Developing an organic vegetable garden should be considered as much more than just a hobby. They play an important role in safeguarding our environment and they help to develop a sustainable environment. You do not need a large cultivated plot of land to develop an organic vegetable garden; you can develop it in a small space, even in a city, with minimal effort.

It is very inexpensive to develop and maintain an organic vegetable garden; however, the yield you are obtaining from it will be comparatively high and the quality will be the very best. The concept of organic vegetable gardening is based on the knowledge and methods followed over millenniums. In general, terms, developing organic vegetable gardens is a slow process; however, the yield will be more stable and abundant.

Organic vegetable gardens can be defined as the gardens for which we are not using synthetic fertilizers and related products such as pesticides. Ideally, organic manures and composts are used instead of synthetic fertilizers. In addition, the leguminous plants can be planted all around the garden to facilitate nitrogen supply with the help of the biological process called nitrogen fixation. Nitrogen fixation is being done by the nitrogen-fixing bacterium Rhizobium leguminosarum that is present in the root nodules of many leguminous plants. The main concept of organic gardening is to feed the soil with organic materials; in turn, the soil will fertilize the plants.

You may be wondering what are the uses for developing organic gardens? There are many uses. First, in contrast to non-organic gardens, organic gardens do not pollute the environment. Second, the vegetables harvested from the organic vegetable garden are nutritious! Third, many farmers claim that the vegetables harvested from organic vegetable gardens are very tasty. Lastly, the vegetable plants of organic gardens grow healthy and they are resistant to many plant diseases. In addition, an organic vegetable garden saves you money on vegetables which can now be homegrown.

Organic fertilizers can be prepared using organic waste materials such as animal wastes (e.g. cow dung and fish heads), plant wastes (e.g. decaying plant matter, dried leaves, grass clippings), and kitchen scraps. Composts are very useful organic fertilizers; especially the vermicomposts which are the best organic fertilizers and soil conditioners. These types of composts are prepared by using a unique species of earthworm.

Organic gardens in general, can be developed to cultivate various cash crops that yield flowers, fruits, and vegetables. Be sure to visit and tend to your organic garden periodically in order to take notice of and to eliminate any plant diseases. If you do find any diseased plants, you need to take immediate action. There are various organic pesticides available on the market which you can use for your organic vegetable garden or for whatever type of organic garden you are cultivating. You should handle all pesticides carefully as overdosing or too frequent use may kill even the beneficial insects.

Beverly Clarke manages a network of green living websites offering helpful information and tips on alternative fuels, greenhouse gardening and sustainable development

Petunias are Rewarding Plants

The virtues of petunias are worthy of elaboration, although they're well renowned. If it's brilliant splashes of color you desire, cherry-red, garden pink, and rose petunias will be the answer. Even so they come in shades of blue and purple, as well as stark white, with a few varieties bringing forth individual blooms that are quite a few inches across. The blooming time period is always a long-lasting one, and plants that begin blooming in May will carry on into September and October, and sometimes even into November. In the warmest regions of the nation, they're grown for Wintertime blooming.

Various annuals appear droopy at the close of the season, but not petunias. In the fall, they hold up just as well as chrysanthemums. Even if you don't continue clipping aging blooms and seed pods, a chore very worth doing, plants will persist in their exuberant performance.

Adaptability to all kinds of situations has made the petunia a favorite summertime flower all over. Languishing in total sunshine, it will blossom freely if afforded sunshine during just two or three hours a day and will as well, standup well in partial shade. Not particular about soil, petunias will thrive in inferior soil. It's as well among the few annuals that will bloom satisfactorily in soil overly rich for most other types.

In recent times, breeders have germinated practical types of balcony petunias for window boxes, even forms that are single, frilly, or double. The sweeping color array includes red, rose, pink, salmon, blue, lavender, purple, pale yellow and white.

Types of Petunias

Petunias are separated into various groups, which include singles and doubles and according to maturation habit, type of blossom, and purpose. Prominent for their strength, floriferousness, and uniformity of growth are the multi flora hybrids the red Comanche, rosy-salmon Linda, salmon Silver Medal, white Paleface, and red-and-white-striped Glitters.

Every bit as significant are the grandiflora fringed hybrids such as deep salmon Ballerina, salmon-pink May-time, deep scarlet-salmon Tango, rose-pink-on-white Crusades, and the white but yellow throated La Paloma.

