1stop Organic Gardening

It’s really starting to warm up here in South Australia. Temperatures forcast for all this week are all in the 30’s – that’s the high 80’s in Fahrenheit.

So it’s time to make things easier for me and better for the vegetable garden. I’ve put in a 10m rubber seepage hose, but I need a lot more length. That’s the first job. Then I’ll be buying some organic pea straw to go on top of the hose. I use Companion Planting in my organic garden, so I plant things quite close together. This makes adding mulch a little more difficult because you can’t have it too close to plant stems as they will rot.

There are more benefits to using organic mulches than just keeping the soil moist for longer. In my case the seepage hose has holes on both sides; so without the mulch I have water spraying in the air, mostly evaporating. The mulch prevents the water spraying, so it all seeps into the soil.

Plus the mulch starts to break down over the growing season and eventually breaks right down adding organic nutrients to the soil, feeding future vegetables.

Another great benefit is that it prevents soil from splashing up on to the food plants that produce close to the ground. For example; strawberries, lettuce , zucchinis etc.

I love using organic mulches in my garden. You don’t have to use pea straw; it’s just my personal favourite. But if you’re growing an organic garden, you need to make sure that whatever mulch you decide on has been grown organically. Yes it will cost more, but you and your family are worth it. After all the health of your family is probably why you chose to grow an organic food garden in the first place.

OK, enough writing about it – now it’s time to go do it… well maybe when the sun’s a bit lower!

Warmly,

Julie

Filed under: Uncategorized on November 14th, 2007