How to Start a Fruit and Vegetable Garden

Vegetable gardening can be a very rewarding experience. But if you've never had a vegetable garden before, the task can seem overwhelming. Here are several easy ways to start your first fruit or vegetable garden.

First, some vegetable gardening basics. Most vegetables need full sun, well-tilled soil, and the right fertilizers to bear fruit (or vegetables). Using the wrong soil enhancements will cause your plants to produce leaves and flowers, but little fruit. Most vegetables need long and deep water - water the roots, not the leaves. Pick your harvest regularly to encourage more fruit or vegetables. Finally, know when to plant, and when to harvest. This information will be found on the seed packet or the plant container. As you gain more experience, you will be able to rotate crops based on how early they mature.

One of the easiest ways to begin to grow vegetables is in a container. Buy your plant from a good nursery - don't try and start with seeds. Select a planter large enough to hold the full grown plant, and fill with potting soil made for vegetables. Follow the directions on the plant container for watering and sunlight needs. Plants that do well in containers include tomatoes, strawberries, herbs, and peppers.

Another easy way to start a garden is to pick a few easy vegetables to grow, and start with plants, not seeds. You will need to choose a sunny area of your yard to prepare. Use a tiller to break up the soil, and add organic material if your soil has a lot of clay. Then, decide what plants you will grow. Once you know how big the mature plant is, you can figure out how many you can grow in the space you have prepared. Plants that are easy to grow include tomatoes, squash, peppers, herbs, cucumbers, and strawberries.

Trees and shrubs can also be an easy way to start fruit gardening. Again, you will begin with a plant. In this case, however, you need to take a little more time preparing the soil. Some berries, like blueberries, need a very acidic soil to grow well. Raspberries need a lot of space to grow and will usually multiple fairly rapidly. The easiest way to begin this project is to choose which fruit you want to grow, and research exactly what kind of soil and environment they need. Start with one plant or tree, and once you are growing that successfully, add another variety. Because you only plant them once, not year after year, the time you spend to plant them correctly will pay off in the long run. Plants to consider include apple or peach trees, or blackberry and raspberry bushes.

Seeds are usually more difficult to start a garden with than plants. But, there are some seeds that easier than others. Carrots, lettuce, and peas are all easy seeds to plant and harvest. You can plant the seeds directly in the ground, and keep them well-watered until they sprout. Thin according to the package directions, and harvest at the proper time.

There's nothing better than fresh from the garden produce, and hopefully these ideas will help you start an easy vegetable (and fruit!) garden.

Mike Batey
http://www.mjbmarketing.info/gardening

Organic Gardening: Controlling Insects and Weeds Naturally

The only difference between regular gardening and organic gardening is that no synthetic fertilizers or pesticides are used when gardening organically. It might be a little more work to grow plants this way, but it is well worth the effort.

The biggest problems with growing things organically are insects, disease and weeds. But there are natural ways to protect your plants from these three killers.

Organic gardening starts with the soil. Rather than adding chemicals to the soil, organic gardeners regularly add organic matter in order to keep the soil healthy and productive. In fact, compost is essential to the well being of plants grown organically.

If you do not already have a compost pile or compost bin, one can be made with leaves, dead flowers, manure, fruit rinds, vegetable scraps, grass clippings and many other things.

What you need is soil that is dark in color and that has a sweet smell. So be generous with the compost, choose a spot that drains well so that water does not just sit around the plants, follow the guidelines in this article, and your plants should stay healthy and productive.

You might have healthy soil to start with and only need to add some compost. But some soil might need more natural additives than compost provides. Natural additives include things such as rock phosphates and bone meal. By purchasing and using a simple soil test you will know the soil's pH balance and be able to determine which nutrients you need to add.

One of the things that makes organic gardening more difficult is keeping insects off the plants. Most gardeners simply reach for a pesticide and spray the plants. But organic gardeners who truly want to stay away from chemicals must find other alternatives. Instead of using pesticides, the best way to defend your plants from insects is to use preventive measures.

Since unhealthy plants are more likely to be attacked by insects, one of the best natural ways to protect your garden from insects is to make sure your plants are healthy.

There are several things you can do to encourage healthy plants. Keeping them not too wet and not too dry is one thing.

