting, spread corn meal gluten on the garden. Solarizing the garden also works for weed control. Of course, you can hoe the weeds out too. Be persistent, use good mulch and hoe out the obstinate weeds - these are the best organic methods to permanently take care of the weeds.

When you garden organically, your plants will live healthier and will be totally natural. You will have to invest more time and effort, and also persevere when you use totally organic methods, but you will soon understand the routine and that will benefit your plants greatly.

Learn how you can design your ideal garden at: Gardening Articles. Find more free articles like this at: Web Article Directory

Start a Worm Farm!

Worm Farms are a way for the everyday household to be environmentally friendly. In this article, we are going to discuss what a worm farm is and the benefits of worm farming.

A worm farm is often used to decompose food scraps or other items and the resulting worm castings or Vermicompost is used to fertilize a garden, grass, or other area. This worm compost is extremely rich in nutrients and therefore valuable to anyone seeking an organic, 100% natural, alternative to commercial fertilizers. The most commom types of worms to use for a worm farm or worm composting are Red Wiggler Worms (Esienia foetida) or Red Earthworms (Lumbricus rubellas).

A worm farm can be produced in small scale or large scale. There are many commercial worm farms that sell both the worms and the Vermicompost (worm castings). This organic compost is highly sought after.

However, worm farms can be started in your own backyard, garage, or even the kitchen on a small scale! Worm farm bins (i.e. Vermiculture bins or composting bins) can certainly be purchased from other worm farms or commercial compost bin manufacturers. However, worms are very resilient and therefore a number of containers are suitable for starting a small scale worm farm; including, plastic bins, buckets, wooden crates, metal containers, and many other common items. For more details on suitable containers, visit our worm bin page.

Red Wiggler Worms and Red Earthworms can handle all sorts of common kitchen scraps, such as:

• Vegetable peels
• Leftovers
• Fruit (no the peels however)
• Moldy bread
• Coffee Grounds
• Coffee Filters
• Tea bags

Most households will be able to significantly reduce the amount of waste they are putting in the garbage can by feeding their worms! Therefore, you are doing your part to keep our landfills from growing out of control. The resulting organic compost from your worm poop can also help you harvest a fruitful garden, have a green lawn, or have healthy house plants, and much more.

Want to learn more about worm farms? Visit My Worm Farms

Garden Mulch - Five Excellent Reasons For Mulching Your Garden Beds

The use of some sort of material to be spread on the ground to a certain height, which acts as an insulating layer between the soil's surface and the atmosphere, or mulching in short, is a technique being increasingly employed by professional horticulturalists. Some home gardeners may still be insufficiently aware of its importance, so in this article I'll tell you why a mulch layer is so important, then I'll go into the different types of mulch, their various qualities and how they should be used.

Amongst many benefits, a mulch on the soil -

* Significantly reduces weeds. This is true of annuals although mulching does not generally prevent the growth of perennial weeds

* Significantly reduces the evaporation of moisture from the soil surface and is therefore an essential part of water conserving gardening

* Reduces soil erosion caused by wind and rain. This is a fantastically important benefit

* Moderates the top-soil temperature. So in the winter a layer of mulch can prevent freezing, and in hot- summer climates, prevent the top soil reaching temperatures that inhibit plant growth

* Is aesthetically superior to the sight of bare soil and irrigation pipes

Taking aesthetic considerations into account, there are broadly speaking two types of mulch which are viable in a garden. Organic mulches such as wood chippings, and natural inorganic mulches such as pebbles. Which is preferable?

The use of decorative pebbles is often part of an overall design. They are particularly appropriate, associatively, in dry climate gardens. But there are a number of drawbacks involved. Some aggregates such as dark stones of volcanic origin have been found to actually increase the top-soil temperature. Furthermore, adding organic feeds to the soil, something that should be done once or twice a year, becomes difficult and tiresome. The use of a chemical fertilizer pump offers a way round this, but sets in train a number of problems. Relying on chemical fertilizers as the only method of feeding is dreadful gardening! For further discussion on the automatic fertilizer pumps, see a previous article of mine called "The truth about fertilizer pumps."

On the other hand, while wood chippings may in some cases be less attractive, they help to create a better habitat in which your garden plants grow. Organic mulches definitely moderate the soil's temperature, they provide raw material for essential organisms like earthworms, (see article called "The world's greatest gardener!") and as they break down they contribute humus to the soil. All these factors reduce pest and disease infestations, improve the soil's structure, and in the long run help to provide balanced nutriment for the plants

For organic mulches to be effective, they need to be spread to a depth of about 10 cm, after the initial quantity has settled. This means you need to spread about 15cm in order to end up with a layer of some 10 cm, and you'll need to add a bit each year as the chippings closest to the soil's surface break down. Be careful to keep the mulch away from tree trunks and shrub stems. It could cause rot to set in.

For FREE hands-on, expert information on gardening click here

http://www.dryclimategardening.com

And this is especially for gardeners in a dry climate! Grab hold FOR FREE chapter 1 of my book

"HOW TO GARDEN IN A DRY CLIMATE"

Go to http://www.dryclimategardening.com/Products/tabid/55/Default.aspx

Jonathan Ya'akobi

Your Personal Gardening Coach

Take Your Garden Off Drugs

Why Organic?

When we talk about 'Organic' we are talking about a method of working with nature and natural products to improve the soil and the environment. As you know, the environment is in danger and we have need to adapt our way of gardening to compensate for global warming. Artificially produced fertilizers and pesticides have been cited as the two major soil pollutants in many countries.

How do we stop our dependency on these synthetic substances? We need to build soil health so that plants will become stronger and resistant to pests and diseases.

Soil that is balanced is said to have 25 % air, 25% water,45% minerals and 5% humus and living organisms. The other component of soil is made up of small rock particles that give it it's structure.

When I walk in my garden, my goal is to turn unhealthy soil that usually has a poor organic component, lacks air, and is chemically unbalanced, and turn it into the kind of soil that will support my plants and help them to grow, this means that I must provide the basic nutrients and then let nature take it's course.

I never used to think that I had to bother with soil tests, seemed like a waste of time to me , but I have now got a lot smarter and know how important it is to know what my soil is made up of. This allows me to know what plants to buy, saves wasting money on plants that will not survive, and also allows me to amend the soil to provide a good solid base for growing plants. A soil test will tell you how much organic matter, minerals, and elements are in your soil. It will also test the PH and other chemical levels. It is recommended that you have your soil tested each year, and to take the sample from the same area.

