FAQ About Organic Gardens

From time to time, you may have questions about what organic gardening is and how to do it.  Whenever those questions do arise it is time to search for a FAQ about organic gardens.  This type of a FAQ will provide you with the answers you need regarding the most common types of questions that are asked on this topic.

Q: What does the term organic gardening mean?

A: Organic gardening incorporates your entire landscape design and its surrounding environment into the gardening that you do.  This improves your soil because synthetic materials are not used.

Q: How do I know if the soil in my backyard is safe for planting an organic garden?

A: You need to conduct a soil test in order to learn what is in it.  This will tell you if there are any pesticides or synthetic compounds therein.

Q: How do I make organic pesticides and fungicides?

A: You can find many effective recipes online.  You can also use garlic, hot peppers and onions mixed with water and applied to your plants.

Q: Are all animals’ manure safe to use in my garden?

A: You should use manure that comes from vegetarian animals, for example horses and cow manure, because meat-eating animals oftentimes produce unwanted bacteria and disease.

Q: What items can I compost?

A: There are a lot of things that are beneficial to your compost pile, including pet hair, paper, popcorn, lint, matches, rotten fruit, coffee grounds, grapefruit rinds, pasta, jell-o, felt, Q-tips, moldy cheese, glue, soy milk, fingernails and toenails, olive pits, stale cookies, cakes or cereals, fish bones and feathers.

Q: What can I do to make aphids stop eating my plants?

A: Spray them with a mixture of insecticidal soap and water or introduce a large population of ladybugs and green lacewings into your garden as they feast on them.

Q: What items are “green” and what items are “brown” for composting?

A: This is important because you want to make sure that equal parts of each are included within your compost bin to create manure for your organic garden.  Brown items include: leaves, pine needles, twigs, tree bark, straw, hay, sawdust, corn stalks, paper, dryer lint, cotton fabric and corrugated cardboard.  Green items include: grass clippings, coffee grounds, tea bags, vegetable and fruit scraps, trimmings from perennial and annual plants, annual weeds that haven't set seed, eggshells, animal manure and seaweed.

Q: How should I water my garden?

A: Watering should be done in the morning.  It should be deep and infrequent in order to encourage roots to really penetrate the soil.

Q: When should I add manure?

A: Never add fresh manure directly to your garden.  Add it to your compost pile and then once your compost pile is ready, you can add that to your garden.

Q: Does organic fertilizer stink?

A: No.  Fresh manure will stink.  Anything else that smells should be composted until it stops smelling before adding it to your garden.