Doubles include such favorites as the rose-with-white Gaiety, scarlet Allegro, rose-pink Caprice, scarlet Mrs. Dwight D. Eisenhower, rosy purple Rhapsody, and white Sonata. In large boxes, where bedding effects are coveted, grow the nana compacta, or dwarf compact petunias. The bright blue Admiral, deep salmon Cheerful, red Fire-chief, pink Rosy Morn and the yellow-throated White Perfection are some in this classification.

For small-scale containers or the bordering of boxes and planters, select the miniatures the rosy Bright Eyes with a white throat, rose-starred white Twinkles, light Silvery Blue, and white Igloo. For hanging baskets, window boxes, shelves, and wall brackets, there's nothing more beautiful than the balcony types with their cascading habit. In this group are the mahogany Black Prince, deep Royal Blue, and clear Royal Rose.

Try petunias, also, in pots and tubs, boxes and portable planters. Window boxes and small-scale planters on driveways, walks, patios and porches provide excellent settings for their summertime cheerfulness. Since they're effortless to grow from seed and affordable to purchase as seedlings, have spare petunias available to substitute for other plants that pass their peak that are in the planters connected to the home. Petunias are perfect for window boxes with accent on a single variety. On its own the frilled rose-pink Prima Donna or the red Comanche will generate a very lovely effect.

One of the most dependable trees for rooftops because they withstand wind. Quick growing, they require sporadic replacement, however young plants are reasonably priced. The Golden Weeping Willow features vivid yellow twigs in wintertime and chartreuse catkins in early spring.

This is just a sample listing of hardy trees for the container garden. Just about any variety may be grown if in scale and afforded the essential care. Don't leave out upright forms - upright lindens, oaks, sugar and Norway maples since these consume almost no space.

Tender Trees

Tender trees are typically grown in warmer areas, where they remain out of doors all year. In colder regions, as container subjects, they necessitate protection in wintertime. As a group, they're popular with both southern and northern gardeners.

Acacias

Many varieties of acacias are prized for their featherlike yellow blooms in wintertime and early spring. Quick growing, they call for a cool greenhouse or plant room with northerly exposure in wintertime.

Bullbay Magnolia.

A highly ornamental evergreen magnolia, often grown in the South, with broad dark green leaves and immense sweet-smelling white flowers. Though not rugged, a most worthwhile container plant.

California Pepper Tree

A semi-pendulous modest tree, with ferny, olive-green leaves and dangling bunches of durable, rose-colored berries. Indigenous to Peru, it withstands high temperature and waterlessness, as well as nutrient-deficient soil, even intense pruning. Often planted as a street tree in southern Europe.

Citrus

Glossy-leaved trees, with modest, perfumed blooms and ornamental, enduring fruits. Orange, lemon, kumquat, tangerine, lime, and others do well in tubs and boxes. The dwarf Otaheite or Tahiti orange and the Ponderosa lemon are small types.

Crape Myrtle. The "lilac of the South," a shrub or small tree, with great braids of crinkly blossoms in pink, red, purple, and white all summer long. Container-grown in the North, it must be wintered in a cool frost-free space. It holds up to severe pruning.

Eucalyptus

Rapid-growing, drought-resistant trees with leatherlike fragrant leaves and peeling bark. Substitutions of container specimens are easily made.

Fig

The edible fig of southern Europe is suitable for containers in the North. Large, coarse-grained leaves are light green; the bark is a pleasant gray.

Japanese Privet

A fine-looking tall shrub or small tree, with shiny, dark green leaves and panicles of white blossoms, followed by black berries. It's frequently mixed up with the less good-looking shiny privet (Ligustrum lucidum).

Loquat

A Japanese tree with elongated, leatherlike, strong-veined leaves and tasteful orange-yellow fruits. An excellent tub specimen for patios or terraces, as frequently seen in southern Europe.

Norfolk Island Pine

A pyramidic, horizontal evergreen with sharp-pointed leaves. Often developed as a pot or tub plant in greenhouses in the North.

Olive

Picturesque tree with contorted, gnarly trunk and branches as it ages. Leaves are small, thick and ever-green, olive-green on top and silvery underneath. Slow-growing plants turn out black fruits that fall when ripe.

