Organic Gardens
- Pick Your Own Produce Farms
- Keep Squirrels off Tomatoes
- Control Carpenter Bees
- Organize Your Garden Supplies
- Make a Hydroponics System
- Increase Your Food Security
- Cutworm Control
- Choosing an Organic Mulch
- Little Helpers in the Garden
- Free Container Plants
Posted by
Jamie McIntosh
Jamie McIntosh
Look for pick your own farms and orchards this summer as a way to support local organic agriculture.
Last week, I celebrated the peak of summer’s bounty by going to a u-pick blueberry farm with my family. As we pulled into the farm, I realized this old-fashioned pastime is much more popular than I ever thought. In spite of the midweek workday and the glaring sun, there were at least 1000 other eager berry pickers scavenging the fields when we pulled off the dirt road.
The buckets were all gone, but my boys tore into the patch with their plastic bags, ripping blue, red, and green berries off the bushes in their frenzy. After a quick tutorial in recognizing ripeness in blueberries, they calmed their picking pace and became more selective in their harvest.
Of course, half the fun of u-pick farms is eating ripe berries out of hand, and I think we rivaled a hungry black bear in our feasting. I resembled Violet from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and I wondered if I would have to be rolled off to the de-juicing machine.
I didn’t worry about washing the berries, as this family farm uses organic growing methods. The berry patch had several tricks up their sleeves to control marauders, including loudspeakers that regularly piped in unnerving screeches from birds-of-prey to repel avian pests.
If your garden isn’t yielding everything you hoped for this season, visit a local pick your own farm, and support sustainable agriculture.
The buckets were all gone, but my boys tore into the patch with their plastic bags, ripping blue, red, and green berries off the bushes in their frenzy. After a quick tutorial in recognizing ripeness in blueberries, they calmed their picking pace and became more selective in their harvest.
Of course, half the fun of u-pick farms is eating ripe berries out of hand, and I think we rivaled a hungry black bear in our feasting. I resembled Violet from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and I wondered if I would have to be rolled off to the de-juicing machine.
I didn’t worry about washing the berries, as this family farm uses organic growing methods. The berry patch had several tricks up their sleeves to control marauders, including loudspeakers that regularly piped in unnerving screeches from birds-of-prey to repel avian pests.
If your garden isn’t yielding everything you hoped for this season, visit a local pick your own farm, and support sustainable agriculture.
Posted by
Jamie McIntosh
Jamie McIntosh
Organic gardeners must outsmart tenacious squirrels in the vegetable garden.
This time of year, many organic gardeners anticipate harvesting the first ripe tomato on the block. We nurtured our little seedlings in cold frames or windowsills, we amended the soil with ample amounts of compost, and we plucked hornworms off plants or chuckled as beneficial wasps laid their egg cases upon the caterpillars. However, as the first blush appears on our fruits, there’s one more critter to contend with: squirrels. It seems that the first hint of orange acts as a calling card to squirrels, even if you thought you didn’t have much of a squirrel population.
It might not be as infuriating if the little tree rats didn’t behave as if they were mischievous children sticking their fingers in each chocolate in the box, trying to find a hidden favorite. The wasteful rodents take one or two nibbles, and then discard the fruits on the ground.
You can repel squirrels from your organic garden without resorting to chemical squirrel repellants:
It might not be as infuriating if the little tree rats didn’t behave as if they were mischievous children sticking their fingers in each chocolate in the box, trying to find a hidden favorite. The wasteful rodents take one or two nibbles, and then discard the fruits on the ground.
You can repel squirrels from your organic garden without resorting to chemical squirrel repellants:
- Provide several drinking stations around your garden. Sometimes squirrels bite into unripe fruit seeking moisture, rather than nourishment.
- Choose tomato varieties that remain green after they ripen. You’ll harvest ‘Green Zebra’ tomatoes before the squirrels notice them.
- Distract them with a squirrel feeder. You can buy squirrel food made from compressed corn that lasts longer than kernel corn and leaves no mess behind.
Posted by
Jamie McIntosh
Jamie McIntosh
No one likes carpenter bees drilling into their decks and homes. However, these insects have an important role in your organic garden.
Whenever my children observe a new insect in the garden, they turn to me and ask, “How does that bug help us, mommy?” From a young age, children want to categorize the things in their world into good and bad, helpful and harmful. In a child’s eyes, flies and wasps are always bad, while butterflies and ladybugs are welcome visitors.
