Posts Tagged ‘Pests’

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Have you noticed the high price of fresh herbs in the supermarket lately? It amazes me why more people aren’t getting into the lucrative area of growing and processing fresh herbs.

If you want to try your hand at herb farming, grow herbs that do well in your area. Start small, you can expand later with a green house, climate control and soil manipulation. You can begin with just a hot frame to start your seeds, and a screened area for drying your herbs away from insects and other undesirables.

Do a lot of homework before you start your herb farm. Go to the library or bookstore and find out what are the needs of the herbs you plan to plant. After you know what herbs you will be planting on your herb farm go through the history of that particular herb. Also see if it has any folklore or medicinal uses attached to it. Make up little booklets with this information as a “give aways” with your plants, it makes it more attractive to the buyer and will add to your sales and profits.

During your research, include study on which herbs attract pests. (Basil attracts white flies which are difficult to eliminate). Another trick is to keep herbs that attract pests away from the ones that do not on your herb farm.

If you are proficient with your computer, make up nice labels for your herbs. If not, go to a printer and have them make them for you. When you get to the stage that you are shipping herbs, always put a little information on the herb in the package. It gives your package a personal touch and your customer will be more apt to buy again.

Once you have a crop in you will need to market your inventory. Go to Gourmet Restaurants and Gourmet stores. Don’t forget health food stores and caterers. Talk to the chef or owner and explain what you have. You may try to leave some of your stock at the establishment on consignment to get your customers to see the value of fresh herbs. Offer to set up a display with a poster for their window. Or offer them a “special introductory price”. You may even know some people in your area that just love to cook and would be ecstatic if they were part of your route. Exposure is key at this stage for both your name and your herbs. Go back to these potential customers often to build up your reliability.

Another important step is to write press releases that you can send to your local newspapers. Here is where the research on the folklore will come in handy. Use your gathered data on the folklore attached to herbs in the press release. These press releases will introduce you, and your products to the marketplace. Post them on the web as well, this will help you get customers from out of town. Be imaginative on the many interesting uses of fresh herbs and of course, how to find you as the source.

You may want to set up a network with other herb farms to buy from, at wholesale prices. This way if you get low on some herb stock you have a place to obtain it for your customers. Remember, they are depending on you and you want to keep their business.

An inexpensive way to advertise your business is to buy the magnetic signs that stick on your car door. Be creative, make people want to buy your products from YOU.

So, jump in your car, go to the library and start studying on how to become an herb farmer.

Happy Gardening!

Copyright © 2006 Mary Hanna All Rights Reserved.

This article may be distributed freely on your website and in your ezines, as long as this entire article, copyright notice, links and the resource box are unchanged.

Anybody can do organic vegetable gardening at home because the principle behind this is not that different from what they do in the farm. The only difference is that you work in a smaller area and you get to choose what you like plant.

The first thing you have to do is find an ideal location. A lot of people do organic vegetable gardening in their backyard. To make it work, whatever you are planting should get at least 6 hours of sunlight everyday and access to water.

Just like the ancient civilizations that relied on an efficient irrigation system, you too should do the same by making sure there is adequate drainage because if you don’t, you will have to do organic vegetable gardening using a raise bed.

When your ideal location has been found, it is time to cultivate the land. For that, you will need your gardening tools and a pair of gloves to pluck out the weeds on the ground. This might take a few days to make sure the area is ready for planting.

You will only know if the ground you are going to plant your vegetable is a good spot by testing it with some compost and mixing this with the soil. Should it be able to integrate and stabilize itself with the soil, this means that you can start planting your crops and see it grow in the succeeding weeks.

If you don’t like to buy compost from the gardening store, you can make your own using coffee grounds, dead leaves, grass clippings, food waste or even manure. They also serve as excellent fertilizers.

As for your vegetables, take note that some of these may not be suitable in the land you are planting these on. This is because of several factors that are beyond your control such as the weather, pests and other plant borne diseases. You can avoid making this mistake by doing some research on what vegetables are ideal to plant in your area and asking fellow organic gardeners.

One way to protect the organic vegetables you are planting is by planting a variety of them at a time since some of these protect each other from pests. Such practice is better known as crop rotation especially when you want to adapt with the weather in your area. Another defense system that works is getting the help of Mother Nature as birds, certain insects and even toads have proven to be useful.

If you live in an area where wild animals may eat your vegetables, you should put up fences so they are not able to get through. Other tools you can use are animal hair, baby powder and deodorant soaps.

