ARE ORGANIC GARDENS PRODUCTIVE?

Many people will also use the vegetables for canning, which can be stored away for cold winter months or given out as gifts to friends and family. Herbs and flowers grown in an organic garden also make excellent gifts. You can create potpourri wreaths, bottles of herbed vinegar and oil, a starter set for someone else to grow, and many other wonderful gifts.

These are just a few ideas of how an organic garden can be productive for you. Again, the level of productivity is up to you but in most cases, the possibilities are endless!

 



 

Organic Gardening

Conatiner Gardening

FIGHTING DISEASE

We know that organic gardening is an excellent way to provide rich nutrients. However, can organic gardening also help plants fight disease? First, it is important to realize that when it comes to plant diseases, there are hundreds upon hundreds of different types.

Some of these diseases will only affect a few types of plants and vegetables while others are broader. Before we get to the answer of this important question, let us look at what causes diseases, how they spread, how they can be controlled, and some basic treatments.

Causes of Disease

Plants and vegetables get disease when they are exposed to bacteria or a virus. The good news is that there many good options for fighting disease. The key is providing your garden with early treatment as soon as you realize it has a disease. Unfortunately, some diseases cannot be cured regardless of what you do.

Ways Diseases are Spread

In most cases, plants and vegetables are infected by airborne diseases or through insects and other animals. For diseases that are airborne, they can only be stopped if their breeding ground is eliminated and then treated.

In the case of diseases transmitted by insects and animals, the options for preventing and stopping the disease are much greater. For this particular problem, if you can control the bad pests, then you can control the disease. Additionally, disease can live in the soil, especially mulch and compost, which are crucial for organic gardens.

One excellent way to prevent disease in soil is to rotate your crops by making sure plants and vegetables of the same family are not planted in the location each year. Another consideration is that once you pull diseased plants, be sure you seal them in a garbage bag and throw them away. By placing them in the compost pile, the disease will spread even worse.

Keep in mind that one serious problem for organic gardens involve organisms that are notorious for attacking the plant’s tissue. Typically, these organisms will get into the plant through stressed, weakened, or broken tissue. For example, if the plant has a nick or cut, organisms can get in. Another consideration for damaged plants is that some insets look for ways to suck the juices out and in doing so they actually inject toxins into the plant while feeding.

Controlling Disease

The best way to control disease is by preventing it from happening in the first place. Just as with pests, educating yourself on the various types of diseases is an excellent idea, which will be covered further in this book.

However, to give you an idea of the types of things you can do to reduce the chance of your organic garden from becoming diseased, consider the following:

Never water your garden at night since water, humidity, and heat will promote disease

When you water, preferably in the morning, be sure you water at the base of the roots and not just on top of the plants and vegetables

Again, rotate your crops each year. Otherwise disease remains in the soil during the wintertime and then when you till, the diseased plant is tilled right back into the soil, making the disease worse

When choosing the location of your garden, make sure it has plenty of air circulation

Do not space the plants and vegetables too close together

Throw diseased plants away, never putting them in the compost pile

When choosing plants and vegetables, choose disease resistant varieties

Disease Treatments

The most important thing is that the minute you notice that you have a disease plant you want to treat it immediately. The longer you wait, the worse the disease will be. If the plant or vegetable does not respond quickly, then it should be pulled and destroyed. Specific diseases and treatments are covered further on.

Using natural methods is an efficient way to assure pathogenic organisms have energy to go to battle with the bad organisms. In addition to that, the good organisms will actually prey on the bad ones when active. This battle between the good and the bad organisms occurs on a leaf or on a small section of soil, which is known as “competitive exclusion.”

Therefore, when you promote the production of the good organisms in your organic garden, the chances of the pathogenic or bad organisms causing or spreading disease is dramatically reduced.

To start the competitive exclusion process, you want to apply an abundance of organic matter directly to the soil or you can do this by adding it to the compost pile, organic mulch, and manure that will eventually be added to the soil. What happens is that when you add organic matter to your garden, it encourages the growth of the good organisms. All you need to do is add a four-inch layer of the compost, mulch, or manure to provide the good organisms with the needed energy. As the organisms grow, they produce in the rich, organic soil. In other words, the answer is yes – organic gardening can help plants fight disease.

Choosing Plants and Vegetables