I’ve discussed organic weed control a number of times before and this video also provides some good ideas and tips on how to prevent and control weeds in an organic garden.

Organic Gardening | Weed Control

Great soil is probably the most important ingredient in a successful organic garden. Composting garden waste, food scraps, and other plant materials is a great way to recycle and create a product which can improve your soil, enabling you to grow bigger and healthier vegetables.

Organic Gardening | Compost

Good tips for beginners starting an organic vegetable garden:

I’ve discussed propagating plants in the past and why you might want to do it. This video showing you how to propagate potatoes (which I’m sure everyone knows how to do) as well as propagating sweet potatoes (which I have never done but will definitely try).

Propagating Potatoes and Sweet Potatoes

Gardening Australia shows a fantastic edible organic garden in Sydney which is both beautiful and practical.

If you live in Australia, then you most likely know how it is to try and contend with those long, dry seasons. Does it ever seem like your garden just needs way too much water? Well, not only does watering your garden several times a week take up a lot of water, but it also takes up a lot of time! So, if you are into gardening, but would be into a garden that didn’t need so much water a lot more, then here is an idea for you… you need to drought proof your garden! Drought proof gardens are becoming more and more popular in Australia for one main reason… and that is the fact that drought proof gardens just take a fraction of the work.

You might think that a drought proof garden is dull and drab, but this does not have to be the case. You can have a lot of plants that look amazing, build your garden well, texture it, and have an absolutely amazing drought proof garden! There is a little more work involved in finding the right plants, but other than that, a drought proof garden is a piece of cake!

How to Drought Proof Your Garden

Here is how to drought proof your garden. First of all, you need to search for plants that require either minimal, or even no watering whatsoever. You may ask what kinds of plants do not need to be watered, and the answer is plants that are used to growing in the wild with only rainfall as their water source! A lot of plants do not require constant watering, and finding these is the key to having a drought proof garden.

Now, your next question might be… why would you want only local plants in your garden? Isn’t the point of a garden to have something a little bit exotic? Well, you are right! That is why you should look into buying plants from locals similar to yours. There are a lot of places like Australia, and you should be able to find plants that will thrive in your location without much trouble.

As far as grouping your plants, if you are going to be putting any plants into your garden that need to be watered, try to group them together so that you do not accidentally over-water the others. This also helps you to avoid wasting water by watering plants that do not need it.

If you have a garden, or even just a house in Australia, then you have probably noticed a problem… bugs. Well, don’t worry. These tiny pests bother gardeners all over the world, but how are you going to handle them? This is a good question, and a lot of people answer it by saying that they are going to commercially spray for bugs and pests using the popular pesticides and chemicals. Well, while this will get rid of the pests, it does pose another problem… and it is much bigger. In fact, these chemicals may kill the pests, but they are damaging our planet at the same time. You see, when you spray artificial chemicals into the ground, you are hurting the water supply and putting unneeded toxins into the ground. You might ask what other way there is to handle the situation though, and luckily, there is an alternative… homemade pest control.

Home Made Natural Disease and Pest Control

Making your own pest control substances is great for a lot of reasons. For one, they are eco friendly, meaning that they are better for our planet because they lack some of the nastier chemicals. Two, these types of pest control mixtures are cheaper because they can usually be put together with ingredients you already have at home. And three, they actually work quite well! Just remember… these mixtures might be better for the planet, and while they are not as dangerous as the commercial chemicals, they should still be used with caution. Now, here are some of the most popular pest control mixtures being used in Australia today… with any luck, any of these should help you cut down a lot on your bug problem!

For mealy bugs or scale bugs, you can make an oil mixture that suffocates them. To do this, mix about four tablespoons of liquid dishwashing soap into a cup of vegetable oil. Mix this part to about 20 parts of water, and spray it on your plants. It is completely safe for your plants, and it will take care of these pests in no time!

Are you having trouble with aphids, caterpillars, or other insect pests? Well, you can put two tablespoons worth of soap flakes into a liter of clean water, and stir this mixture until it dissolves thoroughly. Spray this directly onto your plants, and it should take care of the problem!

Pesticides are chemicals which are sprayed on plants to kill pests (usually bugs), that threaten to eat the plants or cause damage to them. Now, it is true that bugs used to do a significant amount of damage to goods every year, and it is true that this did, in a small part, cut into the profits made by the big-time produce providers. So, as a result, pesticides came into use. But while this eco-destructive practice of spraying deadly chemicals on the world’s food supply might spell bad news for bugs, it may also be spelling bad news for us and for our planet as well.