Part of preparing the land is removing the weeds. But remember that new weeds grow after some time so you have to inspect the area from time to time.

Planting your own organic vegetable garden at home will surely save you money as these are quite expensive in the supermarket. If you have some excess stocks when it is time to harvest them, maybe you can give some to your neighbors or make some money by selling it at the local market which isn’t that bad given that you don’t shell out that much cash for this investment.

Do you want any information on the merits of organic gardening? Then have a view.

1. The foods that are grown in an organic manner do not contain chemicals.

This implies that the intake of food containing chemicals that can pose hazards to our health can be avoided. The major aim of pesticides is the destruction of lives, whether it is human beings or the pests. So the control of pests must be done in such a way that it is safe for every one – the plants, animals as well as human beings.
Organically grown foods are not sprayed with chemicals

In normal cases, the children intake the pesticides that can cause cancer in them which accounts for five times the intake of the same in adults. By using the organic foods, this can be avoided.

Even though the organic foods are not appealing in terms of colour and presentation in the shops, they are good for the health of adults as well as children as they are very tasty and nutritious.

2. The savings associated with the cost incurred while using organic fertilisers are more than using the artificial ones.

One can use coffee grounds and stale coffee as organic fertilisers. You need not opt for any costly pesticides or fertilisers.

The usage of artificial chemicals will fail the aim of using organic gardens and vegetables.

The aim of pest control in organic gardens is based on strategies, rather than using chemicals. Compost manufactured form the waste of vegetables is good. One can add egg shells, skins of banana as well as tea leaves to the compost.

3. Poses no major harms to our natural environment

Organic growing helps the protection of the top soil. It also helps in maintaining the residual ground water.

By doing organic gardening, we will become closer to nature and can thus safeguard the future generations from hazards.

It can be a scary exercise to sit down and work out exactly what is spent every year, on the average home gardens and lawns.

Try adding up the costs of plants, weedicides, pesticides, fungicides, fertilisers, petrol, mower and trimmer maintenance, weed eater cord, garden mulch and even water costs. Even the time and effort we go to in order to maintain a good-looking environment for our families and ourselves can amount to a substantial price.

So it is no wonder that many people are looking at ways to save money for more important causes.

One of the first things that you can do to save money, is to make use of as much of that organic matter that many people throw in the bin or wash down the sink.

For instance do you throw out your lawn clippings? Do you dutifully wrap up and throw out those old veggie scraps?

Are you one of those people who regularly get the trailer out and make trips down to the landfill with a pile of branch prunings?

What about those pile of leaves you threw in the bin last autumn?

Do you realise that all of those things can be turned into a wonderful form of plant food, as well as being used as a barrier to prevent the soil from loosing moisture and therefore increasing the amount of time between watering your garden. An organic mulch will also improve the soil structure, increase the good animals like worms while assisting in decreasing the nasty pests living in the soil.

By keeping these sorts of things within your own garden you are also assisting in reducing the effects that city living is having on the environment in landfill problems and costs.

There are a number of different ways that you can recycle these piles of organic matter within your own yard. One is to apply the bulk organic matter directly to your garden beds, ensuring that you don’t pile the material directly up against the trunks or main stems of the plants. A second idea to get a worm farm and recycle your kitchen waste that way; the worms provide you with a very strong and nutritious fertilising liquid for the garden as a bonus. This liquid is so strong it has to be diluted 10-1.

Don’t, by the way, put meat products, citrus peels or onion and garlic in with the worms. A third way is to purchase or construct your own compost pile/bin/tumbler and recycle the material that way.

So just by composting your old leaves, soft cuttings, veggie and fruit scraps, chipped branches, lawn clippings etc., you can do a lot to reduce your costs that you would have spent on such things as garden mulch and fertilisers as well as assisting your plants to last much longer between watering periods. So as you can see there are a number of reasons for not throwing away all that organic material.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to plant vegetables. But if you want to do this the old fashioned way which has been proven to be very effective, you should know the organic vegetable gardening basics.

The first thing you have to know is what is organic vegetable gardening? It is simply a way of farming that does not use any synthetic products which includes fertilizers and pesticides. In short, you work with nature to get what you want.

When choosing the right vegetable to plant is knowing which of these are suitable to the soil and the climate. If you live in an area that experiences droughts, buy those that do not consume that much water.

Before you drop seeds into the soil, make sure the land is ready by tilling the land so it is clear both of rocks and weeds.

