Gardening Archives - Page 7 of 8 - Oh My Heartsie Girl

June 27, 2018

Use These Easy Steps To Make The Switch To Organic Lawn Care

Are you wanting to adopt an organic approach to lawn care? It is possible to have a green, lush lawn without using chemical fertilizers and toxic pesticides. You just need to know what to do to achieve your goal. In this article, we will be providing you with the easy steps that you need to take to switch over to organic lawn care.

Rethink How You View Soil

In order to success grow a lush and healthy organic lawn, you will need to view soil in a different way. Soil is alive and contains natural organisms. Healthy soil needs to be fed natural materials which allow growth to occur in natural way. Organic fertilizer is food for the soil that nourishes the organisms contained in the soil. When grass is grown in living, healthy soil it makes the grass more maintenance-free, disease-resistant, and drought-tolerant.

Test Your Soil Before Buying Nutrients

Before spending money on a soil amendment or fertilizer for your lawn, first conduct a soil test. Almost all U.S. Cooperative Extension offices over these tests, which will tell you precisely how much potassium, phosphorus, nitrogen, and other nutrients need to be added to your soil. There are also DIY soil test kits that you can purchase.

Grow The Right Type Of Grass

All grasses are not created equal. Some grow short, some tall, some prefer to have full sun, while others tolerate shade, drought, or foot traffic. There are some new grass varieties which resist disease and grow more slowly. This can reduce the amount of mowing, watering and pesticides that is needed.

Use Yard And Kitchen Waste As Compost To Fertilize Your Lawn

Compost naturally provides your lawn with the nutrients it needs in order to stay healthy and grow. You can easily make compost from your own yard and kitchen waste.

Listen To What Weeds Are Telling You

When trying to grow a beautiful, lush lawn, weeds are seen as the enemy. However, weeds can often give you valuable information about the condition of your soil. Getting rid of weeds by using chemicals, a tool or pulling it out, are only temporary solutions. These weeds will continue growing back unless you change the conditions of your soil. For example, if your lawn is full of dandelions, then most likely your soil needs less magnesium and more calcium.

Take A Different Approach To Pest Control

Most insects do not inflict real damage on your lawn. Your goal should never be to kill all inspects, especially when the products that are used to destroy the usually have very dangerous impacts on our plant, pets, and children’s health.

Avoid using synthetic fertilizers containing high amounts of nitrogen that produce quick growth. Insects see these spurts of growth as a feast and greater numbers will attack your grass. Also, use natural products and solutions for pest control.

How To Reduce Your Lawn Watering By 70-100%

Lawns require a lot of water to stay vibrant and green. During the height of the growing season they need about one inch of water every week. Many arid areas of the country get far less average rainfall than that, and many municipalities have instituted restrictions on the amount of water you can use. In order to achieve the best results for your lawn and conserve water, visit here and use the following tips:

– Choose the right type of grass to begin with

– Use soil amendments and organic fertilizers

– Water infrequently and deeply

– Water in the early morning

– Use drip irrigation and automatic shutoff for controlling water when you are away.

To A Achieve A Greener Lawn, Mow Wisely

-Fertilize your grass by leaving the grass clipping on your lawn.

-Keep the blades on your mower sharp.

-Never cut over one-third of the grass length, and don’t cut it too short.

-Always try to mow when the short-term forecast indicates rain.

-To reduce air pollution, use a push mower or electric mower.

Keep Grass Clippings But Get Rid Of Lawn Thatch

Grass clippings and lawn thatch are not the same thing. Grass clippings are around 90% water. Therefore, they start decomposing as soon as they hit the ground. When clippings are left on your lawn they return nutrients back into the soil.

On the other hand, lawn thatch is dead root tissue and grass that is in between the surface of the soil and green vegetation. The layers are 1/2 inches and thicker and block nutrients, air, and water from reaching into the roots of the grass and provide a place for disease and insects to reside.

Many varieties of grass used in synthetic lawn care systems have a tendency to quickly build up thatch layers. Excessive amounts of nitrogen push excessive amounts of top growth out, however, it limits the soil’s life. Thatch can be removed using a machine or rake. Fortunately, natural, organic lawn systems where life is added to the soil usually do not have problems with excessive amounts of thatch.

Aerate To Rehabilitate Your Lawn

In order to naturally achieve a healthy lawn, without using synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers, your lawn needs to have living, healthy soil. This includes having lots of air pockets within the soil.

