The benefits of growing fruits and vegetables organically

Organic gardening is the way of growing vegetables and fruits with the use of things only found in nature. Then, nature does most of the work for you. There are many benefits of growing your own fruits and vegetables with this way. Growing them organically is also easy and you just need to learn some general principles.

Here are the benefits of organic gardening:

1. Organically grown foods are not sprayed with chemicals.

That means less health harming chemicals on the food that you and your family may consume. Keep in mind that pesticides are created with only one purpose, to kill living things. A certain kind of protection might be dangerous. Pest control must be done with utmost consideration to safety; safety in terms of the plants, animals and humans.

On the average, a child ingests four to five times more cancer-causing pesticides from foods than an adult. This can lead to various diseases later on in the child's life. With organic gardening, these incidents are lessened.

Organically grown foods are nutritious and full of taste although they may not look as colorful and well presented as shop produce.

2. Cost savings

One example of organic fertilizer that you could make use of is as lowly as the stale coffee and coffee grounds. You don't need to buy chemical fertilizers and pesticides that are expensive. Besides, the main purpose of taking care of vegetables and organic gardens will be defeated if they become "tainted" with pest control chemicals. In organic gardening, pest control relies on a series of strategy, not on a highly toxic chemical. For example, you can plant suitable flowers to attract pest's natural predators like wasps and lacewings.

Compost can be made using vegetable waste. You can also add tealeaves, coffee grounds, eggshells and banana skins. Although this is a bit more time-consuming than buying prepared chemical pesticides and fertilizers, it would surely be one rewarding activity.

3. Less harm to the environment.

Growing foods organically can protect the topsoil from erosion. As an addition, it has residual effect on ground water. According to The Environmental Protection Agency, 38 states have cases of contaminated ground water.

Growing your own fruit and vegetables is a great way of getting closer to nature. The independence and satisfaction that can come from growing your own food is as rewarding as the peace of mind you have when you know exactly how the food was grown. By doing it, you have participated in safeguarding the future of the next generations.

What is the right garden style for you

The amount of space you have available to you will greatly influence your type and style of garden. If you live in a rural area and are lucky enough to have a large garden you will be able to divide up the space and create different areas for different types of garden. If on the other hand you live in a city centre and only have a small area, then your choices are greatly reduced.

Another point to consider is the amount of free time you have available to maintain your garden. If you have a demanding job or a large family to take care off you may find that trying to cope with a large intricate garden to much to cope with. Large flower gardens for instance can be very time consuming to maintain and to keep them looking their best, as many flowering plants need continual dead-heading to prolong their flowering period.

Your fitness level may also influence the type and style of your garden. If you have heart problems or breathing difficulties for instance, you probably wouldn't want to be digging over a large vegetable plot each year. If you are confined to a wheel chair or suffer with back problems then you may need to consider having raised beds that you can reach easily.

One other factor you may want to consider is the actual purpose of the garden?

Do you want to attract wildlife?

Create a space for entertaining friends and family?

Have a safe area for your children to play?

A peaceful place to relax?

Create a productive garden to feed the family?

When thinking about the style of your garden style remember that it is possible to incorporate different garden types into one garden. Many vegetables have attractive foliage and can be grown in amongst your ornamental plants. In fact organic gardeners will often plant certain ornamentals in their vegetable plots in order to attract pests away from their vegetable crops.

In future articles well take a look at 6 of the most common styles:

Organic Garden

Raised Garden

Container Garden

Formal Garden

Wildlife Garden

Water Garden

By considering these points and deciding what you want to use the garden for you will hopefully avoid starting something that you will later regret.

The basics of a retaining wall

Landscaping is a wide spread phrase that may be used for so many different tasks that are performed to make the house beautiful. The phrase may be used for something as simple as mowing the lawn or finishing your shrubs around the house or it may be used for something as complex as developing a design strategy for the design of the backyard. This article will discuss one of the more complex tasks which is the retaining wall.

Landscapers may want to use retaining walls for multiple reasons. Two of the most popular reasons to make a retaining wall are for design reasons and because it is needed.

Retaining walls can give the house a unique look if constructed the proper way. In many regions of the country, it has become common place to have a gated front yard. A great way to break the monotony of the neighborhood and stand out from your neighbors is to construct a retaining wall to enclose the front yard. If installed properly and at just the proper height, any home owner will pull off a sophisticated retaining wall and stand out from the crowd.

Another reason a home owner will need a retaining wall is because they need it. Some homeowners may have land around their house that is a little bit unleveled. Some homeowners have land that is more drastically unleveled. A good way to still be able to utilize this area is to build levels and secure these levels with a retaining wall. Each level may feature flowers or maybe even just grass. Your retaining wall allows the space to be usable and not have unleveled space not being utilized.

Do you need to construct a retaining wall for your house? Well, more and more homeowners are looking into retaining walls as part of their landscaping design. Two of the more popular reasons to construct a retaining wall are for the look and to stand out from your neighbors and out of necessity to level unleveled land. Take a look at your home and the land that it is on. You could possibly benefit from building a retaining wall on the house.