Pacific Madrone {Arbutus menziesi)

An enchanting broad-leafed evergreen, with aromatic, heathlike, white flowers in six-inch panicles surmounting generous, lustrous leaves. Chocolate-brown bark drops like that of the plane tree. Challenging to displace, plants are securest transplanted as seedlings when they are below eighteen inches.

Palms.

Oftentimes found in the North in public parks and botanical gardens in tubs. Elegant with slim trunks, frequently arching, and curving leaves. A few are small, as the lady palm (Raphis excelsa) which reaches 6 to 10 feet. All grow easily and withstand neglect.

Sweet Bay or Grecian Laurel

The true laurel of the ancient Greeks, common as a clipped tubbed specimen, frequently with a single trunk and pungent, dark green leaves. Rugged and easy-to-grow, suited for stately doorways, hotels, or public buildings. Calls for a cool location in wintertime with Northerly exposure.

Rubber Plant

A common house plant in the North with big shiny leaves. Include several variegated varieties for colorful highlights.

HARDY SHRUBS

With trees, shrubs are necessary for backdrop, volume effects, and shade. Each container garden also needs a few hardy needle and broadleaf evergreens for year-round color. In summertime in the North, these may be supplemented with camellias, pittosporums, podocarpus, oleanders, sweet bays, and citrus plants. Include deciduous types for bloom and for the interest of the branches in wintertime.

Here is a suggested however far from thorough list of possibilities:

Arborvitae. Versatile evergreen for the movable garden. Affordable, sturdy, and quick-growing, it's perfect for hedges or screen background or for blocking off sections. Little Gem, a variety of American arborvitae, is low-set and close-packed, a foot high, but fanning out several feet.

Azaleas

Splendid flowering shrubs needing an acidic soil. They also constitute effective container plants in alkalescent areas because soil can be custom-mixed for them. Plants accept shade, however bloom better in sunlight. Always sustain moisture, as sinewy roots are unhappy drying out.

Brooms or Cytisus

Green curving stems, with abundant blossoms in springtime. Need full sunlight and a light, granular soil. Both the fancy Warminster broom, with yellow blossoms, and the well-known golden Scotch broom are tried and true.

Cotoneasters

Fascinating with a world of possibilities. Blossoms are unnoticeable but shiny leaves and colored berries are appealing. Rock spray cotoneaster has flat, horizontally bowed branches. The small-leaved evergreen cotoneaster can be placed around trees in planters and prominent boxes to deflect starkness.

Enkianthus

Fine-looking with miniature, bell-shaped blooms in drooping clusters, suitable to view close at hand. Glistening leaves turn flaming red in fall. An acrid soil plant, calling for the same culture as azaleas.

Fothergillas or Bottlebrushes

Small shrubs with white blossoms in springtime and heavy, coarse-grained leaves that colorize in fall. Dwarf fothergilla (Fothergilla gardeni) achieves three feet of height, but the large fothergilla (F. major) grows larger.

Hollies

Handsome plants, with lustrous foliage and shiny berries. Japanese holly (Ilex crenata) has dark green leaves; the convex-leaved Japanese holly has modest, rounded, extremely shiny leaves; Haller's Japanese holly is a modest, close-packed form; and Kingsville is a true dwarf. Inkberry, another shrub holly, has glossy evergreen leaves, an open habit, and black berries in autumn. Leaves become bronzy-purple in wintertime.

Japanese Flowering Quinces

Numerous varieties, including dwarfs with vermilion, scarlet, pink, rose, red, apricot, and white blossoms. These simple shrubs are mainly coveted for early springtime brilliant color.

Japanese Yews

Amongst the most dependable evergreens for robustness, ease of culture and tolerance of sunlight or shade. There are upright, columnlike, spreading, and low varieties; all have got dark green needles and are excellent for contrast with flowers. These are hardy in the North, but make sure to water all container plants in wintertime whenever soil isn't frozen. The upright, rounded Hatfield and the columnar Hicks yews create effective hedges.

Pieris

The upright Japanese has dangling white blossom clusters and bronzy-red fresh spring growth. The mountain pieris is lower and rounded, with upright white flower heads. Both bear beautiful foliage and are dependable the year-round.