It’s up to us to point out the nuances of the insect world to our children. Yes, wasps can sting or behave aggressively, but they also feast on destructive caterpillars. Carpenter bees are another insect whose merits go unrecognized. It’s easy to condemn these plump bees with their shiny black abdomens, who hover menacingly in front of our faces when we wander into their territory. They drill unsightly holes into our decks and roof eaves, leaving a telltale pile of sawdust beneath their excavations.
However, according to the Ohio State Extension Service, carpenter bees are an important pollinator of trees and flowers. You may also be surprised to learn that, in spite of their unnerving appearance, aggressive-acting males lack a stinger. Furthermore, they don’t feed on wood, and the damage they cause is cosmetic, not structural. In light of the current bee colony collapse crisis, organic gardeners would do well to encourage all beneficial bee species, even when they cause a nuisance.
If carpenter bees plague you, repel them by painting all wood surfaces with oil-based paint. When you observe a bee excavating a new hole, fill it immediately with wood putty to discourage the drilling activity.
It’s up to us to point out the nuances of the insect world to our children. Yes, wasps can sting or behave aggressively, but they also feast on destructive caterpillars. Carpenter bees are another insect whose merits go unrecognized. It’s easy to condemn these plump bees with their shiny black abdomens, who hover menacingly in front of our faces when we wander into their territory. They drill unsightly holes into our decks and roof eaves, leaving a telltale pile of sawdust beneath their excavations.
However, according to the Ohio State Extension Service, carpenter bees are an important pollinator of trees and flowers. You may also be surprised to learn that, in spite of their unnerving appearance, aggressive-acting males lack a stinger. Furthermore, they don’t feed on wood, and the damage they cause is cosmetic, not structural. In light of the current bee colony collapse crisis, organic gardeners would do well to encourage all beneficial bee species, even when they cause a nuisance.
If carpenter bees plague you, repel them by painting all wood surfaces with oil-based paint. When you observe a bee excavating a new hole, fill it immediately with wood putty to discourage the drilling activity.
Posted by
Jamie McIntosh
Jamie McIntosh
Organize your garden space, so you can devote more time to gardening and less time to searching for tools and garden treatments.
“Jamie, where is my cell phone?” “Mommy, where are my tinker toys?” “My sunglasses were here just a minute ago, now where are they?” Objects of all sizes become lost in our home each week, and my husband and three sons look to me for clues of there whereabouts. “I am not the curator of this museum,” I want to tell them. If I were, I would need to cull the collection severely!
Although I’m as befuddled as the rest of my family as to the location of the missing magazine/gas key/model airplane, I’m on top of the tools and the products I need to maintain my organic garden. My time in the garden is limited, so I can’t afford to spend 30 minutes rummaging around in the shed for my horticultural vinegar when I spot a new poison ivy tendril winding its way along the fence line.
If your organizing style consists of a five-gallon bucket filled with some rusty tools and a resident spider, consider some organizing tips to help you manage your gardening implements:
Although I’m as befuddled as the rest of my family as to the location of the missing magazine/gas key/model airplane, I’m on top of the tools and the products I need to maintain my organic garden. My time in the garden is limited, so I can’t afford to spend 30 minutes rummaging around in the shed for my horticultural vinegar when I spot a new poison ivy tendril winding its way along the fence line.
If your organizing style consists of a five-gallon bucket filled with some rusty tools and a resident spider, consider some organizing tips to help you manage your gardening implements:
- Hang your favorite weed knife or dandelion digger on a nail beside your garden bed. You’re more apt to use it to grub out weeds while they’re small if your weeding tool is handy.
- Place a bucket filled with a mixture of coarse sand and vegetable oil to plunge your trowels and garden pruning shears into at the end of the day. The sand scours dirt and the oil prevents rust.
- Keep your organically acceptable dusts and sprays locked up in an area that stays between 60 and 80 degrees F. Garden sprays begin to degrade when exposed to scorching or frigid temperatures.
- Store seeds you’ve saved in a plastic partitioned pill box. Place name labels on the lid over each section.
Posted by
Jamie McIntosh
Jamie McIntosh
Large-scale hydroponics growing systems are expensive, but you can build your own for less than half the price of a retail kit.
Although I would love to live on a few acres of fertile farmland so that I could garden to my heart’s content, I must make do with my average sized suburban lot. My soil is hardpan clay, typical for this area, provided by the homebuilders after they scraped away the natural topsoil and sold it to topsoil providers. To complete the cycle of indignation, we must buy back our own soil (or someone else’s) from these topsoil retailers if we wish to reclaim what was naturally occurring in the first place!
