Winter Preparation for the Spring Garden

Organic Gardening: The Basics

Composting and Compost Bins

The Best Organic Compost Material

For best results, compost raw vegetable/food matter, eggshells, unseeded weeds if thoroughly dried, and *manures. Less desirable compost materials are onion skins, citrus peelings, cooked vegetable matter or fresh wood shavings.
* Note: Manures should be wintered before applied to the garden. Handle with great care. Parasites are frequently present and some require only skin contact to infect a host.

Compost as a Buried Treasure

When preparations have not been previously made, compost may be done with a simple hole in the ground. The soil in the immediate area will benefit from the increased worm population. If a mulch is available, compost material may also be laid on the top of the ground and then covered well by mulching.

Compost Bins

Compost Bins may take many forms. The construction and materials used may vary widely. With a little creativity, a compost bin may be fashioned from most any sort of building supplies. We will include instructions for four basic designs in our "How To" section.

Near your compost bin, keep a soil mixture available to cover each addition to the pile. An excellent combination is soil, pine bark mulch, dried leaves, grass cuttings, sand and limestone. This can be enhanced with greensand or ground seaweed.

Mulching - Hay and Straw, Cover Crops & Green Manures

Well-worked Soil

The working of any soil will vary depending upon the initial condition. A clay-like soil will benefit from an addition of sand. A very dry soil will be worked well with an addition of peat to hold moisture. Prepare a rich compost to be added to the soil as available and nourishment such as greensand, edible algaes and ground seaweeds will show immediate results in the garden.

Promoting Alkalinity in Acid Soil

Cover Crops/Green Manures

The Living Soil

By adding soured milk, yogurt leftovers, whey and so on, you will encourage worms and healthful bacteria in the soil. For more information on encouraging life in the soil, see the sections on green manures and composting.
To discourage fungi, molds and nematodes it is helpful to dress soil with a garlic tea. Various teas with herbs for nourishment, herbs with insect repellent properties, manure teas can all be added when cooled to the soil at any time. These teas can be added to the garden even after landscape fabrics have been laid down.

The Well-Rested Garden

No Weeds!

A weedless environment can be created with the use of landscaping fabrics. Secure a length of fabric to the entire surface of the garden area. Cut-outs can be made to plant in plugs. If initial plantings can not be done with plugs, surround these large plants with the landscaping fabric after planted. Some fabrics are dense enough to block light to the ground below; others should be covered with one of the following: straw, peat, sand, fine stones, etc...
Covering the ground in this way will eliminate the weeds and the insects which live amongst the weeds and prey upon the garden. In addition, the insects which live and hide in the soil are greatly eliminated and unable to harm the garden. Cats and other animals are also less likely to visit a garden where no scratchable surface exists, and since these animals frequently carry nematodes and other parasites, this will further reduce the worms which would attack garden plants when in a soil environment. A healthier gardening environment is secured for the gardener when the potential for animal visitation has been removed.

The Sensitive Gardener

To become sensitive to your plants, it is best to tend to your garden daily. Inspect leaves, stems, blossoms and fruits regularly to determine the health of your plants. This is the best way to begin recognizing problems which may require attention. Watch for bites, wilts, spots and rots. These are the main tell-tale signs of a need for attention. The solutions to garden problems will involve soil work, weeding and herbal insect deterrents (teas and companion plantings), handpicking insects from plants and/or treating soil for molds/fungi.

Companion Plants

Companion plants can work in a variety of ways depending upon the combination. Some plants enhance soil conditions for their companions, others attract beneficial insects and pollinators or deter unfavorable insects. These benefits are accomplished by essential oils present in the plants, the habitat created by foliage or roots for favorable insects, and by metabolic secretions produced by roots or other plant parts.

This Living Earth - Healthful Bacteria & Micro-Organisms in the Soil

Organic Gardening: Pollinators

Honey Bees: The #1 Pollinator

Human beings have kept bees for thousands of years. We have come to depend upon the delightful foods the honey bee offers as well as the magnificant work they perform. Orchards depend upon bees and hire a beekeepers hives for pollination during the blossoming season. Seed-savers require full time pollination to ensure viable seed is produced and often keep their own bees for this purpose.

In order to attract neighboring honey bees to your garden, keep several of their favorite nectar sources growing nearby. A few tree sources are maples, tulip poplars, sourwoods and citrus. Of the smaller plants, honey bees like white clover, dandelion and asters to name only a few.

For the best of pollination potential, it is recommended for that the serious organic gardener consider keeping his/her own bees. Keeping bees is an endeavour which requires some education beforehand, but the majority of the learning must be the result of experience.

Bumble Bees

Bumble bees are another significant pollinator. They are encouraged by many flowering plants and housing can be built for them to ensure their presence in the garden. `

Well-Pollinated Fruits & Vegetables

Well pollinated blossoms will result in fully developed fruits. When pollinated favorably, fruits are large and filled with viable seeds, but without adequate pollination, the same fruit will be small, shriveled or nonexistant and lacking in the seeds to perpetuate its lineage. This natural cross pollination is also the natural way to strengthen the genetic material of the subsequent plant generations while simultaneously creating great diversity and variety in the plant kingdom.

Gardening Organically in Raised Beds

Benefits of Raised Beds

The benefits of raised beds over ground-level plots are numerous. The soil is most manageable in the raised bed as the additions of sand,peat, compost, etc... will not wash away. These additions will be worked in by a healthy population of worms since they also prefer the raised beds with their fluffy, untrodded soils.
It is much easier to work the small sections of raised bed gardens than to garden a large garden plot. Designing the garden to facilitate companions works most flexibly with smaller gardening sections. Overall design is enhanced by the tasteful design and placement of raised beds. Raised bed gardens also weather dry seasons more favorably than most level plots.

Building Raised Beds

There are many ways a raised bed may be constructed. The garden beds are easily terraced into a hillside with railroad ties, poured walls, rock walls, rough-sawn hardwood boards, small logs scewered onto rebar pins, etc.. Raised beds on less graded ground can be built in similar fashions. For design asthetics, place a raised bed against the backdrop of a wall, beside a garden bench or in the perimeter of a large or ornamental tree.

Resources & Links

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