Soil sampling has become much more common, and you will be able to find in your local phone books, companies that offer this service. Soil also needs air, compacted soil has little room to allow air to penetrate. Turn the soil over with a fork or tiller to loosen it up. When you have the results of your soil test, it's time to get the mineral content of the soil back in balance. This means finding the right kind of fertilizer, try rock phosphate to achieve the correct balance.

Now you must also consider feeding the organisms living in your soil (did you know they lived there?). The best way to do this is with compost, this organic matter stimulates the earthworms (yes they live there too!) to produce more humus and nutrients for the soil. When they die, they in turn become food for the decaying process and other organisms. The upshot of all of this attention is that your soil becomes rich with nutrients, available to plants.

You need to apply at least one inch of finished compost to good soil or three inches of partially composted material for very poor soil, and mix into the top six inches or so.

Mother nature supplies leaf litter and plant debris, this debris becomes food for the earthworms and other organisms. It also holds moisture in the soil, prevents erosion, and shelters the soil from the drying effects of sun and wind. Place three to four inches of mulch on beds and around plants to protect the soil.

To prevent rotting, be sure to keep the mulch about three to four inches away from the trunks of trees or plants.

Please do not use insecticides or pesticides, these toxins only help to kill the good organisms that you are trying to encourage. In a later newsletter I will give you some easy' make at home' recipes for basic plant care, which will allow you to take care of many plant problems, without chemicals.

As each piece of land starts to grow healthy plants, it attracts wildlife looking for a place to live, eat, and reproduce. By gardening organically, we help keep the cycle of life going for the benefit of generations to come.

Ena Clewes is an author and an avid Organic Gardener. She frequently contributes to Go Organic Gardening.com, a website on organic gardening methods. Ena has just published an ebook " How to Master Organic Gardening," available here.

A Brief Guide to Organic Gardening

The term organic gardening means gardening without using any synthetic pesticides or fertilizers. Apart from that, everything else is the same. Not using synthetic materials does make controlling pests, insects, weeds and even some diseases different from the usual methods. Also, special care needs to be taken to keep the soil healthy and meet nutritional requirements.

The first aspect of organic gardening is the soil. Organic matter is added frequently to the soil to maintain its nutritional quality. Compost is largely used, because it keeps the plants quite healthy. Compost is prepared from organic remnants such as dead leaves and flowers, peels of the fruits, shorn grasses, etc. Soil that is healthy will have a deep color and a sweet odor. It will also be teeming with earthworms. Some other organically permitted additives for soil are greens and, rock phosphates and bone meal. These can be added after checking the pH of the soil.

Most gardeners - even hardcore organic gardeners - cannot resist using pesticides when they spot insects on their plants. For an organic gardener, the best way to deal with insects is to take the right prevention. Keep the plants as healthy as you can (insects love unhealthy plants). If the plants are healthy, they will not be affected by the insects. Maintain the right moisture conditions for the plants. Also, cultivate different species of plants, which keeps particular insects away.

One organic method to keep the insects away is to include organisms that feed on them. Ladybugs, frogs, lizards and even birds are good choices. A water source near the garden helps to keep the insects away. Or you can use mechanical devices such as barriers, plant collars and sticky traps. You can even use simple household ingredients like garlic, hot pepper and insecticidal soaps.

Disease in plants can be avoided organically by planting only disease resistant plants when they are in their prime. Do not allow moisture to retain on the plants much, and take care of the air that circulates in the garden. The way you water your garden can decide how much disease-prone your plants will be.

One more point that harasses organic gardeners is weed management. You can use organic mulch to keep the weeds away, and for improving its effect, you can use cardboard, construction paper or even a simple newspaper below the mulch. Before planting, spread corn meal gluten on the garden. Solarizing the garden also works for weed control. Of course, you can hoe the weeds out too. Be persistent, use good mulch and hoe out the obstinate weeds - these are the best organic methods to permanently take care of the weeds.

When you garden organically, your plants will live healthier and will be totally natural. You will have to invest more time and effort, and also persevere when you use totally organic methods, but you will soon understand the routine and that will benefit your plants greatly.

Learn how you can design your ideal garden at: Gardening Articles. Find more free articles like this at: Web Article Directory

Start a Worm Farm!

Worm Farms are a way for the everyday household to be environmentally friendly. In this article, we are going to discuss what a worm farm is and the benefits of worm farming.

A worm farm is often used to decompose food scraps or other items and the resulting worm castings or Vermicompost is used to fertilize a garden, grass, or other area. This worm compost is extremely rich in nutrients and therefore valuable to anyone seeking an organic, 100% natural, alternative to commercial fertilizers. The most commom types of worms to use for a worm farm or worm composting are Red Wiggler Worms (Esienia foetida) or Red Earthworms (Lumbricus rubellas).

A worm farm can be produced in small scale or large scale. There are many commercial worm farms that sell both the worms and the Vermicompost (worm castings). This organic compost is highly sought after.

However, worm farms can be started in your own backyard, garage, or even the kitchen on a small scale! Worm farm bins (i.e. Vermiculture bins or composting bins) can certainly be purchased from other worm farms or commercial compost bin manufacturers. However, worms are very resilient and therefore a number of containers are suitable for starting a small scale worm farm; including, plastic bins, buckets, wooden crates, metal containers, and many other common items. For more details on suitable containers, visit our worm bin page.

Red Wiggler Worms and Red Earthworms can handle all sorts of common kitchen scraps, such as:

• Vegetable peels
• Leftovers
• Fruit (no the peels however)
• Moldy bread
• Coffee Grounds
• Coffee Filters
• Tea bags

Most households will be able to significantly reduce the amount of waste they are putting in the garbage can by feeding their worms! Therefore, you are doing your part to keep our landfills from growing out of control. The resulting organic compost from your worm poop can also help you harvest a fruitful garden, have a green lawn, or have healthy house plants, and much more.

Want to learn more about worm farms? Visit My Worm Farms

Garden Mulch - Five Excellent Reasons For Mulching Your Garden Beds

The use of some sort of material to be spread on the ground to a certain height, which acts as an insulating layer between the soil's surface and the atmosphere, or mulching in short, is a technique being increasingly employed by professional horticulturalists. Some home gardeners may still be insufficiently aware of its importance, so in this article I'll tell you why a mulch layer is so important, then I'll go into the different types of mulch, their various qualities and how they should be used.

Amongst many benefits, a mulch on the soil -

* Significantly reduces weeds. This is true of annuals although mulching does not generally prevent the growth of perennial weeds

* Significantly reduces the evaporation of moisture from the soil surface and is therefore an essential part of water conserving gardening

* Reduces soil erosion caused by wind and rain. This is a fantastically important benefit

* Moderates the top-soil temperature. So in the winter a layer of mulch can prevent freezing, and in hot- summer climates, prevent the top soil reaching temperatures that inhibit plant growth

* Is aesthetically superior to the sight of bare soil and irrigation pipes

Taking aesthetic considerations into account, there are broadly speaking two types of mulch which are viable in a garden. Organic mulches such as wood chippings, and natural inorganic mulches such as pebbles. Which is preferable?