Placing my grumblings about soil aside, many organic gardeners don't have a plot of earth to worrywart over. Urban gardeners are limited to small container gardens or community plots. Desert and beach dwelling gardeners may yearn to trade sand for loam. For these and other reasons, hydroponic gardening systems are an alternative growing method. You can grow flowers and vegetables in a hydroponic system that nourishes plants with a strictly controlled delivery of organic nutrients. Hydroponic growing systems are self-contained, so you can keep them indoors or on your patio or deck. Gardeners living in low rainfall areas can conserve water using this garden method.
High quality hydroponic kits can require a significant investment, but you can also build a hydroponic system from ordinary PVC pipes, lumber, a saw, and a heat gun. If you’re somewhat handy with tools, you can order detailed instructions and a DVD from EasiestGarden to complete this project over a weekend.
Placing my grumblings about soil aside, many organic gardeners don't have a plot of earth to worrywart over. Urban gardeners are limited to small container gardens or community plots. Desert and beach dwelling gardeners may yearn to trade sand for loam. For these and other reasons, hydroponic gardening systems are an alternative growing method. You can grow flowers and vegetables in a hydroponic system that nourishes plants with a strictly controlled delivery of organic nutrients. Hydroponic growing systems are self-contained, so you can keep them indoors or on your patio or deck. Gardeners living in low rainfall areas can conserve water using this garden method.
High quality hydroponic kits can require a significant investment, but you can also build a hydroponic system from ordinary PVC pipes, lumber, a saw, and a heat gun. If you’re somewhat handy with tools, you can order detailed instructions and a DVD from EasiestGarden to complete this project over a weekend.
Posted by
Jamie McIntosh
Jamie McIntosh
At the grocery store, increasing prices complement shrinking product sizes on the shelf. Meanwhile, you can still grow much of your family’s food for pennies.
Now that the weather has gotten warm enough to activate the ice cream lobe in my brain, the real estate space in my freezer has grown ever scarcer to accommodate chocolate mint chip, popsicles, ice cream sandwiches, and whatever other frozen treats beckon. True, we need another quart of ice cream in our house as if we need another hole in our heads, but in my house ice cream is as necessary in June as air.
Last week, as I pondered the trendy new flavors, I noticed a discrepancy in the carton sizes of one of my favorite brands. This manufacturer is in the midst of a product volume downsizing operation, and I caught them red-handed. If the switchover had been complete, I probably never would have noticed. After all, there was no banner proclaiming, “25% less for the same price!” Sadly, I’ve noticed this trend in many pre-packaged food products, from cereal to breakfast sausage. Food costs are rising, and manufacturers must compensate.
Although I’ve yet to churn out my own dairy treats at home, one way I can compensate for rising food costs is by growing organic fruits and vegetables on my property. It’s not difficult to find seed packets for 25 cents or less at the hardware store, and I can save seeds from heirloom vegetables for nothing. I can fertilize my garden with compost I made from lawn and kitchen scraps, and irrigate with runoff water trapped in rain barrels. Contrary to the incredible shrinking foodstuffs at the grocery store, I can grow bushels of zucchini to share with neighbors and giant watermelons for picnics. In fact, I know of a recipe for zucchini ice cream. How’s that for food security?
Last week, as I pondered the trendy new flavors, I noticed a discrepancy in the carton sizes of one of my favorite brands. This manufacturer is in the midst of a product volume downsizing operation, and I caught them red-handed. If the switchover had been complete, I probably never would have noticed. After all, there was no banner proclaiming, “25% less for the same price!” Sadly, I’ve noticed this trend in many pre-packaged food products, from cereal to breakfast sausage. Food costs are rising, and manufacturers must compensate.
Although I’ve yet to churn out my own dairy treats at home, one way I can compensate for rising food costs is by growing organic fruits and vegetables on my property. It’s not difficult to find seed packets for 25 cents or less at the hardware store, and I can save seeds from heirloom vegetables for nothing. I can fertilize my garden with compost I made from lawn and kitchen scraps, and irrigate with runoff water trapped in rain barrels. Contrary to the incredible shrinking foodstuffs at the grocery store, I can grow bushels of zucchini to share with neighbors and giant watermelons for picnics. In fact, I know of a recipe for zucchini ice cream. How’s that for food security?
Posted by
Jamie McIntosh
Jamie McIntosh
Keep cutworms from severing your seedlings by placing a wire beside each seed.
Have you ever tried to grow a plant that’s touted as “easy to grow,” only to experience one failure after another? Sunflowers fall into that category for me. I live in the sunflower state for gosh sakes, so you’d think I could tend a small sunflower patch in my yard. Even my husband concurred: “They’re weeds where I grew up,” he claims.