Soil can become compact through chemical products being applied, mowing, and excess foot traffic. Aeration can help compacted soil be able to breathe again. A hand tool or special machine is used to cut cores from the soil. Holes are left behind that allow fertilizer, water and air to enter and can be very beneficial for your lawn. Also, when caring for your lawn organically and using natural fertilizers, it enables your soil to aerate on its own, so mechanically aerating your lawn might not be necessary.

Use the easy steps above from Ziehlerlawncare.com to adopt an organic lawn care approach. It is a natural way to achieve a healthy and great looking lawn that doesn’t cause damage to the environment or endanger your family’s health. This approach is much more sustainable and doesn’t require purchasing a lot of expensive products, it is much more economical as well.

Landscape and Gardening Tips:
5 Tips On How To Change Your Lawns To Organic
Practical Principles of Gardening You Should Learn
You Will Want To Read-Chemical And Insect Free Gardening

June 11, 2018February 24, 2021

Vegetable Gardening Tips for Beginners

Update 5/2020
Since I dont have the traditional backyard like some of you, I wanted to share what I have going on in my desert landscape backyard. My son took some time to reposition my garden boxes that he built a few years ago and refilled them with fresh garden soil. Then he went shopping and bought me some tomato plants and a few perennials. I got them planted about 30 days ago and they are doing well, with the exception of losing a few. But anyone can put in these types of gardens to plant a few plants for some nutritious fresh vegetables for your family.
I have one of my cats that loves to chomp on whatever he can find so he bought a small strip of sod for him to enjoy, not only too much but to lay down for a few minutes. Check out the scrolling banner on Garden By The Yard to see how the first garden boxes were created long before they became popular and called them “One Yard Gardens“!

There are lots of added benefits to growing your own vegetables, in comparison to buying them at the store. One main aspect is that without all of the pesticides used in a large market growing, and all of the transportation required to ship the vegetables to various destinations, the overall taste, and texture of the product is greatly improved. While growing your own vegetables can be a learning experience, and will involve taking time and effort to perfect the perfect crop, it also provides a wonderful sense of achievement, and you can cook with confidence knowing that you are using the best vegetables possible. If you are interested in growing your own vegetables, then here are a few basic tips to help you get started.

Choose the best location

Of course, plants need a healthy balance of sun and water but bare in mind that many vegetables rely on having at least six hours of direct sunlight a day, and this is crucial to their growth. As well as this, you need to make sure the environment they are in won’t be prone to extreme forms of weather, such as flooding, as most vegetables will not survive in harsh conditions. The more nutrient-rich the soil is, the better the plants will grow; if you are growing vegetables in indoor planters, then you can make sure to buy the best soil for that type of plant. In an outdoor space, make sure you are using soil which doesn’t dry out too quickly.

Understand the ecosystem

Even in a small enclosed space, such as your garden, there is a complex ecosystem at work. If you want to provide the best environment possible for your vegetables to thrive in, then you will need to make sure that the environment is tailored towards their survival. In order to do that, you need to have a basic understanding of which organisms in your garden are beneficial to your plants, and which may be harmful.

For example, not every bug you see may be detrimental to your plants; bees and other small insects are often vital pollinators, and so you should avoid trying to kill them when possible unless they are severely damaging your crop. Common pests in the garden include aphids, snails, and slugs, so you will want to find methods to keep these away from your vegetables. Then there are pests such as mosquitoes which, while they are not damaging to your crop, may be a nuisance for you while you are tending to your garden; If so, you may want to look into Pest Control for Mosquitoes.

Provide regular care

You will need to monitor your plants, and make sure you are regularly carrying out maintenance tasks to keep them healthy, such as watering them regularly, especially during dry spouts. When planting, make sure to space your crops evenly, so that they aren’t forced to compete for sunlight and nutrients. You will also want to read up on the plants that you are going to be gardening, and make sure you know the best times of year to plant them, and when to harvest your crop.

May 31, 2018

Practical Principles of Gardening You Should Learn

Gardening is a difficult but interesting work. It involves a lot of principles that you should follow. Gardening includes various aspect as well as works, such as planning, designing, growing, fertilizing, caring, harvesting, and so on. The article is going to give you some practical principles of gardening that you should know to become an excellent gardener. This article will bring you some concrete ideas to care for your garden and farm.

