Rarely known 6 highly effective organic weed control for your summer garden.

Most of the times we tend to pull out the seedlings that grow along with the weeds. This is what I did to my little lettuces that was growing inbetween my onions. We either tend to do this either by mistake or our weeder equipment just pulls out the veggie seedlings as it weeds.

But this information that I am going to share here is what I knew only later, after causing much humiliation to my veggie seedlings in the summer garden. 

Remember these important factors in organic weed control: 

1. Critical period of harm: Weeds cause harm to your plants only during the critical period, which is 6 to 8 weeks after sowing or transplanting the veggies. It is only this period of competition by the weeds that causes great harm to the yield. Weeds that grow after this period do not affect your plants but, we must be watchful to prevent the formation of seeds. 

Protip: The weeds that you weed out can also be used back in your garden to increase yield of your vegetable plants. Know how.  

2. Sensitivity to root disturbance: This is another major factor that needs to tbe considered while weeding. If your weeding session causes intense harm to your black peas and beans then they might never recover. Also a slight mangling of vines to the cucumber family may cause great harm to the plants. It will prevent the plants from proper ripening. 

Related article: Highly effective homemade fertilizer for your vegetable plants

3. Plants with their own organic weed control system: The vigorous vining of canopy tend to cause a dense canopy effect to the weeds by shading them and thus turns out to be an effective self weed prevention system. Similarly, the dense green ground cover of the stems of sweet potatoes also tend to form their own weed control. 

Know this: Do you notice these common signs in your plant - Be alert.

You can use such plants strategically in your summer garden to prevent weeds organically. For instance, growing canopy forming crops like squash as a weed suppresser in the bed will also help the plants in the adjoining row by extending it's weed control system to the adjoining rows. These canopy forming plants will also help to retain soil moisture.   

Related article: 5 must know gardening idea and gardening hacks

4. Growing leafy greens as weed controller: Leafy green veggies or herbs such as mustard can be grown in between onions and other veggies. These will shade out the weeds that are growing and will prevent them from flourishing in the critical period. Mustard greens tend to grow out as a natural mulch that is great and great to prevent weeds. In addition to shading out weeds, it enhances the soil greatly and reduces soil borne diseases. 

Related article: Homemade fertilizer rich in Nitrogen and Potassium. 

5. Consider nurse crops: Nurse crops are short term crops that can be grown in the summer gap. These will keep your bed or soil engaged during the summer gap and provide organic weed control until you need the space back for your veggie seedlings. Buckwheat and peas can be excellent nurse crops. Once you want to clear the space for seedlings, just pull out these and use them as mulch on your bed. 

Related article: Want to grow huge amounts of potatoes successfully in containers at home - know this. 

6. Use enhanced mulch system: Using news papers as mulch on the soil or your raised bed is a good option as it tends to keep the weeds out much effectively. You can lay a thick layer of newspaper around the plants and then cover it with a layer of common mulch that you use such as, sawdust, grass clippings, wood chips etc. 

10 beautiful gardening ideas for home

Creating a beautiful garden is a great passion for almost everyone. Gardening tips and gardening ideas for home are always sought out inorder to give that extra great look to our garden. 

Here are 10 sime tips for a beautiful garden. These garden ideas for home will make your garden look awesome. 

Beautiful gardens appeal to our senses. The colours and immense diversity of design combinations, fragrance, flavours, sounds from birds and insects attracted to the plants and variety of textures.

Go for a drive around your neighbourhood and take notice of the gardens that catch your eye or next time you visit a friend’s garden, be observant and tune in to what you love about it. No doubt they will be applying some design principles and elements that apply whether they are used in art, graphics, building, interior or garden design.

“A garden is a thing of beauty and a job forever.” – Richard Briers

Simple concepts can make a HUGE difference to the enjoyment of your garden space and particularly so, when it is a micro garden. Designers use these principles all over the world to make spaces really stand out and visually beautiful. Less really can be more if you know how.

1. Add flowers or flowering plants

Splashes of colour break up green, provide variety, contrast and focal points. Try sowing both annuals and perennial flowers. e.g. cosmos, hydrangeas, sunflowers and marigolds.