Beverly Clarke manages a network of green living websites including GreenWindsofChange, TheGreenhousePrimer and GreenOutsideIn

Roses -

Numerous types of roses are suitable for containers. Floribundas are more floriferous than hybrid teas and can be employed as low hedges or in groupings. On patios and terraces include hybrid teas for color, shape, and scent if you are able to tolerate the spraying, etc.

Where hardiness is a question, store in a cool location in wintertime, such as in a garage or enclosed breezeway. In pots and window boxes grow the very pleasing miniatures.

Rhododendrons -

Wide, lustrous, evergreen leaves and colorful blossoms in red, rose, pink, purple, or white. Render sunlight for a few hours each day for more full-bodied bloom. In winter, place in a sheltered position to ward off wind burning. Rhododendrons require a peaty, humus, acidic soil and a good deal of water.

Spice Bush -

Moisture-loving, with small, yellow, pungent flower bunches in early springtime. The leaves opening later appear sizeable, refined, and fragrant.

Summer Sweet or Clethra -

Intensely fragrant, white or pink spikes come out during a few weeks in summertime. Render an acidic soil and a great deal of water.

Viburnums -

A reliable group with appealing leaves, white blossom clusters (some scented as V. carlesi and carlephalum), and colorful berries. The large double file vi-burnum has flat flower heads along horizontal branches. The Japanese snowball is a showy double form.

Tender Shrubs -

Tender shrubs camellias, gardenias, lemons, and oleanders-are essential in the container garden. These are merely a few of the numerous possibilities.

Camellias -

Outstanding evergreen shrubs for containers. Acid-loving, they demand wintertime shelter in the North. Where hardy, tubbed plants offer accent at doorways and on patios. Waxy blooms in assorted colors appear from autumn through springtime against glossy, dark dark-green leaves.

Chinese Hibiscus -

Colorful favorites in Florida, Southern California, and Hawaii, with glossy, heart-shaped, coarse-grained leaves and striking hollyhock-like flowers in pink and rose, white, peach, orange, and yellow, single and double. Plants can withstand heavy pruning.

Citrus -

Numerous shrubby kinds, all favorable for containers, they can be cultivated as trees or shrubs. In Europe, oranges and lemons are decorative features of estate and castle gardens. Small types appear enchanting in pots.

Hollies -

Various tender varieties, suchlike the evergreen Chinese, Dahoon, and Yunnan hollies, are appealing for both leaves and fruits.

Holly Osmanthus -

A choice evergreen plant with shiny leaves and perfumed yellow-green blooms. Suitable for low, neatly cropped hedges. Take into consideration the variegated form and the variety, Fortune's Osmanthus, with more prominent leaves getting to four inches. Essential for containers in the South and on the West Coast.

Hydrangeas -

Fine for tubs, these plants feature huge, splashy, durable flowers in pink, blue, lavender, and white. Plants are deciduous and necessitate cool reposition in wintertime, although they withstand temperatures to zero without killing the buds provided that cold snaps are short-term. They require rich, humus soil, plentiful moisture, and are suggested for shade. The blues have an particularly cool appeal on hot, summer days.

Japanese Aucuba -

Evergreen, fashionable for pots and planters in Europe, particularly in front of cafes in Paris. A pleasing variegated kind is the Gold-Dust Tree. It's best in shade or partial shade, because leaves turn yellow in broad sunlight. Red berries come out in autumn.

Nandina -

Oriental shrub, with fine-cut leaves and clusters of red berries, occasionally called Chinese sacred bamboo. Berries endure long after the fragile, compound leaves fall.

Oleander -

A conventional evergreen tub plant with elongated, slender, glossy leaves and single or double scented flowers. Needs a frost proof, illuminated northerly location in Wintertime. Oleanders can be disciplined as standards, since they're frequently encountered on streets in Greece.

Rosemary -

Mediterranean shrub with slender, fragrant leaves that are dark green on top and gray-white underneath. Flourishes in sunlight and somewhat thirsty soil; turns long-legged in shade in rich soil. Plants acquire a instinctive asymmetrical habit, but may be pruned. The variety, Heavenly Blue, has semi trailing branches and small-scale blossoms, deeper blue than the species.

Ruscus -

Known also as butcher's broom, a low-growing evergreen that is a familiar pot plant on terraces of Mediterranean countries. Stiff habit and leatherlike, prickly, tapered leaves. Robust plants withstand hot sun, shade, mediocre soil, and drought.

