Why would someone want to participate in organic gardening?

Lets just look at the bennifits for children. 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. When we organic gardening, these incidents are lessened.

Remember, most pesticides contain toxins that have only one purpose – to kill living things.

One can easily make compost from garden and kitchen waste. Though this is a bit more time-consuming than buying prepared chemical pesticides and fertilizers, it certainly helps to put garbage to good use and so saves the environment. Remember we dont want to use any meat products in the compost pile.

Organic farming does not use chemicals that may have an adverse affect on your health. This is especially important when growing vegetables. Chemical companies tell us that the chemicals we use are safe if used according to direction, but research shows that even tiny amounts of poisons absorbed through the skin can cause such things as cancer, especially in children.

Less Environmental Impact

Organic gardening causes less harm to the environment. Poisons are often washed into our waterways, causing death to the native fish and polluting their habitat.

Organic farming practices help prevent the loss of topsoil through erosion.
The Soil Conservation Service says that an estimated 30 – 32 billion tons of soil erodes from United States farmlands every year. Much of this could be avoided with organic farmign practices.

Cost savings. the need to buy costly chemical fertilizers and pesticides  is eliminated with organic gardening. Many organic recipes for the control of pest and disease come straight from your kitchen cupboard. Other plants can be grown as companions to the main crop. An example of this is the marigold, which helps to repel aphids from vegetables.
 
Mixing 1 tablespoon of liquid dishwashing soap and 1 cup of cooking oil can make a cheap garden pest spray. Put 3 tablespoons of this mixture in 1 quart of water and spray on plants.

A simple mulch of pine needles helps to suppress the growth of weeds as well as keeping the moisture in.

Organic gardening practices help to keep the environment safe for future generations. So get out there and start yoru organic garden today.

You can even Organic Garden In containers check out our Container Gardening Post

Container gardens can create a natural sanctuary in a busy city street, along rooftops or on balconies. You can easily accentuate the welcoming look of a deck or patio with colourful pots of annuals, or fill your window boxes with beautiful shrub roses or any number of small perennials. Whether you arrange your pots in a group for a massed effect or highlight a smaller space with a single specimen, you’ll be delighted with this simple way to create a garden.

Container gardening enables you to easily vary your color scheme, and as each plant finishes flowering, it can be replaced with another. Whether you choose to harmonize or contrast your colors, make sure there is variety in the height of each plant. Think also of the shape and texture of the leaves. Tall strap-like leaves will give a good vertical background to low-growing, wide-leaved plants. Choose plants with a long flowering season, or have others of a different type ready to replace them as they finish blooming.

Be Creative With Your Container Garden

Experiment with creative containers. You might have an old porcelain bowl or copper urn you can use, or perhaps you’d rather make something really modern with timber or tiles.  If you decide to buy your containers ready-made, terracotta pots look wonderful, but tend to absorb water. You don’t want your plants to dry out, so paint the interior of these pots with a special sealer available from hardware stores.
Cheaper plastic pots can also be painted on the outside with water-based paints for good effect.  When purchasing pots, don’t forget to buy matching saucers to catch the drips. This will save cement floors getting stained, or timber floors rotting.

Container Garden Soil

Always use a good quality potting mix in your containers. This will ensure the best performance possible from your plants.

Container Gardening for Food

Many different types of food plants lend themselves well to container gardening. Tomatoes, chives, and others even potatoes have been successfully been container gardened.

Container Garden Positioning

If you have steps leading up to your front door, an attractive pot plant on each one will delight your visitors. Indoors, pots of plants or flowers help to create a cosy and welcoming atmosphere.
Decide ahead of time where you want your pots to be positioned, then buy plants that suit the situation. There is no point buying sun lovers for a shady position, for they will not do well. Some plants also have really large roots, so they are best kept for the open garden.

If you have plenty of space at your front door, a group of potted plants off to one side will be more visually appealing than two similar plants placed each side. Unless they are spectacular, they will look rather boring. Group the pots in odd numbers rather than even, and vary the height and type. To tie the group together, add large rocks that are similar in appearance and just slightly different in size. Three or five pots of the same type and color, but in different sizes also looks affective.

With your creative mind and a bit of determination, anyone can have a container garden that will be the envy of their friends and strangers alike.