The problem is that many things like to eat sunflowers. Birds pluck the seeds from the earth. Insects mow down tender stems. Squirrels run amok through giant seed heads. Birds return to finish what’s left.
Today, I devised a new way to control a predator that has plagued me in the past, the cutworm. I’ve used physical barriers to keep these caterpillars from wrapping around the young stems, but I haven’t liked the trashy appearance of straws, toilet paper rolls, or 10 penny nails littering my garden.
Standing on the shoulders of other gardening giants, I modified these barriers by inserting a thin piece of florist’s wire beside each seed. I cackled inwardly as I imagined the worms foiled in the night by these nearly invisible wires.
I was filled with mirth until about halfway through planting, when the laborious nature of placing a wire perfectly alongside each seed began to wear on me. As my fingers trembled, I began to feel great empathy for those artisans who create detailed paintings on a grain of rice. Beads of sweat dropped from my forehead into each seed hole, giving the sunflowers their first taste of moisture. Thoughts of 14-foot giants in my front yard stopping traffic compelled me to finish. Check back in 3 months, and I’ll let you know how it worked out.
The problem is that many things like to eat sunflowers. Birds pluck the seeds from the earth. Insects mow down tender stems. Squirrels run amok through giant seed heads. Birds return to finish what’s left.
Today, I devised a new way to control a predator that has plagued me in the past, the cutworm. I’ve used physical barriers to keep these caterpillars from wrapping around the young stems, but I haven’t liked the trashy appearance of straws, toilet paper rolls, or 10 penny nails littering my garden.
Standing on the shoulders of other gardening giants, I modified these barriers by inserting a thin piece of florist’s wire beside each seed. I cackled inwardly as I imagined the worms foiled in the night by these nearly invisible wires.
I was filled with mirth until about halfway through planting, when the laborious nature of placing a wire perfectly alongside each seed began to wear on me. As my fingers trembled, I began to feel great empathy for those artisans who create detailed paintings on a grain of rice. Beads of sweat dropped from my forehead into each seed hole, giving the sunflowers their first taste of moisture. Thoughts of 14-foot giants in my front yard stopping traffic compelled me to finish. Check back in 3 months, and I’ll let you know how it worked out.
Posted by
Jamie McIntosh
Jamie McIntosh
Treat yourself to a premium mulch to suppress weeds and improve the soil in your organic garden.
I was sharing some gardening tips with a friend the other day who’s new to the hobby. I told her about my best-kept “secret,” which is getting a dump truck full of free mulch from the utility company as a byproduct of the tree trimming work they conduct. My friend innocently inquired if it has the same dark red color as the dyed hardwood mulch she prefers. I kept a poker face as I replied that no, alas, it does not.
There is an alternative for organic gardeners who are willing to pay premium prices for mulch that retains its beautiful dark color throughout the season. Cocoa bean hull mulch is a byproduct of the chocolate manufacturing process, rendering a lightweight soil cover that forms a porous mat in your garden. Although a 2-foot cubic bag costs around seven dollars, you only need to apply a one-inch layer over the soil to retain moisture and provide a cool root-run for your plants. You can expect a 2-foot cubic bag to cover about 20 square feet of garden space, so buy accordingly.
I can’t afford to carpet my entire garden with this mulch, but I do use cocoa bean shells around high-traffic areas that receive the most viewing from visitors. As the garden recedes, I apply cheaper mulch or even newspaper and cardboard.
A bonus of cocoa shell mulch is that it appears to repel cats, at least my cat. Max has executed some of his longest jumps ever in his attempts to keep his paws off that crackly textured mulch. A final word of warning: supervise your dog around cocoa bean mulch, as some are said to relish this inedible chocolate imitator as much as the real thing.
There is an alternative for organic gardeners who are willing to pay premium prices for mulch that retains its beautiful dark color throughout the season. Cocoa bean hull mulch is a byproduct of the chocolate manufacturing process, rendering a lightweight soil cover that forms a porous mat in your garden. Although a 2-foot cubic bag costs around seven dollars, you only need to apply a one-inch layer over the soil to retain moisture and provide a cool root-run for your plants. You can expect a 2-foot cubic bag to cover about 20 square feet of garden space, so buy accordingly.
I can’t afford to carpet my entire garden with this mulch, but I do use cocoa bean shells around high-traffic areas that receive the most viewing from visitors. As the garden recedes, I apply cheaper mulch or even newspaper and cardboard.
A bonus of cocoa shell mulch is that it appears to repel cats, at least my cat. Max has executed some of his longest jumps ever in his attempts to keep his paws off that crackly textured mulch. A final word of warning: supervise your dog around cocoa bean mulch, as some are said to relish this inedible chocolate imitator as much as the real thing.
