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The Organic Garden - Earthy Beginnings

Submitted by Cosima on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 03:21
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An organic garden is a wonderful balance of elements that complement and aide one another in becoming a tight little ecosystem that will be a joy to tend and watch develop over the years. It does take a lot of input, especially in the early days of your garden, but it is well worth the effort.
 
Creating an organic garden that will maintain its own homeostasis begins with the soil. Preparing your garden’s soil is that crucial first step to a luscious organic garden that will reward you with delicious veggies and fruit – maintaining your soil’s richness will see you reaping these rewards for years to come.
 
There are simple thing you can do to organically enrich your soil, though the benefits are not always felt immediately – sometimes nitrogen from organic matter can take a number of years to release into the soil, but an organic garden is a long-term project, so your hard work will be repaid eventually!
  • Composting is an essential way of bringing nutrients to your garden with the added advantage of disposing of your food scraps in a responsible way. Dig "digested" compost into your soil some weeks or even months before planting, and keep the compost juice for feeding baby plants!
  • Chickens, besides being the funky, eccentric birds they are, are like living breathing recyclers – and they give a wonderful fertilizer from their poop. If you have chickens, make a poop collection to use on the garden – after all, they are already eating your food scraps, so it is like accelerated composting!
  • If you have fish and are cleaning out the tank, the water is full of yummy and fast-acting plant food, so make sure you put the water on the garden beds!
Each garden is individual, so it is important that you look at your soil carefully. As a rough guide, for sandy types of soil, work about 7 cm of compost into the top 10 cm of your soil where the plants’ roots take hold; for clay-filled soil work in about 5 cm of compost – this will improve drainage and water retention as well. Each will require a different balance to function to the optimum so look for a rich dark colour that is easy to move with your hands and doesn’t cake when wet.
 
All soils ideally should be prepared a number of weeks or more before you plan to plant your garden to give it time to stew. Mind you, if you are potting your garden, then you can go the easy route and buy pre-prepared organic soil, but its nowhere near as fun as getting grubby in the earth mixing up all the goodies for your plants!
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Earth Beginnings

Comments

"keep the compost juice for

Submitted by AltGlobe on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 17:16.

"keep the compost juice for feeding baby plants"
Isn't it too concentrated liquid for baby plants? How big are baby plants for you?
Thank you for the interesting and fun post!

 

Yes you're right, the juice

Submitted by Cosima on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 04:13.

Yes you're right, the juice is quite concentrated, I wouldn't recommend using it in its concentrated form on seedlings, though pre-enriching the soil for your seedlings with the compost juice is a great way to give young plants fast access to nutrients. Once seeds have sprouted then every week or so give them a drink of dilluted compost juice, the same goes for worm juice -- and of course its not just for baby plants!! (I consider them just entering teenhood when they are ready to transplant!!)

 

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