Species Diversity

The diversity of plants will promote the diversity of animal species. It is because different insects, birds, mammals, etc. will be attracted by different plant species. Therefore, a particular suite of insects won’t gather in one place as their preferred plants are often spread out.

To make your garden diverse in both plant and animal species, you should grow a small amount of wide variety of plants. If you have enough land, you can raise a wider variety of animal species. Following this principle does not mean that you have to give up the oblong bed of your garden. You don’t need to follow it fanatically. You can arrange your garden in a convenient and reasonable concept. The numbers of the rows, the plants you will grow in each bed, the place of the chicken cage, etc. are up to you. You can grow some flower to make your garden look more pretty and poetry.

Symbiosis

This term refers to a relationship of mutual benefit or dependence between two or more than two species. No matter far or near each other they live, they still, connect, interact, exchange the natural properties and get their benefits from the other. For example, birds and insects get honey from a certain flower species, and then they help this flower species pollinate despite the distance. For another example, birds and animals eat fruits and berries, and then they help spread out the seeds of these fruits by excreting the fertilizer with undigested seeds, support the reproduction process of plants they feed on.

To make use of this natural relationship of plant and animal species, you should understand the companion planting, including the mutually beneficial interactions of the plants you grow together in your garden. You can even develop this principle farther by grouping plants which have a mutually beneficial association as “guilds.” By growing plants as guilds, you can take full advantage of symbiosis and save the labor in gardening.

Balance

In the best garden in the world, wildlife, species live in a balance. Herbivores eat plants; carnivores eat herbivores. They keep the other species in a controlled size and are likely to live in balance. A variety of plants provide foods for herbivores as well as habitats for animals. These plants and herbivorous animals together create a complicated food web, supply a diverse source of foods for carnivorous species. It preserves the balance of wildlife out of outbreak.

To maintain the balance in your garden, you can grow a variety of plants or raise many different animals if possible, supply food and habitat for native species, and try to put up with wildlife condition even if it may be inconvenient. When designing your garden, you should choose native trees to grow so that they can provide proper foods as well as habitat for native species, which non-native trees cannot do. You should also take climate, moisture, soil type and other natural conditions into consideration before choosing the plants to grow. You also have to consider the symbiosis of native animals and insects and the plants. You can grow some herbs or plants for foods, like fruit trees, vegetables, beans, groundnuts, or some flowers if you like.

Redundancy

Redundancy in gardening means that in the natural biologic systems in a garden, many different species can do the same function. This redundancy ensures the resiliency of the system as when one species is lost, and its function remains thanks to other species with the same function.

To apply this redundancy to your garden, you should grow many plant species which overlap in function in your garden. For example, instead of growing only broccoli in the garden, you should grow many different vegetables so that if the broccoli doesn’t grow as expected, you will have another vegetable for meals. You can also make your meal more diverse with various kinds of greens, too. Moreover, the more species of plants you grow, the more variety of insects and birds your garden attracts. These insects and birds will help pollinate and nourish the soil.

Vertical Structure

Your garden may contain many trees at different heights. Under the canopy of tall trees are smaller ones, herbs, greens, etc. If your garden is diverse in “layers” of plants, it will be more plentiful in animals than a mono-layer garden, because multi-layer garden can supply more habitation conditions for different animal species.

So, you should combine a diversity of plants at different heights in your garden to create a high level of vertical structure. Tall fruit and nut trees are in the upper height, shrub and berries are in the medium height, and herbs and greens are in the lower one.

Growing Plants According To Natural Light, Soil And Moisture Conditions

There are two directs you can follow. The first one is growing according to the natural conditions in your garden. If the soil in your garden is dry and sandy, you can plant drought-tolerant species. If it’s moisture, grow the ones that need water. When you grow the plants that live well in the natural condition in your garden, you can save a lot of energy in doing the gardening.

The second choice is changing the natural conditions in your garden. If the soil condition is poor, plant some nitrogen-fixing species to nourish it. You can change the light condition by growing some tall trees to create shade for shade-grown plants. By changing the existing condition in the garden, you can diversify the plant bed in your land.

Succession

Succession is the changing process of species composition when a species dies and resigns natural conditions like light, soil, and moisture for other alive ones in its neighbor. It’s more common in wildlife but unusual in garden or farm when people always arrange and grow their plant according to season and natural condition in their farm or garden. However, you can still apply this concept by combining short-term plants with long-term species. Additionally, some plant cannot yield when growing under the shade of others while some will, so, by understanding this term, you’ll know how to combine the plant in your garden.