Another way to protect your plants from insects, however, is to encourage insect predators into your garden. These include:

*lizards
*ladybugs
*frogs
*birds

These creatures can be attracted to your garden by keeping a source of water nearby, such as a pond, and by growing plants that attract them. There are also some household items that fight against insects, such as hot peppers and garlic, as well as insecticidal soaps.

Many diseases spread because the site of the garden does not drain well or does not allow for good air circulation. Another way to prevent disease is to start with disease resistant plants and plant them in their prime.

Besides diseases and insects, another annoying and frustrating problem faced by organic gardeners is weeds. Organic mulch can act as a weed barrier, but for even better protection put a layer of cardboard, construction paper, or newspaper under the mulch. Spreading a layer of corn meal gluten to slow the growth of weeds is another idea. Do this early in the season before planting.

Lastly, for weed control there is also the trusty hoe. Regular hoeing and hand pulling the weeds will help a great deal, and it requires no sprays that can hurt your family or the environment. Overall, persistence will beat the weeds for good after a few seasons of hoeing and pulling.

Organic gardening is an excellent way to assure that your plants will be free and clear of all pesticides and, if taken care of properly, will be as healthy as possible. Organic gardening may require more time and care than regular gardening, but your family and the environment will greatly benefit.

Mike Batey
http://www.mjbmarketing.info/gardening/

Some Very Good Reasons To Put A Bird Bath In Your Backyard

A bird bath is one of the easiest ways to attract birds to your garden. Not only will you attract greater numbers of birds if you install a garden bird bath, you'll also attract a greater variety of species.

A bird feeder in your garden will attract species based on the kind of foods you provide, a bird bath will attract just about every species type.

You can buy commercial bird baths at most gardening and home improvement stores but they are not that difficult to make and can be made from a large variety of materials readily found in the average home. The only essential is that your bird bath is a receptacle that can contain clean water.

The best type of bird baths are shallow ones, maximum depth no greater than three inches. A lot of commercially available bird baths are too deep. If you already have a commercially bought bird bath and you find that it's too deep, you can make it shallower by putting in some stones.

If you really want to go the extra mile in attracting birds into your garden with your bird bath you should consider adding a fountain. The sound of falling or dripping water is a sure attractant for birds.

You should make sure that your bird bath has a non-slip bottom so that the birds that use it aren't in danger of losing their footing. Cement is an ideal surface for the bottom of a bird bath.

It's a good idea to place your bird bath on some kind of stand or hang it from a tree to make it difficult for predators to reach - if birds don't feel safe, they are unlikely to use the bird bath.

It's important that you change the water in the bird bath frequently, every few days or even every day in hot weather.

If you're an ardent bird watcher, it won't just be for the bird's comfort that you install a bird bath in your garden, you'll also be doing it for your own pleasure. With that end in mind, you should ensure that you place the bird bath somewhere that allows you to view it from a place of comfort through your window.

Putting a bird bath in your garden following the guidelines above will ensure that you get hours of enjoyment watching all the many and varied species of bird that will be attracted to your garden.

Mike Batey
http://mjbmarketing.info/gardening

Tropicals brighten Winter

Keeping Soil Healthy

Soil is a composition of weather-beaten rock, minerals, decayed plant materials and other organic ingredients. All this takes a long time to develop, but can be damaged by our action or neglect in a single season.

Plants can obtain nutrients from the soil using their roots and change them to usable materials to grow new roots, leaves and flowers.

All gardeners are to be custodians of the soil, taking the time to replace food and other elements as they are used. Since our soil is so important we need to treat it like we want to be treated, not like dirt.

For soil to be healthy it should contain a balanced mix of air, water, nutrients and organic matter. There are a couple things we can do to protect this mixture.

Adding organic matter on a regular basis is probably one of the most important things we can do. Adding compost, cover crops and animal manure can do many things:
+increases the soil's capability to hold nutrients.
+makes food available to plants over a longer period of time.
+lessen the amount of nutrients lost by erosion or leaching.
+provides micro-nutrients that are needed by plants in small amounts.
+release nutrients already in the soil by increasing the action of beneficial microorganisms.
+increases the water-holding capacity for sandy soils.
+increase the drainage of clay soils.
+saves money.

Do not apply fertilizer to lawns until we get a good soaking rain, and for best, safest, long-lasting results use organic fertilizers. The wet soil puts the nutrients into a solution and helps distribute the nutrients to the plant roots to be absorbed.

