Organic Home Gardening Tips – Going Green
Jenny and I have been ”Going Green” since we started home gardening about 7 years ago. For us it’s organic gardening or nothing. Why would we spend time making the planet even sicker than it is now?
For us Going Green means we only use organic and safe products in and on our gardens, that include our entire yard, not just our home vegetable garden.
Let’s make our world a better place for our children’s children. All you have to do is make a commitment to NEVER add harmful chemicals to your yard or garden, environmentally safe products only.
Your Choice Should Start Right Now
So you currently have those harmful chemicals so you’re thinking you might start next year. That’s not good enough. Now that you know what’s right and wrong the change needs to start today.
The previous property owners didn’t give a hoot about the environment as proved by the poisons in the garden shed so with us Going Green we have already started making our neighbourhood safer for our kids.
Don’t just toss the chemicals our as that’s not being environmentally minded. Get in touch with your local nursery and ask them how you need to dispose of them. Find the right people and let them deal with the problem safely.
We’ve Been Using A Compost Bin For Yard Waste
We found a compost bin behind our garden shed and it looked like it had never been used. Maybe they were thinking about Going Green just before they sold the property.
So we started using our yard waste to make compost we now spread around our gardens. No more big green bags of yard waste going to the landfill.
We don’t just stop at yard waste, now we also compost kitchen waste in our compost bin and we have far less going to the landfill.
I rip up newspapers and cardboard, into small pieces so they break down easier, instead of sending them to the landfill. We also use the newspaper and cardboard to cover areas we plant to start a garden bed and then we put the dirt, peat moss and compost on top and build our garden bed.
Check Out The Compost Bins For Kitchen And Yard
Below is a new flower bed we are preparing for next year, but we are starting now. I don’t mind waiting as this method takes longer than removing the sod and digging up and amending the soil.
The Start of a New Flower Bed
We aren’t going to leave the dirt like this for the bed but we ran out of cardboard so I piled it higher so that when we do get more cardboard we can continue to cover the sod in the circle we want. Then I can spread the dirt over the entire area and work it next spring.
We Had Anthills In Our Lawn Along The Property Fence
It wasn’t long after we started cleaning up the yard after buying our home that we found a big anthill in our lawn.
We felt we needed to do something quickly, so what did I do. I came in the house to my work from home office, jumped on the Net and looked for some home remedies for getting rid of ants.
We found one video where cornmeal was used to kill ants, we had cornmeal so we used it to see if we could get rid of the ants. I followed Jenny out and had the video running while she spread some cornmeal on and around the anthill.
I don’t remember how long it took but soon after we didn’t see any more ants. Of course the anthill was still there. Just to be certain they were gone we left the anthill as it was until the next spring. When we saw no more ants we dug it up a bit and added some topsoil Now it’s all lawn again without anthills.
Well that was our first video together, I believe. Did you notice how pretty her toe were. I wouldn’t let her do my nails, again.
Anyways to finish we waited until the following year to see if they were truly gone. They were so we dug the area up to about a foot deep and mixed in topsoil and peat moss and reseeded. That took all of a half hour to an hour.
That was a few years ago now and we haven’t seen another anthill in our lawn and all without harsh chemicals. Hooray for staying green.
Give Home Container Gardening A Try
Jenny and I consider ourselves to be quite blessed to have a home to call our own, after many years of renting.
Back then we had to do container gardening if we wanted to grow anything which is normal for people renting homes or apartments.
Even though we have a good size property we didn’t stop container gardening. It’s a great way to extend your gardens for vegetables, flowers, shrubs and even dwarf fruit trees. They can really beautify a property pretty quickly and can be moved from place to place to take advantage of shade or sun.
We have our first bleeding heart this year. We aren’t sure where to put it so I put it in a big container for now, until we do. I see so many bleed hearts on my walks around town. Some are gorgeous while others look a mess. I don’t want the one that looks like a mess, so I will take my time locating it.
I don’t really care what a container looks like and will use an old boot if I think it will look good, however when we go to the local garden centres here in Moncton I see dozens and dozens of containers in all shapes, colours, textures and sizes.
Jenny just bought two window boxes that she filled with Petunias and has them on the railings of our front porch. The are looking great, although they have only been there a week.
You Have To Start A Herb Container Garden
One of the easiest gardens I’ve grown are herb container gardens. They can be grown on your kitchen windowsill and in small containers so you have quick access for cooking and adding to salads. We like to grow a few herbs indoors such as chives, parsley, thyme, summer savoury and basil.
Try Topy Turvy Planters For Strawberries
The Topsy Turvy Planters are container, just ones that hang instead of sitting on the patio, lawn or drive. We have a few house plants that are in hanging containers. Years ago I tried doing macramé and made a bunch of cool plant hangers.
We haven’t tried the strawberry topsy turvy planter we bought last year. I had a few projects, one being our raised bed for strawberries and kind of forgot I had the planter.
I’ll try again next year, but my friend Jamie has a few of them and even grows cucumbers in them. I might still give them a try for some lettuce this year and then go with strawberries a little earlier next year.
Grow Dwarf Fruit Trees In Containers
Trees In containers are common as well. We actually have a money tree a friend gave us. What a cool looking tree. Right now it’s about 4 feet tall. It could likely go outdoors in the summer but we wouldn’t want to have it infested with insects so we don’t put it outside at all.
Container gardening was our way of doing a little gardening even though we had no place to dig a garden. One of our neighbours here in Moncton have grown tomatoes in containers and had enough containers to go from the sidewalk all the way to their front door, on both sides of their sidewalk. Pretty cool looking.
Growing Potatoes in Containers
Last year I grew potatoes in some big containers so we could have early new potatoes without disturbing our in ground potatoes. Although we have been know to dig a few early potatoes in our garden, just to thin them out so the rest would grow bigger.
This year we grew all our plants from seed. We did the same thing last year but it was kind of a disaster as we don’t get enough direct sunlight in the house. The fact we have a mini greenhouse now helped us to start our seeds outdoors. We could put the greenhouse outside during the day and back in the garden shed for the nights.