The use of decorative pebbles is often part of an overall design. They are particularly appropriate, associatively, in dry climate gardens. But there are a number of drawbacks involved. Some aggregates such as dark stones of volcanic origin have been found to actually increase the top-soil temperature. Furthermore, adding organic feeds to the soil, something that should be done once or twice a year, becomes difficult and tiresome. The use of a chemical fertilizer pump offers a way round this, but sets in train a number of problems. Relying on chemical fertilizers as the only method of feeding is dreadful gardening! For further discussion on the automatic fertilizer pumps, see a previous article of mine called "The truth about fertilizer pumps."

On the other hand, while wood chippings may in some cases be less attractive, they help to create a better habitat in which your garden plants grow. Organic mulches definitely moderate the soil's temperature, they provide raw material for essential organisms like earthworms, (see article called "The world's greatest gardener!") and as they break down they contribute humus to the soil. All these factors reduce pest and disease infestations, improve the soil's structure, and in the long run help to provide balanced nutriment for the plants

For organic mulches to be effective, they need to be spread to a depth of about 10 cm, after the initial quantity has settled. This means you need to spread about 15cm in order to end up with a layer of some 10 cm, and you'll need to add a bit each year as the chippings closest to the soil's surface break down. Be careful to keep the mulch away from tree trunks and shrub stems. It could cause rot to set in.

For FREE hands-on, expert information on gardening click here

http://www.dryclimategardening.com

And this is especially for gardeners in a dry climate! Grab hold FOR FREE chapter 1 of my book

"HOW TO GARDEN IN A DRY CLIMATE"

Go to http://www.dryclimategardening.com/Products/tabid/55/Default.aspx

Jonathan Ya'akobi

Your Personal Gardening Coach

Take Your Garden Off Drugs

Why Organic?

When we talk about 'Organic' we are talking about a method of working with nature and natural products to improve the soil and the environment. As you know, the environment is in danger and we have need to adapt our way of gardening to compensate for global warming. Artificially produced fertilizers and pesticides have been cited as the two major soil pollutants in many countries.

How do we stop our dependency on these synthetic substances? We need to build soil health so that plants will become stronger and resistant to pests and diseases.

Soil that is balanced is said to have 25 % air, 25% water,45% minerals and 5% humus and living organisms. The other component of soil is made up of small rock particles that give it it's structure.

When I walk in my garden, my goal is to turn unhealthy soil that usually has a poor organic component, lacks air, and is chemically unbalanced, and turn it into the kind of soil that will support my plants and help them to grow, this means that I must provide the basic nutrients and then let nature take it's course.

I never used to think that I had to bother with soil tests, seemed like a waste of time to me , but I have now got a lot smarter and know how important it is to know what my soil is made up of. This allows me to know what plants to buy, saves wasting money on plants that will not survive, and also allows me to amend the soil to provide a good solid base for growing plants. A soil test will tell you how much organic matter, minerals, and elements are in your soil. It will also test the PH and other chemical levels. It is recommended that you have your soil tested each year, and to take the sample from the same area.

Soil sampling has become much more common, and you will be able to find in your local phone books, companies that offer this service. Soil also needs air, compacted soil has little room to allow air to penetrate. Turn the soil over with a fork or tiller to loosen it up. When you have the results of your soil test, it's time to get the mineral content of the soil back in balance. This means finding the right kind of fertilizer, try rock phosphate to achieve the correct balance.

Now you must also consider feeding the organisms living in your soil (did you know they lived there?). The best way to do this is with compost, this organic matter stimulates the earthworms (yes they live there too!) to produce more humus and nutrients for the soil. When they die, they in turn become food for the decaying process and other organisms. The upshot of all of this attention is that your soil becomes rich with nutrients, available to plants.

You need to apply at least one inch of finished compost to good soil or three inches of partially composted material for very poor soil, and mix into the top six inches or so.

Mother nature supplies leaf litter and plant debris, this debris becomes food for the earthworms and other organisms. It also holds moisture in the soil, prevents erosion, and shelters the soil from the drying effects of sun and wind. Place three to four inches of mulch on beds and around plants to protect the soil.

To prevent rotting, be sure to keep the mulch about three to four inches away from the trunks of trees or plants.

Please do not use insecticides or pesticides, these toxins only help to kill the good organisms that you are trying to encourage. In a later newsletter I will give you some easy' make at home' recipes for basic plant care, which will allow you to take care of many plant problems, without chemicals.

As each piece of land starts to grow healthy plants, it attracts wildlife looking for a place to live, eat, and reproduce. By gardening organically, we help keep the cycle of life going for the benefit of generations to come.

Ena Clewes is an author and an avid Organic Gardener. She frequently contributes to Go Organic Gardening.com, a website on organic gardening methods. Ena has just published an ebook " How to Master Organic Gardening," available here.

A Brief Guide to Organic Gardening

The term organic gardening means gardening without using any synthetic pesticides or fertilizers. Apart from that, everything else is the same. Not using synthetic materials does make controlling pests, insects, weeds and even some diseases different from the usual methods. Also, special care needs to be taken to keep the soil healthy and meet nutritional requirements.

The first aspect of organic gardening is the soil. Organic matter is added frequently to the soil to maintain its nutritional quality. Compost is largely used, because it keeps the plants quite healthy. Compost is prepared from organic remnants such as dead leaves and flowers, peels of the fruits, shorn grasses, etc. Soil that is healthy will have a deep color and a sweet odor. It will also be teeming with earthworms. Some other organically permitted additives for soil are greens and, rock phosphates and bone meal. These can be added after checking the pH of the soil.

Most gardeners - even hardcore organic gardeners - cannot resist using pesticides when they spot insects on their plants. For an organic gardener, the best way to deal with insects is to take the right prevention. Keep the plants as healthy as you can (insects love unhealthy plants). If the plants are healthy, they will not be affected by the insects. Maintain the right moisture conditions for the plants. Also, cultivate different species of plants, which keeps particular insects away.

One organic method to keep the insects away is to include organisms that feed on them. Ladybugs, frogs, lizards and even birds are good choices. A water source near the garden helps to keep the insects away. Or you can use mechanical devices such as barriers, plant collars and sticky traps. You can even use simple household ingredients like garlic, hot pepper and insecticidal soaps.