Beverly Clarke manages a network of green living websites including GreenOutsideIn, and TheGreenhousePrimer

My No-Dig Veggie Garden

Miles Trench

I have been a passionate organic gardener for over thirty-five years. My first memories are of my fathers fruit orchard in Marden, South Australia, where the deep alluvial loam grew magnificent plums, apricots, peaches and nectarines. In fact, everything we planted grew well. And I fondly recall our early morning trips to the market in the 1970s, the ute loaded up with half-cases full of ripe, juicy fruit ready to sell.

My grandfather had established an extensive market garden in Uraidla, in the Adelaide Hills. He taught my father about using nature to help grow healthy organic produce. And in turn, I learned from my dad. In fact, most green thumbs of the older generation have a wealth of valuable experience and advice to offer if only we take the time to ask. Then I moved to the Yorke Peninsula and found to my dismay that our block has only a very thin layer of topsoil and underneath its solid limestone. So it was with great interest that I began reading Esther Deans book on no-dig gardening. Well, straight away I was hooked. The no-dig system as she explains is a fantastic, eco-friendly method of growing nutritious fresh vegetables at home. Its cheap, easy, no fuss and completely chemical-free (something I have been advocating for a long time.)

There are many benefits and advantages to using a no-dig system; they include:

Any suitable area can be used to house a no-dig grow bed as long as there is enough sun, access to organic material and clean water is available you can even build a no-dig edible garden on top of flat concrete if thats the only space you have available.

(Just be sure that excess water can run off and wont cause problems later on.)

It saves time and effort (and your back! no more bending to work hard ground).

The organic medium in the grow-bed retains its structure and fertility well.

(This is because the organisms in the soil mix [soil biota] are not continually disturbed as they are during traditional in-ground digging and planting methods.

Its simple kids through to the elderly can give it a go, and with great results too!

Its cheap, organic, uses recycled materials and is environmentally friendly.

It reduces water use, insect attack and damage; and weed infestation and competition.

It can be done on a small scale right through to as large as you can manage.

As the organic material breaks downs it creates a soil warming effect.

And finally it really works!

Worms

The gardeners friend, the humble earth worm, is natures underground dynamo.

When you make a no-dig grow-bed without a solid bottom (for example you recycle an old rainwater tank and cut the bottom out), worms in the soil underneath and nearby will then have access. They will work their way up from below, aerating the bed and enriching the soil mix as they go.

Worms:

Drag small particles of organic matter down into the soil.

Deposit worm-castings or vermicast back onto the surface

Vermicast helps enrich the soil through the addition

of micro-elements and plant-friendly bacteria.

Vermicast used au natural or in the form of a weak tea

makes an amazing, eco-friendly and non-toxic natural

fertilizer.



Tunnelling worms aerate the soil

this assists drainage, moisture retention and also provides

access for developing plant roots.

Tunnelling earthworms also leave behind a trail of polysaccharides

(sugars) and plant-friendly bacteria



Worm-farms, are a great way to recycle organic kitchen scraps and

will produce a free, natural, liquid fertilizer at the same time.

Earthworms - Class Oligochaeta Phylum Annelida

How to Build a No-Dig Grow Bed

Materials

1) No-dig bed framework any suitably robust structure strong enough

to contain the soil mix

2) Oaten hay, straw or lucerne

3) Old newspapers

4) Compost and well rotted manure

5) Clean water (to wet down the material as you go)

6) Organic fertilizer (to boost plant growth)

7) A couple of hours to prepare and construct the no-dig bed

8) Seeds or seedlings to plant.

Method

1) Choose a sheltered, sunny site for your no-dig garden bed, away from any large tree roots (if possible). Any form of solid frame can be used, as long as its strong enough to support the soil mix and wont break down in the rain and weather.

Do not set up your no-dig bed directly on top of established kikuyu or thickBuffalo grass or similar, as these grasses thrive on the leached nutrients and

will send runners all through your mix to eventually swamp the whole bed.



Recycled rainwater tanks makegreat no-dig grow beds

Some examples of no-dig frames you might use.

