Download Gardening Naturally By Anna Schmidt Start with soil: Plants need

Gardening Naturally
By
Anna Schmidt
Start with soil:
Plants need well-drained soil with plenty of nutrients.
Follow these steps to make sure your soil drains well.
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Limit use of the rototiller because it destroys soil structure. Instead use a garden fork to
break up the ground.
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Mushroom compost from a garden center provides an affordable way to put organic
matter back into soil.
Rotate the plants you grow in your garden every season so that the same nutrients aren’t
depleted year after year. Follow a shallow-rooted plant, such as lettuce with a deep-rooted
plant, such as tomato, to help break up the soil.
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Don’t walk on the garden because it causes compaction, which breaks down soil
structure and reduces its ability to drain.
A world of bugs:
When healthy plants grow in healthy soil, a diversity of insects follows. The key is to establish
enough beneficial bugs to control the bad ones. It’s actually very simple. To provide a
habitat for beneficial insects, such as ladybugs, wasps and spiders, keep flowering plants in
the garden as long as possible. Don’t spray insecticides that kill all bugs indiscriminately.
Instead, monitor an outbreak of bad bugs, and use a spray made specifically for those.
Even more options:
Gardening naturally does not mean abandoning all chemicals and simply letting all those
predators have free range and first taste of all your hard work. When necessary, use a host of
naturally derived, perfectly safe chemicals to ensure the balance doesn’t get out of whack.
Here are some commonly available natural insecticides listed in order of their strength. Start
with the mildest treatment to limit inadvertently damaging beneficial insects.
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Neem oil – a naturally derived oil from the neem tree that controls a wide range of
insects, including beetles, caterpillars and thrips
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Insecticidal soap – soapy water that suffocates insects
Diatomaceous soap – a natural powder that kills soft-skinned insects such as caterpillars
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Pyrethrums – strong, naturally derived pesticides that kill pests such as beetles, aphids
and caterpillars on contact
What about weeds?
If a “natural” garden breeds images of shoulder-high grass and spending your weekends
battling the Bermuda, breathe deeply – there is hope. The best way to minimize how much
effort you spend weeding is to prevent the weeds from having a chance to grow. Here are
some easy tips to do just that.
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Don’t let weeds go to seed
Cover exposed soil with straw mulch or purchase some landscape fabric
Water only the plants you are trying to grow. Water deeply and infrequently
Plant hour vegetables close enough together so they will create a “living mulch,” with the
mature plants’ leaves touching on e another. This keeps the soil cool and prevents moisture
evaporation
Keys to a successful natural garden
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Use lots of compost to build up soil health
Encourage a diversity of insects by having flowering plants in the garden all the time
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Select disease-resistant plants from reliable sources and buy only healthy seedlings
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Don’t leave soil exposed to eroding winds, rain and passing weed seeds.
Healthy benefits
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Increase your intake of vitamin C and trace minerals by eating fresh vegetables grown
organically
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Reduce your exposure to harmful insecticides by using natural-based garden
supplements
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Save money by growing your own produce
Tree and Shrub Planting Guidelines
Be patient with your daffodil and crocus foliage. Even though many of the blooms have
finished for the season allow the old leaves to stand until they start to yellow on their own.
The next few weeks are critical to successful blooms for next year. Once the blooms have
faded the foliage is storing food to produce the flower buds for next year's color.
After the leaves have turned yellow, cut them off even with the ground. Many gardeners
plant daylilies with their daffodils so the new daylily foliage will help hide the yellowing
daffodil leaves. Richard Nunnally
Dogwoods should do well in a wooded area as long as it is well-drained. While our native
dogwood, Cornus florida,is a natural understory plant, it doesn't do well in wet places. The
native plant, with its white blooms is available through many garden centers across Virginia.
There are a number of good hybrid varieties including the 'Cherokee' series: 'Cherokee
Brave', 'Cherokee Chief' and 'Cherokee Princess.' 'Cloud 9 is another good hybrid sporting
profuse white flowers. Richard Nunnally
Gardenias: These fragrant white blossoms, offer associated with adorning hair a la Billie
Holliday, can delight the senses, especially if planted under windows. 'Chuck Hayes' and
'Klein's Hardy' do well in this area because of their hardiness. 'Kein's Hardy' is the more
fragrant of the two. These wonderful plants will bloom from early spring until frost.