You don’t specifically have to plant flowers though. A wide range of herbs and vegetables have beautiful flowers too. These include: chives (purple), spring onions (white), dill (yellow), thyme (pale pink to purple), basils (white or purple), pineapple sage (red), rosemary (purple), rocket (white), as well as all flowering vegetables and fruits.

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Highly effective homemade fertilizer for your vegetable garden - Gardening tips and Gardening ideas.

Mostly your vegetable plants and fruit plants require a wide range of nutrients, and potassium is one of the most important nutrients out of the three major ones. We will see about an easy to make homemade fertilizer that can supply your plants, especially vegetable plants in your terrace garden or balcony garden with high amounts of potassium and also other vital nutrients. 

Most of us generally get this fertilizer at home on a daily basis, but tend to neglect it because of not knowing its uses for plants. This is none other than wood ash. Yes, when you burn  wood for any purpose, it leaves out ashes and these ashes are rich sources of nutrients for your plants. 

Nutrients in wood ash which makes it a good homemade fertilizer for your garden:

Even if you don’t burn wood at home regularly, it is a very good option to burn wood just for the purpose of getting a fertilizer that enhances the flowering and fruiting of your plants. Wood ash contains a good amount of potassium and Phosphorus, which are highly essential for plant growth. Wood ash also contains micronutrients such as calcium, zinc, manganese and iron, which are essential for healthy plant growth. 

Let’s see how to use this wood ash for your plants. There are 3 common ways of using wood ash for your garden. Each one has its own uses. 

1. Using wood ash in compost:

Wood ash  can be mixed with either your kitchen compost or your vermicomposting. If you are using wood ash along with your kitchen compost you can add a thin layer of wood ash for every 6 inches of your compost pile. 

Uses of wood ash in compost: 

Wood ash is alkaline in nature and thus it tends to reduce the acidity of the compost. Once the acidity is reduced, the worms can easily work on your compost and help it to decompose faster. This kind of compost that is less acidic is very suitable for mulching your vegetable plants in the garden. The compost that is made with adding wood ash to it is also richer than the general kitchen compost as they have the worm decomposed nutrients in it. 

2. Using wood ash directly in your garden soil:

Most of the vegetable plants generally require a soil pH of about 6.5 to 7.0, if your soil is below 6.5, then it is highly recommended to add wood ash to the soil directly as it would balance the soil’s nature. Moreover, if you use lot’s of cattle manure in your garden soil, then it is highly useful to add wood ash, because cattle manure tends to make the soil acidic. 

You can also add wood ash in your potting mix when you are potting a new plant or while repotting.  

3. Adding wood ash around the plants:

Plants such as cabbage, Brussels and fruit bushes that love alkaline soil can be given a side dressing with wood ash. This also prevents club root formation in plants which is mostly common in acidic soil. 

Caution - if using wood ash: 

Wood ash is not to be used for acid loving plants such as berries and potatoes, especially, blueberries and raspberries need acidic soil for maximum growth and production. 

Use this homemade liquid fertilizer as a rich source of nitrogen and potassium for your plants.

Be it gardening beginners or those who have been into gardening for quite a few years, all of us are constantly looking out for organic homemade fertilizers which can provide rich nutrients to the plants.

Various liquid fertilizers

In this hunt for liquid fertilizers, we would have tried quiet a lot of homemade fertilizers ranging from manure tea, compost tea, banana peel liquid fertilizers, onion skin liquid fertilizer to crushed egg shell liquid fertilizer.

View this video to know in detail about use of coffee grounds for your garden.

This particular fertilizer that we are going to discuss today is quite different from the above ones and it can be easily made from one if the common plants that grows in your garden or backyard itself. But, this plant is considered a waste and commonly thrown away. It is also mostly considered as a hindrance to your other useful for growing vegetable plants or growing ornamental plants.

By this time you should have guessed it, yes it is nothing other than grass. Most of the time, almost in every garden and lawns we have these grasses growing out of control. We just trim of the grasses and throw it away.

What does the usage of grass do for your plants in the garden?