English tudor gardens

The Tudor garden was a homely enclosure, like the living room in a simple house containing few, but good-sized, apartments. Sometimes one large enclosure answered many purposes. First of all, it contained the medicinal herbs. Then it answered the purpose of the pleasure garden, providing alleys and arbors for people to walk on and sit under, besides ground for games. Finally, it supplied a mixture of vegetables and flowers for use and ornament. The orchard, if not actually a part of the garden, was placed near it and similarly ornamented.

A number of sun-dials were also scattered about, both for use and ornament. Henry VIII apparently ordered them by the dozen. Sun-dials had existed in England before the Roman invasion, but interest in them seems to have been especially keen during the sixteenth century. The first book in English devoted to dialing was published in 1533, and was largely a translation from Witkendus. At this period the actual dial was more fanciful than at a later date and often formed an armillary sphere.

A water supply was considered a very important adjunct to the garden. A central feature was often a well or fountain fed by a spring, or a cistern. Cisterns were made of lead and decorated in such a way as to make them very ornamental.

Various games were played in the garden or its vicinity. Bowling-alleys and greens for archery were common. All that was required was a stretch of good, firm turf or gravel. Tennis was another favorite game. Henry VIII was passionately fond of tennis. Sometimes he used to play in the walled court for "close tennis play " at Hampton Court, which is the oldest one in England, and has since served as a model for many others.

Companion planting

Companion plantings of some kind have been practiced throughout agricultural history. Some of the earliest written documents on gardening discuss these relationships. Early settlers discovered American First Nations people were using an interplanting scheme of corn-bean-squash that balanced the requirements of each crop for light, water, and nutrients. In the 1800’s, hemp (cannabis) was often planted around a cabbage field to keep away the white cabbage butterflies in Holland. In many parts of the world today, subsistence farmers and organic gardeners grow two or more crops simultaneously in a given area to achieve a certain benefit.

Companion planting is the practice of locating particular plants near one another because they enhance plant growth, discourage pests and diseases, or have some other beneficial effect. When selecting your companion plants consider more than which pests are deterred. Think about what each plant adds or takes away from the soil and what effect the proximity of strong herbs may have on the flavour of your vegetables. Avoid placing two heavy feeders or two shallow rooted plant types near each other.

Many gardeners find that they can discourage harmful pests, without losing the beneficial allies, when they use companion planting as an important part of an integrated pest management system. For example, chives or garlic planted between rows of peas or lettuce help control aphids. Marigolds planted throughout the garden discourage many insects. Rosemary, thyme, sage, catmint, hyssop, or mixtures of all three between rows of cabbage helps deter the white cabbage moth. Horseradish planted at the corners of potato patches deters the potato beetle. Garlic planted near roses repels aphids and Nasturtium planted around the garden also deters aphids.

As the limitations and ill effects of pesticides, chemical fertilisers, and other modern practices become more apparent, scientists and researchers have begun to look at the ‘old-fashioned’ method of gardening and farming. Companion planting can combine beauty and purpose to give you an enjoyable, healthy environment. In essence, companion planting allows us to help bring a balanced eco-system to our landscapes, allowing Nature to do its’ job.

How to conquer caterpillars

Butterflies, especially the colourfully marked types are very pretty to watch as the undulate through the summer breezes but there are certain varieties that can cause losses in your vegetable garden.

The cabbage white butterfly

The main culprit is the cabbage white butterfly which is mostly attracted to a chemical emitted from the leaves of brassicas. The brassica group covers such vegetables as cabbage, brussel sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower. The butterfly lands on these plants and in itself is harmless but the eggs it deposits are the problem, or what eventually emerges from these eggs. Emerging quite soon after are the dreaded caterpillars which are hairy and about 3 to 4 cm long.

Caterpillars

Caterpillars are the larvae or the young of the butterfly; this is the main feeding and growth stage of the butterflies’ life cycle. As most vegetable growers know caterpillars are very hungry and a small handful can turn a head of cabbage into a skeleton within a day or two. Infested leaves are quite toxic to animals and humans even if washed thoroughly.

Control methods

So how can you battle against the caterpillars, well there are various chemical and organic methods. The chemical methods are available in all good garden centres in the form of sprays, dusts and bug guns with names too numerous to mention. With cabbage, broccoli etc being food crops that you may grow at home organically to avoid chemicals you should try to tackle the menace organically. Cover your plants with sheer netting whilst the butterflies are around, if they cannot touch the plants then they cannot lay their eggs on them. Ensure the netting allows sufficient sunlight through to enable growth.

Companion plants

Try planting tomatoes and celery as companion plants close by as their scents tend to cancel out the scent emitted by brassicas therefore deterring cabbage white butterflies. Finally if all else fails try sending your cat or cats on holiday during the summer, you’ll be surprised how many songbirds start to visit your garden. Songbirds just love caterpillars.