Hay Bales Old wire bed frames Boards

Sleepers Rainwater tanks Bathtubs

Tyres Wooden pallets (cut to size)

Stones piled up/Besser bricks, Galvanised iron



Be inventive - find what you can use - use what you find

2) Once you have picked your spot, erect or construct your no-dig bed framework. Secure

it well with screws or bolts or strong wire/twine to make it strong. You can use hay bales (see below), to get you started on your first attempts at no-dig.

Steps to constructing a hay/straw bale no-dig framework

Set up your bales of hay in a rectangle then loop and tie a supportive ring of strong twine around the shape, to prevent collapse (the coloured plastic cord that binds the hale bales is a good, strong twine).

Knock in some heavy garden stakes around the outside of the frame to provide extra support to the structure (see below). Using stakes tied with twine also provides an ideal trellis for climbing beans, tomatoes or cucumbers.

Next, place a layer of gravel, small rocks, twigs, or similar coarse material as a base to ensure your bed will have good drainage. Make sure this layer is thick enough to smother any ground weeds.I use a layer of broken bricks at the bottom for a no-dig garden bed, with hay bales to form the outside framework.

3) Lay down several sheets of newspaper, a layer of thick cardboard or an old piece of carpet. Wet this down thoroughly. On top of this spread a few handfuls of blood and bone, Dynamic Lifter or a similar (slow release) organic fertilizer.

4) Add the first layer of pea straw or hay (oaten hay is the best), about eight cm (ten inches) thick. Wet this down well also.

5) Add the next layer about twenty cm (eight inches) of manure. Make sure it is well rotted and weed-free (if possible). Water-in well also.

6) Cow manure is good, but any natural animal manure is OK Zoo-Poo is rated highly by some, but make sure any manure you do use is well aged, as fresh stuff will

burn fragile plant roots. On top of the manure add a layer of compost, humus,

or vegetative scraps (like old corn husks, cabbage or lettuce leaves.)

7) Add another layer of lucerne, straw or oaten hay and water in well. To this, add a crust

of powdered dolomite, garden lime, crushed rock or granite dust. These compounds add essential minerals and trace elements to the mix and help stabilize the pH levels (acid vs. alkaline). Soil pH of around 7 (neutral) is generally the best for growing most vegetables.

Add another good, thick layer of aged manure.

9) Top this up with a thick layer, about twenty cm (eight inches) of humus, compost, potting mix or good, clean garden soil. This acts as the base medium to plant your veggies in.

CAREFUL: You can use grass clippings in the layers of your mix, but be careful! Grass clippings should be mixed in with other material (like compost or dry leaves, bits of bark, or small prunings/twigs) to make a combined layer, so that the grass wont form into lumpy mats that will go mouldy, spoil the mix and may also introduce mould and fungus.

Warning:

1) Some horse or livestock manures may contain residual chemicals used in worming, performance or pest control treatment, especially stuff from

pig farms horse studs.

2) Poultry manure (especially pigeon poo) is very high in nitrogen and phosphorus. It must be well broken-down and diluted or combined well with other composted material before using: Never use raw poultry manure as fertilizer on your plants.

Well, thats about it. Of course, this is just one way to construct and prepare a no-dig garden. You can rig-up just about any sturdy framework and fill it with layers of organic material and grow lovely veggies. So if you dont have all the material suggested above,

use what can obtain cheaply and easily and give it a go. The important thing is to have

a weed-free, nutrient-rich soil base that is deep enough for the plants to grow in.

You will also that notice that over time the soil mix in the bed will begin to subside. This is normal. Just keep topping up with organic material to maintain a sufficient depth.

A bed using hay/straw bales for the framework will last a couple of crops. Just recycle the hay or straw and use it as mulch or as part of a new no-dig grow bed. Boxes or large pots can be another easy way to no-dig garden as well. Some people grow potatoes in a ring of old tyres, they just keep adding another tyre on top, filling it with more organic material as the spuds develop and grow. When the tops die off, the spuds below are ready to harvest.

Other materials that can be used in a no-dig bed:





Coconut fibre / coir / comfrey leaves

Sawdust (mix with manure or leaves, compost or similar)

Mushroom compost, shredded seaweed

Rice hulls, Cocoa bean/nut shells, peat



Hint: Mulch around veggie seedlings with seaweed:

It adds vital minerals like iodine to the soil mix.