The ability of soil to drain water is important. But when you read phrases like "plant in a well-drained soil" or "does not like wet feet", they are talking about the plant's need for air. The roots of plants require oxygen and any soil that is waterlogged will be lacking oxygen.

Many plants will put up with high moisture-conditions during the growing season, but when the plants are dormant the same conditions may kill them. By improving the drainage the plant will have a better growing environment.

Another problem is soil becoming compacted by tractors and other equipment or just by tilling it year after year. You will find soil compaction in most soils, from gardens to farm fields.

Tilling the soil when it is too wet will clump and ruin the composition of the soil. This condition takes a long period of time to bring it back to health. To tell if the soil is too wet take a handful and squeeze it, if it crumbles in your hand then it is ready to till but if it clumps then it is too wet. Some people now believe that tilling at all is not good for the structure of the soil. It exposes the helpful microorganisms to the environment and they are destroyed.

However, gardeners may wonder if it is best to till the garden in the fall or spring. Tilling the soil in the fall has advantages over springtime. When spring arrives it allows for earlier planting since the basic soil preparation is done. Tilling in the fall allows a large amount of organic matter to be turned into the soil and start decomposing because the microbes are active currently.

An excellent source of organic matter is the fall leaves. Try tilling a thick layer of leaves into the soil this fall and by spring it will have decomposed.

Sowing a cover crop, like winter rye, is very beneficial by adding valuable nutrients and organic matter when tilled into the soil the following spring. Fall tilling will disrupt the bad insects, diseases and weeds, reducing their population.

Fall is a good time to test your soil and should be done every couple of years. In conclusion, doing all the previous steps should be done the organic gardening way. It's back to basic.

Mike Batey
http://www.mjbmarketing.info/gardening/

http://homeincomeportal.com/mikbat673/

How to Create a Simple Kitchen Herb Garden

Herbs can play a key role in even the smallest of gardens. Whilst some are simply there as decoration, most are fragrant, and far from being imposing so the can easily be used to bring life to those odd corners of a garden that will accommodate little else.

Let us not forget, however, that herbs are enormously healthy, and can bring even the blandest of ingredients to life. Once you have experienced home cooking with fresh herbs that you have just snipped from a ripe branch in your kitchen garden, you will never regard the dried, commercial variety in quite the same way again. You will also be pleasantly surprised how economical fresh herbs and vegetables can be.

Apart from the undeniable satisfaction of growing one's own produce, home herb and vegetable gardening allows you to ensure your cultivation methods are as organic as they can be, which, in turn means that you can dine in the knowledge that all your produce is free from chemicals, and is as healthy as it possibly can be for you and your family.

Assuming that you already have some garden area you can use for herbs, or you can even use containers successfully, there are only fours ingredients you need to cook up a thriving herb garden of your own. Those ingredients are:

(1) A high-quality soil, rich in humus
(2) Sunlight
(3) Regular watering
(4) A little of your time

Now, if you find that your existing soil is unsuitable, you can easily remedy the situation by planting in raised beds, or even more easily, in containers. It depends on how much space you have and how ambitious a herb gardener you wish to become. Simply fill your raised beds or containers with good, organic compost and you are ready to begin planting.

If, on the other hand, you are reclaiming an un-cared for or overgrown garden, try tackling smaller areas at a time. Conquer one area, and once your herbs and vegetables are thriving, move on to another area, and reclaim your land in stages, rather than trying to take on the entire task all at once.

The secret is to start small, no matter how you intend to plant your herb garden. Don't be too over-ambitious, especially if you are a beginner, because you will run the risk of making too many mistakes, and ending up with little to show for it.

First, select herbs that you already know will thrive in your environment. You would be better off choosing the more hardy herbs to start with anyway. Consult a gardening book or visit your local garden center to ascertain which herbs are best for your climate and garden's conditions. Remember to check whether your garden catches a lot of sunlight or whether it is shaded, because this will affect how your plants grow if they are not suited to their growing spots.

Keep it simple at first, and then build up your garden as you gain more and more experience, and in no time you will be enjoying the wonderful flavors and health benefits herbs can afford you and your family for years to come.

Mike Batey
http://www.mjbmarketing.info/gardening/

Gardening On A Budget