Organic and Budget Gardening Techniques

For organic gardeners, encouraging healthy produce means avoiding chemicals and processed fertilizers; for budget gardeners, finding cheap and easy solutions to gardening problems is the key to a successful harvest. From food products to household items, a variety of materials can enhance the life and productivity of garden plants.

Nurturing Soil and Feeding Plants

Expensive composts, garden remedies, and plant feeds often fail to meet the criteria organic gardeners use to select garden products. They also fail the test for budget gardeners seeking cheap resources to maximize garden potential.

Several garden problems have home remedy solutions that adjust soil pH. problems or provide missing nutrients, or help boost plant performance. For instance, a calcium deficiency in the soil may cause blossoms and young produce to rot prematurely, but a dose of crushed egg shells buried during the planting process can give roots the much-needed dose before the problem starts.

Treating soil with home-grown compost and nutrients helps avoid many poor soil issues. Rake fall leaves into a barrel and allow the substance to break down for the winter to create a healthy dark compost by adding water and turning the pile. Thrifty gardeners and organic ones alike stretch manure compost further by constructing “manure teas”, or mixing a little of the material with water to dose plants.

Plant Watering Solutions

Watering garden plots by hand or hose is time-consuming for backyard gardeners. While some resort to a sprinkler hose, the expense of purchasing and periodically replacing one discourages many gardeners. Even watering plants in rotation still takes time to ensure the water reaches the ground and not just the plant’s exposed leaves.

Others rely on the old-fashioned method of “bucket watering”, a makeshift time-release watering device made from a hole drilled in the bottom of a barrel. The barrel is then placed near a group of plants or a single large vine (like a muscadine or grape vine) and filled with water. The water gradually leaks out, saturating the ground. Many gardeners use a stopper in the bottom to hold the water in place while they fill the container, and then remove it once the bucket is in place.

Easy Arbors and Supports

Budget and organic gardeners can construct a simple arbor that supports climbing vines effectively, made from simple home materials. Unlike the traditional waist-high arbors, an overhead arbor offers its own charms of cool garden shade and convenient harvest in the fall.

A few landscaping timbers or sturdy two by fours construct a series of “T”-shaped supports at the height the gardener prefers. The supports are staked or buried in place, spaced apart evenly according to how long the gardener wants the arbor. Welded or “hog wire” fencing is strung across the “T” tops at an identical width, then stapled in place to provide a long-term support for the vine branches to wind around.

Heavy fruits can be supported with the aid of slings made from nylon hose, which also serves as a protective cover for fruits vulnerable to crows, birds, and other wildlife. Nylon fabric is stretchy and strong, easily tied or wired in place as a supportive sling; or cut and sewn into stretchy pouches that fit over young pumpkins and cantaloupes to protect them from predators.

Applying Organic and Budget Solutions

While these tips work well for many gardeners, not all results are the same. A variety of solutions are available for most gardening problems, meaning choice and application remains largely in the hands of the gardener, based on their willingness to experiment and their personal comfort with the solution suggested.