How to control the weeds by cultivating your garden, is an important task for any serious gardener, and it must be consistent for a real gardening success.
Those pesky weeds sometimes can get on your nerves. You put all your efforts and passion in planting your favorite flowers or vegetables, after you made your garden clean and neat looking, and when you check after a while to see how they doing, you find out that you can't hardly see your plants anymore, because of them awful weeds!
So, the thing to do is to cultivate the garden as soon as the weeds emerge, and keep doing it until most of the seeds in the ground has just about sprouted out. You will always have some weeds, as the wind is blowing, it will bring some new seeds in your garden. But at least the weeds are not going to be there to the point when they will just smother your good plants.
To cultivate your garden you can use a tiller if you have one, or if you prefer and enjoy hoeing by hand for a healthy and beneficial exercise, go for it! It is good for you. And stay on them weeds until you pretty much get rid of them.
It is always better to control by cultivation instead of using chemical herbicides, especially when you garden with vegetables. You don't want to poison your body, do you? Once those chemicals get in your system it can cause some serious health problems.
That's why I'm always for an organic way of gardening. Organic fertilizing, organic composting, organic pest control, organic weed control, etc. It should always be organic as much as possible.
As the autumn is coming upon us without even realizing how fast the time is passing, a good and beneficial practice would be to cultivate your garden plot periodically during the fall and in the winter, when and if the weather will permit. It all depends in what region of the world you live in.
As the climates are different, so are the circumstances, of course, but generally speaking the cultivating is a great way to control the weeds as soon as they emerge, and the sooner the better.
You should never delay the controlling of weeds until they go to seed. This will create a perpetual problem and it will make it so much harder to control and to get rid of them.
For a successful gardening and in the preparation for a new garden or just for the next season, the cultivating of the weeds should be a rather important task. It should also be a practice applied consistently, whenever the weeds are becoming to the point where they just are out of control.
Remember, the weeds are always growing faster than the good plants. It's just their nature to take over. But we will not going to let them, do we?
Buy controlling the weeds with a timely cultivation, you can give your plants a much better chance for growing and producing an abundant crop of vegetables, or blooms if you are growing flowers.
Controlling the weeds by cultivation is important and it will assure a successful gardening. Not withstanding the fact that you will have a clean nice looking garden ready to impress everyone.
Another way to control the weeds, once you have done your cultivating, is by applying mulch. We will be talking about this subject in a future posting.
To get inspired and to obtain an abundance of information related to the gardening field, visit the links on the right column of the page, and see what you can find of interest to you.
If you find this post helpful, please leave a comment and suggestions to help me improve my service to you. And I sure do appreciate it.
Until next time, Happy Gardening!
Mike Borlovan
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Composting Is A Must For Garden Soil Enrichment
For any successful garden, composting is an essential element for any soil improvement.
Especially when there are lacking nutrients, and when the soil in your garden is poor. Any kind of dirt can be improved. Be it loamy, sandy, or clay. This is done by adding amendments, mainly composted matter. The darker the dirt in your garden, the better success for an abundant and healthy crop.
Every serious gardener should consider composting, to amend and help the garden plot become nutrient again for the next season harvest. Once the nutrients are depleted, which it happens naturally, they must be replaced perpetually. Every year if possible.
If you don't have the time or the means to make a fast or active compost, you can easily go for a passive composting process. While this might be a slower procedure, nevertheless it will do the job. It can absolutely be implemented with less care and almost no cost.
Even in a kind of neglected pile of compost with organic waste, the organic material will decompose even if it does it slowly. But it can be done without any significant effort.
The compost pile can consist of leaves, and lots of them. About two thirds leaves and one third nitrogen material will assure a good and consistent organic matter. The leaves will provide the carbon necessary for decomposing. The nitrogen can be obtained by adding cow manure, chicken manure, fresh grass clippings, and blood meal.
When you have a garden, it just doesn't make sense to burn the leaves! It would be a waste of a very important source of organic matter that can make a world of difference in the improving of your garden soil.
Just rake the falling leaves and put them in a pile out of the way, in a corner and just turn them and sprinkle with water when it is not raining. The leaves are a very good and important source of carbon. The microbes, those hard working little creature, will do the job. They live on the decaying material and that's why it is important to turn the compost pile to allow the oxygen and the newly added leaves in contact with the invisible microbes that are working day and night. And they are working for free. You don't even have to pay them! He, he, he!