Recycling

You should keep organic dead properties, like leaves, branches, trees and let them disintegrate to fertilize the soil, add more nutrients to the soil. This organic fertilizer also improves exhausted soil after many crops. You can also grow some nitrogen-fixing plant species to fertilize the soil naturally. To recycle and build nutrient-rich soil, use organic properties produced right in your garden.

Minimal Tilling

Besides making the soil rich in nutrients, you should also tiller the soil to make it aerated and oxygen-dense. But you shouldn’t plow the land as it can make the nutrients release faster and more than the amount that the plants can absorb, destroy the structure of the soil, and lead to erosion.

You’d better use minimal tilling methods such as hugelkultur or lasagna garden. These methods include layering organic properties which keep the weeds down so that you needn’t tiller. These methods help the soil aerated and oxygen-rich without destroying the soil structure so that the plants can grow well. You can raise some chicken to have them scratch the land and use their droppings to fertilize the soil.

The article has given you some practical principles of gardening that you should know to be a good gardener. By following these principles, you can make your garden lush, green, and grow well. Gardening involves many skills and a lot of effort, and also patience. However, seeing your pretty garden developing every day would be a wonderful feeling. Eating fresh, natural and safe foods produced right in your garden would be even a more wonderful feeling. Let’s make gardening an interesting work with these simple-but-effective practical principles.

Author Bio:

This guest post is by Emily Pham, a blogger with many years of experience in searching the best effective remedies for health and beauty issues.

April 2, 2018

If They Grow It, They’ll Eat It – 3 Tips for Pre-School Edible Gardens

Photo credit/site https://unsplash.com/photos/PMxoh8zJNb0

The earlier we teach our children about the cycle of life and how we obtain the food we eat the better. If you ask most youngsters where food comes from, they will say the grocery store. Of course, we are amused. But many children in today’s society do not have a clue what goes into the food they are eating, how much effort it took to produce it, or that food is fuel to help them grow.

Picky eaters

We have all had them. Our child, niece or nephew, or grandchild who suddenly will not eat anything but mac and cheese. If you do not give them mac and cheese, they go into a melt down. It is difficult to handle this situation because the child has to eat, and you know he needs more nutrition.

Teachable and edible moments

In our history, virtually every child understood that in order to eat, the garden had to be tended, livestock had to be taken care of and that products like butter, fruits, and dried foods required a lot of work. Today’s child may grow up in an environment that never introduces them to farming. Yet, farming is essential to him and all of us.

Begin by explaining where foods come from. Let your child help you with the groceries. Teach them about the differences in fresh food versus canned or dried foods. When you have their interest, pull up some places on your computer and show them what area in the world produces the most coffee, citrus, and other foods.

Lead the way

The best way to explain gardening to your child is to put in a preschooler friendly edible garden. You can start with a small patch of ground and select the seeds together. Get them involved. Let them handle the seeds, plant them, and water them. Explain the nutritional needs the garden has and where is comes from. If you don’t know these things, it is a great time to learn. Download some free gardening apps to help you.

Tips to getting your child to try foods

Plant easy foods that your child may like.

Cucumbers, carrots, strawberries, and blueberries are among the choices. These are easy plants, and your child can help plant, water, harvest, and clean them. After all that work, and with some high praise from you, they will want to enjoy eating the foods.

Insect and bugs

Gardens attract bees, worms, bugs, and other critters. Now is a great time to show your child that bugs have a job to do. They are not an enemy. Watch them work in the soil. There is no better way to teach your child that everything has a purpose, and there is no reason to fear.

Use the plate map

Draw a line down the center of a paper plate. Let your child use crayons or stickers to fill up half the plate with fruits and vegetables. The other half is for meat and bread. Let them decorate the plate and then hang it near where they eat. This will help them see that they are eating the right amounts of food. When you give a child just a little encouragement and authority, he will take it to new heights.

Photo copy/site https://unsplash.com/photos/3CErUWqAzmg

Make it a group activity

Let your child’s friends get in on the activity. If you are having a birthday party for your child, consider blank seed envelopes for seed storage and seed packet favors. Your child will be the center of attention, and he will share his knowledge with his peers. There is no better way to get the whole neighborhood on board. Maybe, you can plant a community garden.

Once your child learns first-hand about food and he actually grows it himself, he will be more willing to try the foods. This is a healthy family activity. If more families will do this, we can see an end to obesity in our children.