Here is the good news. These grasses when used as a liquid fertilizer will contribute to enhanced growth and development of plants and it also increases the quality of food provided by the plants.

Ok, now before we move onto the actual process of how to make liquid fertilizer using grass, let's see what component in grass actually contributes to this better growth of your plants.

What nutrient does grass have which acts as a fertilizer for plants?

Grass is very high in nitrogen content and this component is the one that actually makes up the plant DNA and chlorophyll, which is necessary for making its own food.

Apart from this, the grass liquid fertilizer is also rich in potassium and this is the component that plays multiple roles in plant growth. Potassium helps in help in 

1. Easy transport of water, nutrients and carbohydrates in plant tissue
2. Increase root growth
3. Reduce wilting
4. Increases photosynthesis
5. Enhances the protein content in plants
6. Decreases or slows down crop diseases


Video on 11 organic fertilizers that you wouldn't have known

 

How to make grass liquid fertilizer for your garden?

Having so many benefits for your garden, now it is high time to see how to make this grass liquid fertilizer or grass garden tea for your plants.

Step 1. Every time you cut down your grass from your lawn or your backyard, just collect them in a bucket.

Step 2. Once you have half a bucket of these grass cuttings add water in the bucket till it covers the grass surface.

Step 3. Allow this to sit for 1week to 10 days.

Step 4. Intermittently keep mixing it, in order to aerate it well

Step 5. After 10 days you can use this grass liquid  homemade fertilizer directly to your plants or if you want to feed your seedlings or smaller plants, just dilute the solution in 1:3 ratio and add it to the plants.

This fertilizer can be made much effective by adding few other plants or something called weeds in your garden. Here are the other kinds of weeds or plants that can be added to make the liquid fertilizer.

5 must know Gardening Hacks and Gardening Ideas - Gardening for Beginners

Gardening is an evergreen hobby for almost everyone. More and more youngsters are getting interested in gardening, and organic gardening has taken up a new place in the hearts of people. If you are here reading this blog, then definitely you are also one among them looking for some easy gardening hacks or gardening ideas that can help you grow as a successful gardener. If you are looking for some kind of content related to gardening for beginners, then go ahead and read till the end. 

Gardening hack number 1: News papers can help you get rid of the number one gardening enemy - the weeds. 

If you are a gardening beginner, then definitely weeds will be one of the most common gardening problems that you will face. Ofcourse, these are still a hectic problem for those who have been gardening for years together. Here is a simple but highly effective hack that will help you get rid of the weeds in your garden bed. 

Just take a thick layer of newspaper and spread it around your plants just leaving the area of the plants that you have planted. Water it well so that it will not fly away. The thick layer of newspaper will not allow the seeds of the weeds to sprout and grow. 

Other alternatives: Instead of a news paper you can use rice sacks and to add some weight on the rice sacks to stop it from flying. You can just add some sand or gravel on top of it. 

       

Gardening hack number 2: Ants and vaseline, what's the link?

Ants are the next biggest problem in the garden or It might even be inside your house. Vaseline can help you get rid of ants, wondering how? Just dab some vaseline in the ant hole openings, ant’s pathways and places where they hide. Ants and other such insects do not move on the sticky layer.

Gardening hack number 3: See what baby powders can do for your plants.

If you have been into gardening for quite longer, you would have definitely known that Japanese beetles are one among the troubles for your flower and vegetable garden. These can be avoided by just sprinkling some baby powder on the plant leaves. This will keep them away at least till the powder is washed off. 

Gardening idea number 4: Do cats usually tend to spoil your herb garden?

Small herb gardens in your kitchen window sill or in your backyard are the most common place of visit for your cats and these easily tend to mess up your herb garden. To prevent cats, just place some forks around the herb plants just as shown in the picture below.

Gardening idea number 5: Plan out for companion gardening. 

There are certain plants that thrive well when planted close to other plants and there are certain plants that thrive well only when planted alone. For instance, tomatoes, the most commonly grown vegetable at home, tends to thrive well and produce more when planted together with basil. Other companion plants for tomatoes are spinach, carrots, lettuce, onion etc. Here are the enemies for tomatoes and they are, cabbage,potatoes, beets, rosemary etc.