So all these elements must be considered when composting for a better gardening: the composition of the material by combining the right proportion as described above. Moisture (by sprinkling water), aeration by turning it now and then with a pitch fork. The mother nature will take care of the rest. Some material will decompose faster, others slower. But they will decay.
Once the proper conditions have been created, the micro organisms will get in action, as well as the earth worms. They will multiply and as you apply the compost in the garden, the worms will aerate the soil as they dig underground channels to allow the oxygen where it is needed the most.
Once the compost is decayed enough, spread it on the top of the dirt in your garden plot and till it in the ground to blend in. This way it will decay even more, and make the soil rich and nutrient with all that good organic material. Gradually will build up the humus, that nice rich, dark looking color of the soil.
This is the cheapest and the most economical way of composting. It would cost you hardly anything. By burning the leaves, you are burning your hard earned money. So why not put them to a useful purpose and save a bundle. Not withstanding the benefits of a successful gardening, to produce some nice, fresh, full of vitamins and minerals fruits and vegetables, with vivid, full of life colors for your healthy living.
Gardening is wonderful. If you are not gardening yet, you are missing out on a lot of amazing things, and on the satisfaction of having your own quiet little place of retreat, from this noisy and crazy world. You will soon discover the enjoyment of gardening, and how beneficial it could be for you.
Let's get our hands dirty. It is good for you.
Mike Borlovan
Especially when there are lacking nutrients, and when the soil in your garden is poor. Any kind of dirt can be improved. Be it loamy, sandy, or clay. This is done by adding amendments, mainly composted matter. The darker the dirt in your garden, the better success for an abundant and healthy crop.
Every serious gardener should consider composting, to amend and help the garden plot become nutrient again for the next season harvest. Once the nutrients are depleted, which it happens naturally, they must be replaced perpetually. Every year if possible.
If you don't have the time or the means to make a fast or active compost, you can easily go for a passive composting process. While this might be a slower procedure, nevertheless it will do the job. It can absolutely be implemented with less care and almost no cost.
Even in a kind of neglected pile of compost with organic waste, the organic material will decompose even if it does it slowly. But it can be done without any significant effort.
The compost pile can consist of leaves, and lots of them. About two thirds leaves and one third nitrogen material will assure a good and consistent organic matter. The leaves will provide the carbon necessary for decomposing. The nitrogen can be obtained by adding cow manure, chicken manure, fresh grass clippings, and blood meal.
When you have a garden, it just doesn't make sense to burn the leaves! It would be a waste of a very important source of organic matter that can make a world of difference in the improving of your garden soil.
Just rake the falling leaves and put them in a pile out of the way, in a corner and just turn them and sprinkle with water when it is not raining. The leaves are a very good and important source of carbon. The microbes, those hard working little creature, will do the job. They live on the decaying material and that's why it is important to turn the compost pile to allow the oxygen and the newly added leaves in contact with the invisible microbes that are working day and night. And they are working for free. You don't even have to pay them! He, he, he!
So all these elements must be considered when composting for a better gardening: the composition of the material by combining the right proportion as described above. Moisture (by sprinkling water), aeration by turning it now and then with a pitch fork. The mother nature will take care of the rest. Some material will decompose faster, others slower. But they will decay.
Once the proper conditions have been created, the micro organisms will get in action, as well as the earth worms. They will multiply and as you apply the compost in the garden, the worms will aerate the soil as they dig underground channels to allow the oxygen where it is needed the most.
Once the compost is decayed enough, spread it on the top of the dirt in your garden plot and till it in the ground to blend in. This way it will decay even more, and make the soil rich and nutrient with all that good organic material. Gradually will build up the humus, that nice rich, dark looking color of the soil.
This is the cheapest and the most economical way of composting. It would cost you hardly anything. By burning the leaves, you are burning your hard earned money. So why not put them to a useful purpose and save a bundle. Not withstanding the benefits of a successful gardening, to produce some nice, fresh, full of vitamins and minerals fruits and vegetables, with vivid, full of life colors for your healthy living.
Gardening is wonderful. If you are not gardening yet, you are missing out on a lot of amazing things, and on the satisfaction of having your own quiet little place of retreat, from this noisy and crazy world. You will soon discover the enjoyment of gardening, and how beneficial it could be for you.
Let's get our hands dirty. It is good for you.
Mike Borlovan
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)