Disease in plants can be avoided organically by planting only disease resistant plants when they are in their prime. Do not allow moisture to retain on the plants much, and take care of the air that circulates in the garden. The way you water your garden can decide how much disease-prone your plants will be.

One more point that harasses organic gardeners is weed management. You can use organic mulch to keep the weeds away, and for improving its effect, you can use cardboard, construction paper or even a simple newspaper below the mulch. Before planting, spread corn meal gluten on the garden. Solarizing the garden also works for weed control. Of course, you can hoe the weeds out too. Be persistent, use good mulch and hoe out the obstinate weeds - these are the best organic methods to permanently take care of the weeds.

When you garden organically, your plants will live healthier and will be totally natural. You will have to invest more time and effort, and also persevere when you use totally organic methods, but you will soon understand the routine and that will benefit your plants greatly.

Learn how you can design your ideal garden at: Gardening Articles. Find more free articles like this at: Web Article Directory

Start a Worm Farm!

Worm Farms are a way for the everyday household to be environmentally friendly. In this article, we are going to discuss what a worm farm is and the benefits of worm farming.

A worm farm is often used to decompose food scraps or other items and the resulting worm castings or Vermicompost is used to fertilize a garden, grass, or other area. This worm compost is extremely rich in nutrients and therefore valuable to anyone seeking an organic, 100% natural, alternative to commercial fertilizers. The most commom types of worms to use for a worm farm or worm composting are Red Wiggler Worms (Esienia foetida) or Red Earthworms (Lumbricus rubellas).

A worm farm can be produced in small scale or large scale. There are many commercial worm farms that sell both the worms and the Vermicompost (worm castings). This organic compost is highly sought after.

However, worm farms can be started in your own backyard, garage, or even the kitchen on a small scale! Worm farm bins (i.e. Vermiculture bins or composting bins) can certainly be purchased from other worm farms or commercial compost bin manufacturers. However, worms are very resilient and therefore a number of containers are suitable for starting a small scale worm farm; including, plastic bins, buckets, wooden crates, metal containers, and many other common items. For more details on suitable containers, visit our worm bin page.

Red Wiggler Worms and Red Earthworms can handle all sorts of common kitchen scraps, such as:

• Vegetable peels
• Leftovers
• Fruit (no the peels however)
• Moldy bread
• Coffee Grounds
• Coffee Filters
• Tea bags

Most households will be able to significantly reduce the amount of waste they are putting in the garbage can by feeding their worms! Therefore, you are doing your part to keep our landfills from growing out of control. The resulting organic compost from your worm poop can also help you harvest a fruitful garden, have a green lawn, or have healthy house plants, and much more.

Want to learn more about worm farms? Visit My Worm Farms

Garden Mulch - Five Excellent Reasons For Mulching Your Garden Beds

The use of some sort of material to be spread on the ground to a certain height, which acts as an insulating layer between the soil's surface and the atmosphere, or mulching in short, is a technique being increasingly employed by professional horticulturalists. Some home gardeners may still be insufficiently aware of its importance, so in this article I'll tell you why a mulch layer is so important, then I'll go into the different types of mulch, their various qualities and how they should be used.

Amongst many benefits, a mulch on the soil -

* Significantly reduces weeds. This is true of annuals although mulching does not generally prevent the growth of perennial weeds

* Significantly reduces the evaporation of moisture from the soil surface and is therefore an essential part of water conserving gardening

* Reduces soil erosion caused by wind and rain. This is a fantastically important benefit

* Moderates the top-soil temperature. So in the winter a layer of mulch can prevent freezing, and in hot- summer climates, prevent the top soil reaching temperatures that inhibit plant growth

* Is aesthetically superior to the sight of bare soil and irrigation pipes

Taking aesthetic considerations into account, there are broadly speaking two types of mulch which are viable in a garden. Organic mulches such as wood chippings, and natural inorganic mulches such as pebbles. Which is preferable?

The use of decorative pebbles is often part of an overall design. They are particularly appropriate, associatively, in dry climate gardens. But there are a number of drawbacks involved. Some aggregates such as dark stones of volcanic origin have been found to actually increase the top-soil temperature. Furthermore, adding organic feeds to the soil, something that should be done once or twice a year, becomes difficult and tiresome. The use of a chemical fertilizer pump offers a way round this, but sets in train a number of problems. Relying on chemical fertilizers as the only method of feeding is dreadful gardening! For further discussion on the automatic fertilizer pumps, see a previous article of mine called "The truth about fertilizer pumps."

On the other hand, while wood chippings may in some cases be less attractive, they help to create a better habitat in which your garden plants grow. Organic mulches definitely moderate the soil's temperature, they provide raw material for essential organisms like earthworms, (see article called "The world's greatest gardener!") and as they break down they contribute humus to the soil. All these factors reduce pest and disease infestations, improve the soil's structure, and in the long run help to provide balanced nutriment for the plants

For organic mulches to be effective, they need to be spread to a depth of about 10 cm, after the initial quantity has settled. This means you need to spread about 15cm in order to end up with a layer of some 10 cm, and you'll need to add a bit each year as the chippings closest to the soil's surface break down. Be careful to keep the mulch away from tree trunks and shrub stems. It could cause rot to set in.

For FREE hands-on, expert information on gardening click here

http://www.dryclimategardening.com

And this is especially for gardeners in a dry climate! Grab hold FOR FREE chapter 1 of my book

"HOW TO GARDEN IN A DRY CLIMATE"

Go to http://www.dryclimategardening.com/Products/tabid/55/Default.aspx

Jonathan Ya'akobi

Your Personal Gardening Coach

Take Your Garden Off Drugs

Why Organic?

When we talk about 'Organic' we are talking about a method of working with nature and natural products to improve the soil and the environment. As you know, the environment is in danger and we have need to adapt our way of gardening to compensate for global warming. Artificially produced fertilizers and pesticides have been cited as the two major soil pollutants in many countries.

How do we stop our dependency on these synthetic substances? We need to build soil health so that plants will become stronger and resistant to pests and diseases.

Soil that is balanced is said to have 25 % air, 25% water,45% minerals and 5% humus and living organisms. The other component of soil is made up of small rock particles that give it it's structure.

When I walk in my garden, my goal is to turn unhealthy soil that usually has a poor organic component, lacks air, and is chemically unbalanced, and turn it into the kind of soil that will support my plants and help them to grow, this means that I must provide the basic nutrients and then let nature take it's course.