The next step will be to add compost, bone meal or rock phosphate and greensand to the soil to supply it with nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. If the pH level of the soil is too high, add lime or sulphur to adjust it.

One more thing you have to do before planting the seeds is putting in organic fertilizer. You can use recycled leaves, grass clippings, coffee grounds, eggshells and kitchen waste which should be applied a month before planting begins.

Then it is time to plant the seeds. Each seed must be spaced by a certain distance the roots do not fight for water. In between each of the vegetables, you can plant other things as well because the tighter the space, the lesser the chances that weeds will grow.

Pests are the biggest threat to your organic garden. To fight them, you can use birds, frogs or other insects. You don’t have these creatures to fend off other insects. You simply have to create the ideal environment by putting a bird house or a small pond. Once they are in place, they will do the rest by patrolling your garden and eating those who seek to eat your crops.

Putting up a few barriers can also help. Row covers are known to prevent moths from landing and laying eggs. You can also use sticky traps and foil collars to stop pests and borers.

There are also organic pesticides around but some of them can only kill one or two kinds of pests. So before you buy them, make sure you know what you are dealing with.

Crop rotation is the best way to preserve the fertility of the soil. This is done after you harvest the vegetables so it is ready for planting once again. For this to work, you have to plant in the same area a different vegetable.

Anyone can learn organic vegetable gardening basics and soon have their own little farm in their backyard. It is fresh and you can pick this anytime you want which is very convenient as these are only a few feet from your home.

Should everyone get into organic vegetable gardening? Perhaps because there is a food shortage right now and most of the vegetables imported do not use this technique. The government for its part has given incentives to farmers here to shift to this method but its going to take more effort to persuade countries that do business with the US to do the same thing.

Anybody can do organic vegetable gardening at home because the principle behind this is not that different from what they do in the farm. The only difference is that you work in a smaller area and you get to choose what you like plant.

The first thing you have to do is find an ideal location. A lot of people do organic vegetable gardening in their backyard. To make it work, whatever you are planting should get at least 6 hours of sunlight everyday and access to water.

Just like the ancient civilizations that relied on an efficient irrigation system, you too should do the same by making sure there is adequate drainage because if you don’t, you will have to do organic vegetable gardening using a raise bed.

When your ideal location has been found, it is time to cultivate the land. For that, you will need your gardening tools and a pair of gloves to pluck out the weeds on the ground. This might take a few days to make sure the area is ready for planting.

You will only know if the ground you are going to plant your vegetable is a good spot by testing it with some compost and mixing this with the soil. Should it be able to integrate and stabilize itself with the soil, this means that you can start planting your crops and see it grow in the succeeding weeks.

If you don’t like to buy compost from the gardening store, you can make your own using coffee grounds, dead leaves, grass clippings, food waste or even manure. They also serve as excellent fertilizers.

As for your vegetables, take note that some of these may not be suitable in the land you are planting these on. This is because of several factors that are beyond your control such as the weather, pests and other plant borne diseases. You can avoid making this mistake by doing some research on what vegetables are ideal to plant in your area and asking fellow organic gardeners.

One way to protect the organic vegetables you are planting is by planting a variety of them at a time since some of these protect each other from pests. Such practice is better known as crop rotation especially when you want to adapt with the weather in your area. Another defense system that works is getting the help of Mother Nature as birds, certain insects and even toads have proven to be useful.

If you live in an area where wild animals may eat your vegetables, you should put up fences so they are not able to get through. Other tools you can use are animal hair, baby powder and deodorant soaps.

Part of preparing the land is removing the weeds. But remember that new weeds grow after some time so you have to inspect the area from time to time.

Planting your own organic vegetable garden at home will surely save you money as these are quite expensive in the supermarket. If you have some excess stocks when it is time to harvest them, maybe you can give some to your neighbors or make some money by selling it at the local market which isn’t that bad given that you don’t shell out that much cash for this investment.

Tomatoes taken by fusarium wilt. Sugar snap peas eaten up by aphids. An army of slugs in the lettuce patch. Broccoli that never heads.

Sound familiar? If you’ve experienced any of the above, then you know how difficult gardening—especially organic gardening—can be to integrate into an already full schedule. Plants need care and careful monitoring when you’re avoiding chemical pesticides like the plague.