Pesticides come with many dangers, and most of these are ignored by the majority. A lot of people just do not realise what kind of dangers these harmful concoctions bring to us as humans, and that the dangers they pose to our planet are significant enough to make a huge difference. So, just how are these chemicals dangerous to us and to the earth? Well, here are a few ways.

The Dangers of Pesticides

First, when pesticides are sprayed on plants to kill bugs, they do cover the bugs like they are supposed to… but they also penetrate deeper. The chemicals seep down into the soil, and are absorbed by the roots of the plants. As a result, the chemicals make it to us not only inside of the food itself, but also on the outside. A lot of vegetables still have pesticides on them when they come to the supermarket, so make sure to wash all of your vegetables with soap and water before eating them!

But, unfortunately, the chemicals do not stop by seeping into the soil. They continue to seep downward, and sometimes they go as far as to enter the ground water supply. When this happens, the chemicals end up in our drinking water! And a lot of times, we get all of these chemicals straight from the water without realising it. Unless you filter your water, there is no telling how many pesticides you are getting in your drinking water right now because of excessive pesticide usage!

But it does not stop there… farm workers exposed to pesticides have been coming down with sicknesses and have been reaping negative effects from these chemicals for years! This is not only a great way to destroy our planet, but a good way to destroy ourselves right along with it!

So, whenever possible, try to use natural pest control mixes, and stop using harmful chemicals. Even spraying a small yard can do a lot of damage to the water supply of a neighborhood, so don’t take the risk!

Growing plants by seed is the cheapest way to get fresh, home grown fruit and vegetables. You can buy organic seeds to ensure that no nasty chemicals have been used and if you use organic gardening methods you will have an abundance of healthy, pesticide free food.

When growing vegetables (or any plants) from seed, you have two options; plant the seeds directly in the garden bed or plant them in a seed tray and then transplant the seedlings once they have established themselves. Planting the seeds directly in the bed can work well but the seedlings are at risk of attack by predators, such as snails, as well as the weather. Using a seed tray avoids these risks but you can lose some of the seedlings when planting out due to transplant shock.

So what is the best solution? Use individual seed boxes which can be planted directly into the ground. This way there is no transplant shock and the seedlings will be strong enough to survive being out in the open.

You can buy seed boxes or containers from garden centres but they are so expensive that it defeats the purpose of growing your own plants from seed. If the purpose is to save money, that is. The best way is to make your own. You can try using egg boxes or the cardboard from toilet rolls or paper towels. These will work. The other option is to make origami seed boxes. It will take a little effort to make them but once you get the hang of it you’ll get them done in no time. Small Meadow Farm also has some info on making newspaper pots.  Thanks to Groovy Green for the links.

The Sustainable Gardening Australia (SGA) website has lots of useful information for organic gardeners, both home gardeners and professional gardeners. They provide information on:

• sustainable gardening
• gardening tours
• sustainable garden centres
• green gardening training
• getting your garden centre certified as sustainable

The Bayside Community Nursery in Cheltenham (Victoria) has just been certified as sustainable by SGA. The nursery deals mainly in indigenous Australian plants including native:

• trees
• shrubs
• groundcovers
• grasses

The nursery does not sell fertilisers and pesticides, which are rarely, if ever, required when growing native plants and also help the environment by using cardboard boxes rather than plastic bags when selling plants.

Benefits of Getting Certified

The SGA site suggests a number of benefits of becoming certified sustainable:

• Reducing the amount of environmentally damaging pesticides and fertilisers used by gardeners.

• Encouraging gardeners to avoid the use of pesticides by keeping their plants healthy- plant choice and positioning, companion planting and soil conditioning.

• Encouraging gardeners to fertilise their plants with products that enhance soil structure and encourage healthy soil biota.

• Reducing the number of environmental weeds escaping from gardens into natural areas by:

• Educating gardeners about which plants are weeds in their area.

• Teaching gardeners how to control plants in their gardens to stop them spreading outside their fences.

• Reducing the amount of water gardeners use.

• Encouraging mulching, plant grouping and low water use irrigation systems.

• Reducing the off-site environmental damage that can be caused by gardening.

• Offering alternative products to old-growth timber, whole bush-harvested plants and pots produced in unsustainable ways.

If you are looking for a sustainable garden centre in Melbourne then give the Bayside Community Nursery a try, otherwise you can find a list of sustainable garden centres here.