I never used to think that I had to bother with soil tests, seemed like a waste of time to me , but I have now got a lot smarter and know how important it is to know what my soil is made up of. This allows me to know what plants to buy, saves wasting money on plants that will not survive, and also allows me to amend the soil to provide a good solid base for growing plants. A soil test will tell you how much organic matter, minerals, and elements are in your soil. It will also test the PH and other chemical levels. It is recommended that you have your soil tested each year, and to take the sample from the same area.

Soil sampling has become much more common, and you will be able to find in your local phone books, companies that offer this service. Soil also needs air, compacted soil has little room to allow air to penetrate. Turn the soil over with a fork or tiller to loosen it up. When you have the results of your soil test, it's time to get the mineral content of the soil back in balance. This means finding the right kind of fertilizer, try rock phosphate to achieve the correct balance.

Now you must also consider feeding the organisms living in your soil (did you know they lived there?). The best way to do this is with compost, this organic matter stimulates the earthworms (yes they live there too!) to produce more humus and nutrients for the soil. When they die, they in turn become food for the decaying process and other organisms. The upshot of all of this attention is that your soil becomes rich with nutrients, available to plants.

You need to apply at least one inch of finished compost to good soil or three inches of partially composted material for very poor soil, and mix into the top six inches or so.

Mother nature supplies leaf litter and plant debris, this debris becomes food for the earthworms and other organisms. It also holds moisture in the soil, prevents erosion, and shelters the soil from the drying effects of sun and wind. Place three to four inches of mulch on beds and around plants to protect the soil.

To prevent rotting, be sure to keep the mulch about three to four inches away from the trunks of trees or plants.

Please do not use insecticides or pesticides, these toxins only help to kill the good organisms that you are trying to encourage. In a later newsletter I will give you some easy' make at home' recipes for basic plant care, which will allow you to take care of many plant problems, without chemicals.

As each piece of land starts to grow healthy plants, it attracts wildlife looking for a place to live, eat, and reproduce. By gardening organically, we help keep the cycle of life going for the benefit of generations to come.

Ena Clewes is an author and an avid Organic Gardener. She frequently contributes to Go Organic Gardening.com, a website on organic gardening methods. Ena has just published an ebook " How to Master Organic Gardening," available here.

A Brief Guide to Organic Gardening

The term organic gardening means gardening without using any synthetic pesticides or fertilizers. Apart from that, everything else is the same. Not using synthetic materials does make controlling pests, insects, weeds and even some diseases different from the usual methods. Also, special care needs to be taken to keep the soil healthy and meet nutritional requirements.

The first aspect of organic gardening is the soil. Organic matter is added frequently to the soil to maintain its nutritional quality. Compost is largely used, because it keeps the plants quite healthy. Compost is prepared from organic remnants such as dead leaves and flowers, peels of the fruits, shorn grasses, etc. Soil that is healthy will have a deep color and a sweet odor. It will also be teeming with earthworms. Some other organically permitted additives for soil are greens and, rock phosphates and bone meal. These can be added after checking the pH of the soil.

Most gardeners - even hardcore organic gardeners - cannot resist using pesticides when they spot insects on their plants. For an organic gardener, the best way to deal with insects is to take the right prevention. Keep the plants as healthy as you can (insects love unhealthy plants). If the plants are healthy, they will not be affected by the insects. Maintain the right moisture conditions for the plants. Also, cultivate different species of plants, which keeps particular insects away.

One organic method to keep the insects away is to include organisms that feed on them. Ladybugs, frogs, lizards and even birds are good choices. A water source near the garden helps to keep the insects away. Or you can use mechanical devices such as barriers, plant collars and sticky traps. You can even use simple household ingredients like garlic, hot pepper and insecticidal soaps.

Disease in plants can be avoided organically by planting only disease resistant plants when they are in their prime. Do not allow moisture to retain on the plants much, and take care of the air that circulates in the garden. The way you water your garden can decide how much disease-prone your plants will be.

One more point that harasses organic gardeners is weed management. You can use organic mulch to keep the weeds away, and for improving its effect, you can use cardboard, construction paper or even a simple newspaper below the mulch. Before planting, spread corn meal gluten on the garden. Solarizing the garden also works for weed control. Of course, you can hoe the weeds out too. Be persistent, use good mulch and hoe out the obstinate weeds - these are the best organic methods to permanently take care of the weeds.

When you garden organically, your plants will live healthier and will be totally natural. You will have to invest more time and effort, and also persevere when you use totally organic methods, but you will soon understand the routine and that will benefit your plants greatly.

Learn how you can design your ideal garden at: Gardening Articles. Find more free articles like this at: Web Article Directory

Start a Worm Farm!

Worm Farms are a way for the everyday household to be environmentally friendly. In this article, we are going to discuss what a worm farm is and the benefits of worm farming.

A worm farm is often used to decompose food scraps or other items and the resulting worm castings or Vermicompost is used to fertilize a garden, grass, or other area. This worm compost is extremely rich in nutrients and therefore valuable to anyone seeking an organic, 100% natural, alternative to commercial fertilizers. The most commom types of worms to use for a worm farm or worm composting are Red Wiggler Worms (Esienia foetida) or Red Earthworms (Lumbricus rubellas).

A worm farm can be produced in small scale or large scale. There are many commercial worm farms that sell both the worms and the Vermicompost (worm castings). This organic compost is highly sought after.

However, worm farms can be started in your own backyard, garage, or even the kitchen on a small scale! Worm farm bins (i.e. Vermiculture bins or composting bins) can certainly be purchased from other worm farms or commercial compost bin manufacturers. However, worms are very resilient and therefore a number of containers are suitable for starting a small scale worm farm; including, plastic bins, buckets, wooden crates, metal containers, and many other common items. For more details on suitable containers, visit our worm bin page.

Red Wiggler Worms and Red Earthworms can handle all sorts of common kitchen scraps, such as:

• Vegetable peels
• Leftovers
• Fruit (no the peels however)
• Moldy bread
• Coffee Grounds
• Coffee Filters
• Tea bags

Most households will be able to significantly reduce the amount of waste they are putting in the garbage can by feeding their worms! Therefore, you are doing your part to keep our landfills from growing out of control. The resulting organic compost from your worm poop can also help you harvest a fruitful garden, have a green lawn, or have healthy house plants, and much more.

Want to learn more about worm farms? Visit My Worm Farms

Garden Mulch - Five Excellent Reasons For Mulching Your Garden Beds

The use of some sort of material to be spread on the ground to a certain height, which acts as an insulating layer between the soil's surface and the atmosphere, or mulching in short, is a technique being increasingly employed by professional horticulturalists. Some home gardeners may still be insufficiently aware of its importance, so in this article I'll tell you why a mulch layer is so important, then I'll go into the different types of mulch, their various qualities and how they should be used.