But there is a way to successfully plant and grow organic vegetables. Over the past couple of years I’ve learned some valuable lessons about how to manage an organic vegetable garden without having to devote all your free time to it. Allow me to share them with you…

1. Start small. I decided to plant a garden the year my son turned one. That would’ve been okay, if I’d stuck to a small lettuce patch and a couple of tomato plants. But, not knowing how much time and attention my son would require in the coming months, I bit off way more than I could chew. I ended up having an aphid infestation, diseased tomatoes, and generally an unfruitful harvest.

Another option for keeping it small is container gardening. Anybody can find time to tend to five potted plants per day, especially since container gardens tend to be close to the house, so you are more likely to remember to check them. Which leads me to the next point…

2. Make time to check on your plants at least every other day. Carefully checking each plant for disease and pests on alternate days won’t take very much time, especially if you kept your garden down to a manageable size. But the time you invest doing it will pay off big-time. You’ll be able to find pests and recognize the beginning stages of disease before they have a chance to completely obliterate your crops.

3. Set up an easy watering system. Underground irrigation systems, once installed, require the least amount of time and effort. However, the cost might be more than you’re willing to cover. If that’s the case, lay soaker hoses an inch or so under the soil where you’re going to plant. Being able to turn on a spigot and leave it for twenty minutes is much easier than lugging a hose around the yard.

4. Write down the fertilizing schedule in a calendar or daytimer you look at often. If you overfertilize, you end up with a lot of foliage and not much harvest. Underfertilizing will lead to pathetic looking plants and small fruits. Different crops have different feeding requirements, so getting yourself organized in this area of gardening will really pay off.

5. Spray with chemical-free pesticides and repellents every week or two as soon as the shoots sprout up from the ground. Bugs hate neem oil, which is extracted from a native Indian tree. It can also prevent or fend off certain fungi, like powdery mildew. Spinosad is odorless and safe for the beneficial insects, while it kills the plant-eaters. Orange oil kills any insect that it hits.

Be sure to rotate the use of organic pesticides. Too much neem oil can harm bees, and Spinosad is supposed to be used no more than once a month for most crops.

6. Consider raised bed gardening. Or, at the very least, mulch your garden heavily. Either way will save you a lot of weeding (I have practically no weeds in my raised beds). Raised beds are also much easier to dig into because of the loose soil.

Growing your very own organic vegetable garden, even if your days are full, is possible. Follow these tips, and you will soon find yourself surrounded by delicious food from a garden you have spent only a few minutes a day on.

Organic gradening is also known as organic horticulture and is basically the science of growing fruits, vegetables and flowers by using essential organic elements in the soil. There are several different types of organic growing or gardening systems. Organic growing has been based on thousands of years of study and research and involves a more naturalistic approach to growing that takes place over a period of time. This is holistic approach.

Biodynamic farming is an organic approach to growing and is based on the teaching of Rudolf Steiner. Later the Japanese writer and farmer, Masanobu Fukuoka invented a no till system for small scale grain production. This system of organic growing was Natural Farming.

Those people who follow an organic growing system believe that a garden is more than a means of providing food. It is felt that a good garden is a good indicator of what a community could be like. Everyone could be growing and eating healthy food, be it in a large scale garden or just a small container in their back yard. A small garden could sustain your family and provide a great deal of food.

One major difference between chemical growing and organic growing is the approach to pest control. In chemical growing, chemicals are sprayed on the plants or vegetables to get rid of the pests, essentially killing the pest so that they don’t return.  Organic growers believe in some pest control but they also take the long approach. They allow for a small amount of pest damage. They feel that some pests will allow for healthy growing of the fruit or plant. They take action to fight against pests but changing the location of their crops each year so the crop is not infected.

There is a range of growing techniques involved in creating an organic garden. Many organic growing methods are a combination of many scientific growing methods and old fashioned farming methods. The study of organic growing is referred to as agroecology. Organic farmers are restricted in what they are able to use to grow their plants. These farmers are permitted to only use natural pesticides and fertilizers. The principal method of growing crops organically is crop rotation, green manures and compost. This also includes biological pest control and mechanical cultivation.

The amount and type of organic crop that is being grown all depends on the size of the farm. Farm size also determines the general approach and specific tools and methods. While the organic farming industry is growing more and more it wasn’t always big. It first began as a small enterprise. The type of organic crop that is being grown also determines the size of the farm that is being planted. For example, if there is a high demand for a particular type of organic crop then farmers will plant more of that crop. However, if there is less demand for a crop smaller amount of this will be planted. Today, the organic industry is continuing to grow as more and more people are looking for healthier food choices.