Tips to Taking Care of Your Organic Garden
Healthy, fruitful plants begin with healthy soil in the garden. Because the soil nourishes the plants, it must be fertile in order for plant life to thrive. To allow for root growth, drainage, and air circulation, the soil must be loose. Loosening the soil in the garden during spring and fall will help encourage plant growth.
Composting is an excellent way to replenish soil nutrients.
It’s a natural method of creating nutrients-rich compost that is great for returning to your vegetable garden. In fact, it’s so good that a 3-bay Container Garden Enclosure is required to properly utilize the compost created in the garden.
Composting in a 3-bay Container Garden Enclosure is simple and convenient.
After the compost is finished, simply fill the Enclosure with soil and plant life, and you’re ready to go. Simply mix the compost, soil, and mulch once per season for a year round organic garden, or use your compost once per season for a spring and fall garden. By mixing compost once per season, your garden will be ready to go in just 4 months. No more worry about over or under fertilizing your vegetable plants; you won’t have to worry about doing it twice. You’ll be able to get right to eating your vegetables and herbs.
Mixing compost once per season is not sufficient to provide all the nutrients your plants need for optimum growth.
You need to mix compost every 4 to 6 weeks during spring and fall, or every 8 to 10 weeks during the spring and summer. This will provide the plants with all the nitrogen they need to get up and running, while reducing its need for more complex fertilizers. This system will help to reduce the cost of your vegetable garden also. Instead of purchasing several bags of fertilizers, you’ll use one compost bag per season, less expensive organic compost. Compost bags come in 4 ounce (about 28 grams) or 2 ounce (27 grams) sizes. The 2 ounce size costs less, but composter bags are not sufficient for plants requiring bigger amounts of nutrients. You’ll need a compos bag with a “tonnage” tag to make sure you use enough compost, but only use a sufficient amount of the compost you’ve mixed.
Mixing compost, soil, and mulch for a year round organic garden will be a good choice for many gardeners.
In many regions, it’s the most common method of growing plants. With a well thought out, year round organic garden, you’ll be able to grow a wider variety of vegetables than with an external compost pile, as a matter of fact, you may be able to grow more vegetables in the same area than with a conventional pile.
With a year round organic garden, you’ll also be able to use less fertilizer, if any at all. Composants can help reduce the amount of fertilizer you need, but they don’t get rid of it. You’ll need a certain amount of fertilizers every season. So how much fertilizer is a good choice for a year round organic garden?
How much fertilizer should you use?
Most composters are designed for use at a ratio of 1 bag of compost per 50 square feet of garden area. So, in a 50 square foot garden, you’d need 4 bags of compost. So how much fertilizer do you need per season? Some plants, like carrots, are built to thrive on a steady diet of nothing but nitrogen. They won’t need much calcium or other nutrients. For these plants, you’ll need 1 bag of compost for every 25 square feet of garden. But remember, not every plant thrives on a low-nitrogen diet, and not every plant is a carrot.
Some vegetables, like lettuce and broccoli can thrive on nitrogen. So you need to multiply the amount of compost you use by the ratio of plants you have. Then you need to multiply that by the square footage of the garden. For example, if you have a 50 square foot garden, you’ll need 10 bags of compost. So you need 10 bags of compost for every 50 square feet of garden.
So this brings us to the main issue. If you’re using compost and taking care of your garden organically, and doing all the other things I’ve taught you here, then you won’t need as much fertilizer. But if you aren’t using compost and are just lightly fertilizing your garden with natural fertilizers, then you’ll need more fertilizer. This isn’t a big deal, since you can use less fertilizer and use compost to help your plants. You can use compost to lighten up your plants. So if you plan to use compost, be sure you’re using it to help your plants.
Since compost isn’t very acidic, you’ll need to be sure to use fertilizer. But don’t be afraid of the fertilizer. It’ll make your plants stronger. Not making fertilizer is another matter. It’s a risk you can’t afford to take. You’ll only hurt your plants. Compost and fertilizer make plants stronger. So if you follow these tips, you’ll be planting healthier plants in a healthier garden, stronger plants in a stronger garden.