Amongst many benefits, a mulch on the soil -

* Significantly reduces weeds. This is true of annuals although mulching does not generally prevent the growth of perennial weeds

* Significantly reduces the evaporation of moisture from the soil surface and is therefore an essential part of water conserving gardening

* Reduces soil erosion caused by wind and rain. This is a fantastically important benefit

* Moderates the top-soil temperature. So in the winter a layer of mulch can prevent freezing, and in hot- summer climates, prevent the top soil reaching temperatures that inhibit plant growth

* Is aesthetically superior to the sight of bare soil and irrigation pipes

Taking aesthetic considerations into account, there are broadly speaking two types of mulch which are viable in a garden. Organic mulches such as wood chippings, and natural inorganic mulches such as pebbles. Which is preferable?

The use of decorative pebbles is often part of an overall design. They are particularly appropriate, associatively, in dry climate gardens. But there are a number of drawbacks involved. Some aggregates such as dark stones of volcanic origin have been found to actually increase the top-soil temperature. Furthermore, adding organic feeds to the soil, something that should be done once or twice a year, becomes difficult and tiresome. The use of a chemical fertilizer pump offers a way round this, but sets in train a number of problems. Relying on chemical fertilizers as the only method of feeding is dreadful gardening! For further discussion on the automatic fertilizer pumps, see a previous article of mine called "The truth about fertilizer pumps."

On the other hand, while wood chippings may in some cases be less attractive, they help to create a better habitat in which your garden plants grow. Organic mulches definitely moderate the soil's temperature, they provide raw material for essential organisms like earthworms, (see article called "The world's greatest gardener!") and as they break down they contribute humus to the soil. All these factors reduce pest and disease infestations, improve the soil's structure, and in the long run help to provide balanced nutriment for the plants

For organic mulches to be effective, they need to be spread to a depth of about 10 cm, after the initial quantity has settled. This means you need to spread about 15cm in order to end up with a layer of some 10 cm, and you'll need to add a bit each year as the chippings closest to the soil's surface break down. Be careful to keep the mulch away from tree trunks and shrub stems. It could cause rot to set in.

For FREE hands-on, expert information on gardening click here

http://www.dryclimategardening.com

And this is especially for gardeners in a dry climate! Grab hold FOR FREE chapter 1 of my book

"HOW TO GARDEN IN A DRY CLIMATE"

Go to http://www.dryclimategardening.com/Products/tabid/55/Default.aspx

Jonathan Ya'akobi

Your Personal Gardening Coach

Take Your Garden Off Drugs

Why Organic?

When we talk about 'Organic' we are talking about a method of working with nature and natural products to improve the soil and the environment. As you know, the environment is in danger and we have need to adapt our way of gardening to compensate for global warming. Artificially produced fertilizers and pesticides have been cited as the two major soil pollutants in many countries.

How do we stop our dependency on these synthetic substances? We need to build soil health so that plants will become stronger and resistant to pests and diseases.

Soil that is balanced is said to have 25 % air, 25% water,45% minerals and 5% humus and living organisms. The other component of soil is made up of small rock particles that give it it's structure.

When I walk in my garden, my goal is to turn unhealthy soil that usually has a poor organic component, lacks air, and is chemically unbalanced, and turn it into the kind of soil that will support my plants and help them to grow, this means that I must provide the basic nutrients and then let nature take it's course.

I never used to think that I had to bother with soil tests, seemed like a waste of time to me , but I have now got a lot smarter and know how important it is to know what my soil is made up of. This allows me to know what plants to buy, saves wasting money on plants that will not survive, and also allows me to amend the soil to provide a good solid base for growing plants. A soil test will tell you how much organic matter, minerals, and elements are in your soil. It will also test the PH and other chemical levels. It is recommended that you have your soil tested each year, and to take the sample from the same area.

Soil sampling has become much more common, and you will be able to find in your local phone books, companies that offer this service. Soil also needs air, compacted soil has little room to allow air to penetrate. Turn the soil over with a fork or tiller to loosen it up. When you have the results of your soil test, it's time to get the mineral content of the soil back in balance. This means finding the right kind of fertilizer, try rock phosphate to achieve the correct balance.

Now you must also consider feeding the organisms living in your soil (did you know they lived there?). The best way to do this is with compost, this organic matter stimulates the earthworms (yes they live there too!) to produce more humus and nutrients for the soil. When they die, they in turn become food for the decaying process and other organisms. The upshot of all of this attention is that your soil becomes rich with nutrients, available to plants.

You need to apply at least one inch of finished compost to good soil or three inches of partially composted material for very poor soil, and mix into the top six inches or so.

Mother nature supplies leaf litter and plant debris, this debris becomes food for the earthworms and other organisms. It also holds moisture in the soil, prevents erosion, and shelters the soil from the drying effects of sun and wind. Place three to four inches of mulch on beds and around plants to protect the soil.

To prevent rotting, be sure to keep the mulch about three to four inches away from the trunks of trees or plants.

Please do not use insecticides or pesticides, these toxins only help to kill the good organisms that you are trying to encourage. In a later newsletter I will give you some easy' make at home' recipes for basic plant care, which will allow you to take care of many plant problems, without chemicals.

As each piece of land starts to grow healthy plants, it attracts wildlife looking for a place to live, eat, and reproduce. By gardening organically, we help keep the cycle of life going for the benefit of generations to come.

Ena Clewes is an author and an avid Organic Gardener. She frequently contributes to Go Organic Gardening.com, a website on organic gardening methods. Ena has just published an ebook " How to Master Organic Gardening," available here.

A Brief Guide to Organic Gardening

The term organic gardening means gardening without using any synthetic pesticides or fertilizers. Apart from that, everything else is the same. Not using synthetic materials does make controlling pests, insects, weeds and even some diseases different from the usual methods. Also, special care needs to be taken to keep the soil healthy and meet nutritional requirements.

The first aspect of organic gardening is the soil. Organic matter is added frequently to the soil to maintain its nutritional quality. Compost is largely used, because it keeps the plants quite healthy. Compost is prepared from organic remnants such as dead leaves and flowers, peels of the fruits, shorn grasses, etc. Soil that is healthy will have a deep color and a sweet odor. It will also be teeming with earthworms. Some other organically permitted additives for soil are greens and, rock phosphates and bone meal. These can be added after checking the pH of the soil.

Most gardeners - even hardcore organic gardeners - cannot resist using pesticides when they spot insects on their plants. For an organic gardener, the best way to deal with insects is to take the right prevention. Keep the plants as healthy as you can (insects love unhealthy plants). If the plants are healthy, they will not be affected by the insects. Maintain the right moisture conditions for the plants. Also, cultivate different species of plants, which keeps particular insects away.