Posted by
Jamie McIntosh
Jamie McIntosh
Warm weather arrives just in time to save us from ourselves.
Any parent knows that long winters and young children don’t mix. I feel that sentiment in triplicate, being the mother to 3 preschool-aged boys. The novelty of snow boots and hot chocolate wore off around President’s Day, and we’re ready to shed winter like an emerging seedling sheds its seed capsule.
Although I have a very long fuse when it comes to tolerating the mischief of little boys, I was beginning to feel like an extra on the set of Lord of the Flies. Horrible F-words defined our long winter days spent indoors, including furniture Olympics, flying objects, and fighting. When the calendar announced spring was here, our weather didn’t cooperate. When some warm air did dare to trickle up from the Gulf of Mexico, Arctic winds from Canada fought back, producing tornadoes, severe storms, and hail.
I haven’t put away my long sleeved shirts and pants yet, but I think we’ve passed the tipping point where balmy winds will replace frigid ones. My children’s attitudes have undergone the same lovely metamorphosis as my gardens since we’ve emerged from our winter habitat, and I’m thrilled about having 3 little helpers at my side this growing season.
Each child wields his own watering can, and the oldest two boys are learning the difference between a perennial and a weed. I’m as proud as a mother can be as I nurture the next generation of organic gardeners.
Although I have a very long fuse when it comes to tolerating the mischief of little boys, I was beginning to feel like an extra on the set of Lord of the Flies. Horrible F-words defined our long winter days spent indoors, including furniture Olympics, flying objects, and fighting. When the calendar announced spring was here, our weather didn’t cooperate. When some warm air did dare to trickle up from the Gulf of Mexico, Arctic winds from Canada fought back, producing tornadoes, severe storms, and hail.
I haven’t put away my long sleeved shirts and pants yet, but I think we’ve passed the tipping point where balmy winds will replace frigid ones. My children’s attitudes have undergone the same lovely metamorphosis as my gardens since we’ve emerged from our winter habitat, and I’m thrilled about having 3 little helpers at my side this growing season.
Each child wields his own watering can, and the oldest two boys are learning the difference between a perennial and a weed. I’m as proud as a mother can be as I nurture the next generation of organic gardeners.
Posted by
Jamie McIntosh
Jamie McIntosh
Pot up unruly extras from the garden, and save money on container plants.
This is the time of year I can assess where my garden is going, and where it has been. If any plants didn’t make it through our harsh winter, I can see a blank spot in my garden. If any plants are threatening a garden coup, now is the time to divide them or transplant them to other parts of the yard.
I have a small woodland garden, and about 10 years ago, I purchased a few ostrich ferns to lend their lacy foliage as a foil to the magenta azalea blossoms. This spring, I watched their fiddleheads sprouting willy-nilly, until it appeared that my woodland garden was to be a homogenous stand of ostrich ferns.
I went out with my trowel and a bucket, and began digging out the exuberant fronds and their underground stolons and rhizomes. The future site of my next woodland garden is currently a stomping ground for 3 boys and 2 large dogs, so I viewed these extra plants as one step removed from a weed.
Yet, I couldn’t bring myself to toss these earnest new ferns into the compost bin. Didn’t I see ostrich ferns going for 15 dollars a pot at the nursery the other week? Suddenly, inspiration struck: These graceful plants, already nearing 18 inches tall, would look fantastic potted up on my deck. Eureka! I had just the pot, and now it’s brimming with mature ferns, at no cost. I’ll have until October to find a permanent home for them, or perhaps a friend who needs some ferns for her garden.
I have a small woodland garden, and about 10 years ago, I purchased a few ostrich ferns to lend their lacy foliage as a foil to the magenta azalea blossoms. This spring, I watched their fiddleheads sprouting willy-nilly, until it appeared that my woodland garden was to be a homogenous stand of ostrich ferns.
I went out with my trowel and a bucket, and began digging out the exuberant fronds and their underground stolons and rhizomes. The future site of my next woodland garden is currently a stomping ground for 3 boys and 2 large dogs, so I viewed these extra plants as one step removed from a weed.
Yet, I couldn’t bring myself to toss these earnest new ferns into the compost bin. Didn’t I see ostrich ferns going for 15 dollars a pot at the nursery the other week? Suddenly, inspiration struck: These graceful plants, already nearing 18 inches tall, would look fantastic potted up on my deck. Eureka! I had just the pot, and now it’s brimming with mature ferns, at no cost. I’ll have until October to find a permanent home for them, or perhaps a friend who needs some ferns for her garden.
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