Organic Gardening - Principles and Techniques

What does it mean to have an organic garden? Does organic gardening mean you have to put up with insects eating your plants or unattractive flower beds? Actually, organic gardening just means trying to working with nature and to replenish as you deplete resources. Here are some basics...

The key to organic gardening is keeping a healthy balance in your garden. Prevent problems, rather than treating for them after the fact. Healthy plants are better able to withstand pests than stressed plants. And your plants will be healthy if they are given what they need to grow well and if you are growing diversity of plants. Here are some more tips to help you garden organically:

Is gardening green? Taking care of green spaces could actually be the easiest and fastest way to “go green” and ultimately help the environment. Here are 5 ways the green around your house is a great way to go “green”.

Green gardening is a confusing term. Gardeners talk about their love of nature, but in reality what we’re doing is manipulating nature and short of growing a field of weeds, it will remain so. So the easiest way to garden greener is to work more cooperatively with nature. Here are 5 easy steps to make your garden greener.

Vegetable seeds are labeled either hybrid, open pollinated or heirloom. Is there a difference and is one type of vegetable seed better for you than another. Here's a breakdown of what it means when a vegetable is defined as hybrid, open pollinated, heirloom or even genetically modified (GMO).

Mixing vegetables, flowers and herbs is a great way to encourage beneficial insects, bees and other pollinators and to control insect pests.

Gardeners have been using Epsom salts as a plant fertilizer for generations. There is little research to prove conclusively that Epsom salts have any effect on plants, but many seasoned gardeners cite their own gardens as proof that Epson salts help certain plants grow stronger and produce better. If you’d like to try experimenting on your...

Integrated pest management (IPM) can be used for controlling garden pests and diseases in the vegetable garden. Controlling vegetable garden pests and problems is a process that blends with the flow of the seasons in a vegetable garden. Garden pests and problems come and go. What gardeners need to keep in mind about IPM is:

Manure can be used to improve soil in the vegetable garden, but follow these precautions when handling fresh or composted manure.

Knowing how much mulch or amendment to purchase for your garden is always a bit of a guess, but you can make it an educated one by using a couple of easy measurements and calculations. Here's how to know how many bags, pounds or cubic yards of mulch will actually give you 3inches of coverage.

How do you know when to plant? If you let nature tell you when it’s safe to plant, you’re probably on the right track. Nature sends certain signals that let gardeners know how the weather and climate are progressing. There’s a science devoted to this, called phenology. For instance, plant your peas when the forsythia blooms. ...

To garden organically, you need to focus on your soil. Most garden soils will need some amending to become rich enough to grow healthy plants. Here's how to judge and improve your soil.

Soil is often viewed as the boring part of gardening. While garden soil will never be glamourous or even as interesting as choosing plants, there is a whole world under our Wellingtons that literally and figuratively is the foundation for our gardens. New gardeners are cautioned to put money and effort into improving their soil before they even consider planting, but few appreciate this wisdom. Here's why you should.