One organic method to keep the insects away is to include organisms that feed on them. Ladybugs, frogs, lizards and even birds are good choices. A water source near the garden helps to keep the insects away. Or you can use mechanical devices such as barriers, plant collars and sticky traps. You can even use simple household ingredients like garlic, hot pepper and insecticidal soaps.

Disease in plants can be avoided organically by planting only disease resistant plants when they are in their prime. Do not allow moisture to retain on the plants much, and take care of the air that circulates in the garden. The way you water your garden can decide how much disease-prone your plants will be.

One more point that harasses organic gardeners is weed management. You can use organic mulch to keep the weeds away, and for improving its effect, you can use cardboard, construction paper or even a simple newspaper below the mulch. Before planting, spread corn meal gluten on the garden. Solarizing the garden also works for weed control. Of course, you can hoe the weeds out too. Be persistent, use good mulch and hoe out the obstinate weeds - these are the best organic methods to permanently take care of the weeds.

When you garden organically, your plants will live healthier and will be totally natural. You will have to invest more time and effort, and also persevere when you use totally organic methods, but you will soon understand the routine and that will benefit your plants greatly.

Learn how you can design your ideal garden at: Gardening Articles. Find more free articles like this at: Web Article Directory

Start a Worm Farm!

Worm Farms are a way for the everyday household to be environmentally friendly. In this article, we are going to discuss what a worm farm is and the benefits of worm farming.

A worm farm is often used to decompose food scraps or other items and the resulting worm castings or Vermicompost is used to fertilize a garden, grass, or other area. This worm compost is extremely rich in nutrients and therefore valuable to anyone seeking an organic, 100% natural, alternative to commercial fertilizers. The most commom types of worms to use for a worm farm or worm composting are Red Wiggler Worms (Esienia foetida) or Red Earthworms (Lumbricus rubellas).

A worm farm can be produced in small scale or large scale. There are many commercial worm farms that sell both the worms and the Vermicompost (worm castings). This organic compost is highly sought after.

However, worm farms can be started in your own backyard, garage, or even the kitchen on a small scale! Worm farm bins (i.e. Vermiculture bins or composting bins) can certainly be purchased from other worm farms or commercial compost bin manufacturers. However, worms are very resilient and therefore a number of containers are suitable for starting a small scale worm farm; including, plastic bins, buckets, wooden crates, metal containers, and many other common items. For more details on suitable containers, visit our worm bin page.

Red Wiggler Worms and Red Earthworms can handle all sorts of common kitchen scraps, such as:

• Vegetable peels
• Leftovers
• Fruit (no the peels however)
• Moldy bread
• Coffee Grounds
• Coffee Filters
• Tea bags

Most households will be able to significantly reduce the amount of waste they are putting in the garbage can by feeding their worms! Therefore, you are doing your part to keep our landfills from growing out of control. The resulting organic compost from your worm poop can also help you harvest a fruitful garden, have a green lawn, or have healthy house plants, and much more.

Want to learn more about worm farms? Visit My Worm Farms

Garden Mulch - Five Excellent Reasons For Mulching Your Garden Beds

The use of some sort of material to be spread on the ground to a certain height, which acts as an insulating layer between the soil's surface and the atmosphere, or mulching in short, is a technique being increasingly employed by professional horticulturalists. Some home gardeners may still be insufficiently aware of its importance, so in this article I'll tell you why a mulch layer is so important, then I'll go into the different types of mulch, their various qualities and how they should be used.

Amongst many benefits, a mulch on the soil -

* Significantly reduces weeds. This is true of annuals although mulching does not generally prevent the growth of perennial weeds

* Significantly reduces the evaporation of moisture from the soil surface and is therefore an essential part of water conserving gardening

* Reduces soil erosion caused by wind and rain. This is a fantastically important benefit

* Moderates the top-soil temperature. So in the winter a layer of mulch can prevent freezing, and in hot- summer climates, prevent the top soil reaching temperatures that inhibit plant growth

* Is aesthetically superior to the sight of bare soil and irrigation pipes

Taking aesthetic considerations into account, there are broadly speaking two types of mulch which are viable in a garden. Organic mulches such as wood chippings, and natural inorganic mulches such as pebbles. Which is preferable?

The use of decorative pebbles is often part of an overall design. They are particularly appropriate, associatively, in dry climate gardens. But there are a number of drawbacks involved. Some aggregates such as dark stones of volcanic origin have been found to actually increase the top-soil temperature. Furthermore, adding organic feeds to the soil, something that should be done once or twice a year, becomes difficult and tiresome. The use of a chemical fertilizer pump offers a way round this, but sets in train a number of problems. Relying on chemical fertilizers as the only method of feeding is dreadful gardening! For further discussion on the automatic fertilizer pumps, see a previous article of mine called "The truth about fertilizer pumps."

On the other hand, while wood chippings may in some cases be less attractive, they help to create a better habitat in which your garden plants grow. Organic mulches definitely moderate the soil's temperature, they provide raw material for essential organisms like earthworms, (see article called "The world's greatest gardener!") and as they break down they contribute humus to the soil. All these factors reduce pest and disease infestations, improve the soil's structure, and in the long run help to provide balanced nutriment for the plants

For organic mulches to be effective, they need to be spread to a depth of about 10 cm, after the initial quantity has settled. This means you need to spread about 15cm in order to end up with a layer of some 10 cm, and you'll need to add a bit each year as the chippings closest to the soil's surface break down. Be careful to keep the mulch away from tree trunks and shrub stems. It could cause rot to set in.

For FREE hands-on, expert information on gardening click here

http://www.dryclimategardening.com

And this is especially for gardeners in a dry climate! Grab hold FOR FREE chapter 1 of my book

"HOW TO GARDEN IN A DRY CLIMATE"

Go to http://www.dryclimategardening.com/Products/tabid/55/Default.aspx

Jonathan Ya'akobi

Your Personal Gardening Coach

Take Your Garden Off Drugs

Why Organic?

When we talk about 'Organic' we are talking about a method of working with nature and natural products to improve the soil and the environment. As you know, the environment is in danger and we have need to adapt our way of gardening to compensate for global warming. Artificially produced fertilizers and pesticides have been cited as the two major soil pollutants in many countries.

How do we stop our dependency on these synthetic substances? We need to build soil health so that plants will become stronger and resistant to pests and diseases.

Soil that is balanced is said to have 25 % air, 25% water,45% minerals and 5% humus and living organisms. The other component of soil is made up of small rock particles that give it it's structure.