Q. What if I use an old tub with a bottom and the worms cant get in? Good question

A. Well, worm eggs abound in most good soils, so add a couple of handfuls to your mix and once the moisture and conditions are right, they will soon hatch and grow and begin the industrious machinations we all appreciate and treasure.

But if after a few weeks there is still no sign of worms, make sure once again you have adequate drainage (if its too moist, they will drown) and then go for a dig around the moist parts of your garden or beg, borrow or buy a few from a neighbour or friend

(you can also purchase worm eggs on-line).

And lastly, be aware that there is a difference between the tiger worms used in worm farms, and the usual garden variety found in most soils.

Well I hope you have enjoyed this story of how I created my no-dig garden.

I now have six grow beds in operation some tin, some wooden-framed. This allows me to leave a grow bed fallow (unplanted) or plant a green-manure crop but Ill tell you all about that and also how I achieve non-toxic pest control using companion planting the next time we discuss the fascinating and rewarding adventure we call organic gardening.



Smiles from miles

Miles Trench - Email: milestrench_22@yahoo.com.au

http://au.geocities.com/milestrench_22/milestrenchwebpage.html


About the Author:

Published:

[Expected] - October 2008, Divan 7 Institute of TAFE, Victoria (poem) a moment
August 2008, Warm Earth Organic Gardening (article) My No-Dig Veggie Garden
July 2008, Back Yard Farmer (Earth Garden) (article): Basic No-Dig Gardening
March 2008, Scribble Gum - Highly Commended - (poem) Flores
October 2007, Kerneweck Lowender - Highly Commended A Piece of Paper
December 2006, Writing Right - Poetry Prize
April/May 2006 Grass Roots Magazine (article) Do a Number on Your Garden
May 1999, Grass Roots (article) Marion Bay
June 2002, Thats Life (article) Look What I Can Do!
October 2001, Winner of Across the Valley Short-story award Martins Secret
May 1999 Third Prize International Library of Poetry Winter
November 1998 Nimbin News - Papermaking An Ancient Craft Revisited
April 1998 Australian Business Opportunities Recycling
December 1997, New Age Guardian Papermaking.

Oeuvre to Date:

56 poems, 26 short stories, 1 book, various fragments and many works in progress

Qualifications:

2007 Diploma Professional Writing (external) ARTS SA

Motto Learn, create, explore and believe

Would you like a more natural alternative to using those plastic planter containers? Well, here is a project for you, where you can have an interesting planter during the growing season, then throw the container out in the garden for mulch, without having to add to the world's landfill problems.

These planters can be used and grown anywhere you can provide good plant growing conditions, including on a patio, pathway or even a roof top. The main criteria being enough sunlight for the plants chosen, easy access to water and an ease of access to maintain the planter/s.

Just follow the steps below.

What you will need

One or more rectangular bales of hay, (One per planter).

4 to 8 seedlings or small plants per planter.

One to two good handfuls of soil/compost/potting mix per plant.

Small garden handtools.

Hose/watering can.

Liquid fertilizer.

Area chosen to provide enough light for growing conditions required by plants selected.

Steps

Take one rectangular bale of hay; flip it on its side so that the straps are around the sides not over the top and bottom.

Moisten the hay bale thoroughly with a hose or watering can.

Using the handle of a hand tool, dig four to eight holes in the new upper surface of the hay bale, these holes have to be big enough to hold a good handful of soil.

Into each hole, place a handful or two of compost, soil or potting mix.

Plant up your choice of annuals, herbs or short-lived perennials.

Water the plants in well and fertilize them with a liquid fertilizer.

Because of the air gaps in the hay, this type of planter can dry out more quickly than a normal planter, so regular watering is essential.

Also remember that your planter is actually decomposing while you are using it so remember to regularly fertilize the plants growing in it. Because nutrients may become temporarily unavailable during the decomposition process.

After you have finished growing your plants, move it out to the garden, take the straps off the bale, and use it to mulch/fertilize a part of your garden. You will find that the centre of the bale has decomposed into compost nicely by this stage.



About the Author:

The Bare Bones Gardener is a qualified Horticulturist and a qualified Disability Services Worker. He hates spending money on stuff which doesnt live up to the promises given. So he looks for cheaper, easier, simpler or free ways of doing the same thing and then he passes these ideas on to others.

Garden Blog - http://barebonesgardening.blogspot.com/