Archive for September, 2009

A Herb Garden Of All Sorts

Going With The French Style

Although the French style of growing an herb garden, is in long rows of built troughs with every imaginable herb possible to be used in their own kitchens. Creating the herb garden of you choice is not that difficult to do on your own either from your own home. If you do have some space you could plant your herb garden in tiers, making more ground space available to work from, and if you have a large plot, you too could smaller troughs to put your own herbs in.

Amount Of Space Makes A Huge Difference While Creating Herb Garden

If you are in a tiny space with no land to plant any herbs or plants in you could create your own little indoor herb garden on your windowsill. Every herb garden has to have the basics of parsley in it,if there is sprinkler system going over it then it should be planted separately to the others. Parsley just as lavender is just some of those plants that actually don’t want water all over it; just the soil needs to stay moist.

There are so many little tricks that need to be learnt when you do create your own little herb garden, with some plants needing to be picked, twisted, some ripped and others snipped, depending on what they are, over time you will see why this is so. If you do notice what you have truly planted in the garden, the fruits of the herbs that you use will be different, and this is why they need to be handled differently. If you have a shrub such as rosemary in your herb garden, you would have to realise that when you trim the shrub from the base upward, it would grow taller faster, and from the trimmings make your own dried rosemary.

Critters And Insecticides

Keeping critters out of your herb garden can be quite a mission at times, and it is also important to know what products in your home can be used to keep them at bay. Scatter some kitchen salt lightly over snails in your herb garden. For aphids on your plants make a light mixture of dishwashing liquid and water and spray them off the plants.

However now and then you may have to get something stronger from the nursery if you cannot source a concoction over the Internet to get rid of some pests in your garden, just make sure if you have used these products to wash the herbs off properly before using them in your home.

Organic Gardening Pest Control

The concept of organic means of controlling pests in gardens is not a new idea, it’s actually as venerable as agriculture. Unfortunately, since World War II, synthetic pesticides have supplanted organic pest control in technologically advanced countries. These pesticides harm both the environment and those who consume the plants on which they are sprayed. More and more people today are doing organic gardening and prefer not to use pesticides. There are different convictions on the use of these goods, with some persons resisting their use only on food plants, while other ones easily try to decrease their use as much as possible.

Logic and good sense will tell you there are many reasons to use organic methods to keep pests out of your plants. One of the most important is that because insect pests are left alone genetically because of the absence of pesticides, they are not in a position to become resistant “super bugs”. Organic methods tend to be less polluting and blend into the ecosystem around it instead of disrupting it. In addition, because many of the pesticides that are available are derivatives of petrochemicals, their costs are higher, thus making alternatives more attractive. Whatever the reasons may be for avoiding their use, the organic gardener has to be prepared to work in order to make up for the loss of those chemical products that he chooses to abstain from using.

Organic gardeners have several effective, non-chemical methods that they can utilize to control garden pests. An easy and effective way to avoid pest problems is varietal selection, which includes choosing seed varieties that have been bred to be resistant against certain diseases and pest. The cultural control method of organic gardening pest control involves changing your gardening methods in order to reduce the hospitality that your garden offers to pests. This may mean removing or burning diseased plant material and destroying weeds and plan debris that provide hiding places for insects. Using stakes to keep fruits off the ground as well as pruning to remove diseased limbs, removing sickly plants, proper building of the soil, and making sure the plants are in raised areas in rainy seasons also help control diseases and pests. Crop rotation can also help in the prevention of disease and in pest control.

Although it takes longer to eradicate pests with these methods, in the long run they are safer and even prevent pests from attacking other crops in the area as well. Organic gardening pest control may be a longer process, but it is well worth the effort.

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