Home Gardening and Health are Best Friends

I would like to start this post with a remarkable quote by Gertrude Jekyll, an influential British horticulturist, garden designer, artist and writer: “The love of gardening is a seed that once sown never dies, but grows to the enduring happiness that the love of gardening gives.”

Given these wise words, maybe it’s not even necessary to say anything else. However, I’ll try to go deeper into some extraordinary benefits of using merely your brains and 10 fingers for growing a home organic, non-GMO garden. 

Home Gardening and Health are Best Friends

Physical Benefits as an Appetizer

The benefits of growing an organic garden include social, physical, and mental advantages. I’ll stick to the physical part for now. Judging from my own experience I can say that being outdoors, surrounded by living things, is a magical feeling. The physical work of growing plants leaves positive effects to your muscles, blood flow, and your health in general. Plus, you get a chance to breathe fresh air while avoiding the risk of contamination from toxic chemicals. I mean, doesn’t this sound wonderful?

Make Your Own Move

This means that you have to make a choice. Talk to yourself. But do it when you are alone. You wouldn’t want anybody to think that you’re going crazy. Ask a simple question: “Do you enjoy plants”? You don’t have to grow them outdoors. Your living room or kitchen is a great indoor gardening option. If you don’t have enough space, use your imagination and my small-space gardening tips. The possibility of growing your own food and enjoying it with your friends and family members is one of the most rewarding experiences in life.

What’s more, support an organic lifestyle by growing and eating organic herbs, foods and veggies. Think of an idea to convert your yard into your own amazing organic kingdom. I don’t know about you, but I think that life comes to making choices - choices that matter.

What will be your choice?

Choosing the Perfect Soil for Your Home Garden

What is more beautiful than watching your plants growing from seeds or seedlings? Soil is a house where your plants live and grow. And like with humans who need to have a quality home to live in, plants too love to have a nice place to stay. If you want to make your plants happy and satisfied, you should opt for organic, well-drained, fertile soil. In a word, go for a soil that is rich in organic matter. I would like you to keep reading because you’ll find out some valuable info on how to have the perfect gardening soil.  

Choosing the Perfect Soil for Your Home Garden

   

Get Your Soil Ready          

First of all, you should know that soil is composed of clay, sand and silt and variations on the topic. Soil structure determines its aeration, drainage and water holding capacity. Each soil type contains minerals, rocks, organic matters, water and air. Ideal ratio of soil substances is 25% water and air alike, with 40% mineral matter and 10% organic matter. The smartest thing to do when building a soil is to get it tested for a pH value.

Add Organic Backup        

After testing your soil’s pH, you will probably find out that some nutrients might be missing. What can you do? You can add organic material like compost along with natural soil amendments  . Soil amendments act as fertilizers by increasing your soil’s organic content. There’s a whole variety of soil amendments such as greensand, rock phosphate and bone meal.

Take Care of Your Soil’s pH

Your soil’s acidity and alkalinity value is calculated according to the pH scale. A pH is an abbreviation for “potential of Hydrogen” and it presents a number from 1 to 14, where 7 is the middle (neutral) value. Numbers below 7 indicate acidity while numbers above 7 indicate alkalinity. Do you wonder what all this pH stuff has to do with your organic garden? I’m just about to come to that.

The pH of a soil is a vital condition for the quality of your plant growth. It is interesting to know that most garden vegetables, ornamentals and grasses prefer slightly acidic soil with a pH range between 5.8 and 6.8. It is also worth knowing that you can change the pH of your soil. If you want to increase, decrease, or simply saying, correct acid or alkaline soil, you should add either alkaline material or a source of acid. Speaking of pH values, I assume that it’s been a while since you’ve checked pH info on something other than your shampoo pH values.

Feel free to get in touch with me if you have any questions regarding organic gardening soil.