When I walk in my garden, my goal is to turn unhealthy soil that usually has a poor organic component, lacks air, and is chemically unbalanced, and turn it into the kind of soil that will support my plants and help them to grow, this means that I must provide the basic nutrients and then let nature take it's course.

I never used to think that I had to bother with soil tests, seemed like a waste of time to me , but I have now got a lot smarter and know how important it is to know what my soil is made up of. This allows me to know what plants to buy, saves wasting money on plants that will not survive, and also allows me to amend the soil to provide a good solid base for growing plants. A soil test will tell you how much organic matter, minerals, and elements are in your soil. It will also test the PH and other chemical levels. It is recommended that you have your soil tested each year, and to take the sample from the same area.

Soil sampling has become much more common, and you will be able to find in your local phone books, companies that offer this service. Soil also needs air, compacted soil has little room to allow air to penetrate. Turn the soil over with a fork or tiller to loosen it up. When you have the results of your soil test, it's time to get the mineral content of the soil back in balance. This means finding the right kind of fertilizer, try rock phosphate to achieve the correct balance.

Now you must also consider feeding the organisms living in your soil (did you know they lived there?). The best way to do this is with compost, this organic matter stimulates the earthworms (yes they live there too!) to produce more humus and nutrients for the soil. When they die, they in turn become food for the decaying process and other organisms. The upshot of all of this attention is that your soil becomes rich with nutrients, available to plants.

You need to apply at least one inch of finished compost to good soil or three inches of partially composted material for very poor soil, and mix into the top six inches or so.

Mother nature supplies leaf litter and plant debris, this debris becomes food for the earthworms and other organisms. It also holds moisture in the soil, prevents erosion, and shelters the soil from the drying effects of sun and wind. Place three to four inches of mulch on beds and around plants to protect the soil.

To prevent rotting, be sure to keep the mulch about three to four inches away from the trunks of trees or plants.

Please do not use insecticides or pesticides, these toxins only help to kill the good organisms that you are trying to encourage. In a later newsletter I will give you some easy' make at home' recipes for basic plant care, which will allow you to take care of many plant problems, without chemicals.

As each piece of land starts to grow healthy plants, it attracts wildlife looking for a place to live, eat, and reproduce. By gardening organically, we help keep the cycle of life going for the benefit of generations to come.

Ena Clewes is an author and an avid Organic Gardener. She frequently contributes to Go Organic Gardening.com, a website on organic gardening methods. Ena has just published an ebook " How to Master Organic Gardening," available here.

A Brief Guide to Organic Gardening

The term organic gardening means gardening without using any synthetic pesticides or fertilizers. Apart from that, everything else is the same. Not using synthetic materials does make controlling pests, insects, weeds and even some diseases different from the usual methods. Also, special care needs to be taken to keep the soil healthy and meet nutritional requirements.

The first aspect of organic gardening is the soil. Organic matter is added frequently to the soil to maintain its nutritional quality. Compost is largely used, because it keeps the plants quite healthy. Compost is prepared from organic remnants such as dead leaves and flowers, peels of the fruits, shorn grasses, etc. Soil that is healthy will have a deep color and a sweet odor. It will also be teeming with earthworms. Some other organically permitted additives for soil are greens and, rock phosphates and bone meal. These can be added after checking the pH of the soil.

Most gardeners - even hardcore organic gardeners - cannot resist using pesticides when they spot insects on their plants. For an organic gardener, the best way to deal with insects is to take the right prevention. Keep the plants as healthy as you can (insects love unhealthy plants). If the plants are healthy, they will not be affected by the insects. Maintain the right moisture conditions for the plants. Also, cultivate different species of plants, which keeps particular insects away.

One organic method to keep the insects away is to include organisms that feed on them. Ladybugs, frogs, lizards and even birds are good choices. A water source near the garden helps to keep the insects away. Or you can use mechanical devices such as barriers, plant collars and sticky traps. You can even use simple household ingredients like garlic, hot pepper and insecticidal soaps.

Disease in plants can be avoided organically by planting only disease resistant plants when they are in their prime. Do not allow moisture to retain on the plants much, and take care of the air that circulates in the garden. The way you water your garden can decide how much disease-prone your plants will be.

One more point that harasses organic gardeners is weed management. You can use organic mulch to keep the weeds away, and for improving its effect, you can use cardboard, construction paper or even a simple newspaper below the mulch. Before planting, spread corn meal gluten on the garden. Solarizing the garden also works for weed control. Of course, you can hoe the weeds out too. Be persistent, use good mulch and hoe out the obstinate weeds - these are the best organic methods to permanently take care of the weeds.

When you garden organically, your plants will live healthier and will be totally natural. You will have to invest more time and effort, and also persevere when you use totally organic methods, but you will soon understand the routine and that will benefit your plants greatly.

Learn how you can design your ideal garden at: Gardening Articles. Find more free articles like this at: Web Article Directory

Start a Worm Farm!

Worm Farms are a way for the everyday household to be environmentally friendly. In this article, we are going to discuss what a worm farm is and the benefits of worm farming.

A worm farm is often used to decompose food scraps or other items and the resulting worm castings or Vermicompost is used to fertilize a garden, grass, or other area. This worm compost is extremely rich in nutrients and therefore valuable to anyone seeking an organic, 100% natural, alternative to commercial fertilizers. The most commom types of worms to use for a worm farm or worm composting are Red Wiggler Worms (Esienia foetida) or Red Earthworms (Lumbricus rubellas).

A worm farm can be produced in small scale or large scale. There are many commercial worm farms that sell both the worms and the Vermicompost (worm castings). This organic compost is highly sought after.

However, worm farms can be started in your own backyard, garage, or even the kitchen on a small scale! Worm farm bins (i.e. Vermiculture bins or composting bins) can certainly be purchased from other worm farms or commercial compost bin manufacturers. However, worms are very resilient and therefore a number of containers are suitable for starting a small scale worm farm; including, plastic bins, buckets, wooden crates, metal containers, and many other common items. For more details on suitable containers, visit our worm bin page.

Red Wiggler Worms and Red Earthworms can handle all sorts of common kitchen scraps, such as:

• Vegetable peels
• Leftovers
• Fruit (no the peels however)
• Moldy bread
• Coffee Grounds
• Coffee Filters
• Tea bags

Most households will be able to significantly reduce the amount of waste they are putting in the garbage can by feeding their worms! Therefore, you are doing your part to keep our landfills from growing out of control. The resulting organic compost from your worm poop can also help you harvest a fruitful garden, have a green lawn, or have healthy house plants, and much more.

Want to learn more about worm farms? Visit My Worm Farms