Organic Gardening is Working

When I first planted roses 20 years ago, I would spray them for powedery mildew and use stuff for aphids. I had all sorts of chemicals for all sorts of things.

Well, I got busy and just didn't have time for the yard. Haven't used anything for over a decade other than some spots of Round-up.

And the yard is doing fine.

I squish the occasional snail or caterpillar when I find them. Other than that, I let the spiders, ladybugs, birds and other creatures take care of it.

I am going to be starting to kill grass with a vengeance to reclaim my brick patios. But won't be using anything else. I'll be very careful that the greens the worms get are far away from the grass I'm killing.

I find once you hit a balance, things pretty much take care of themselves. Of course, what I have is small enough that I can hand pick off bugs, snails and such.

 

My blueberry and raspberry bushes are taking off. The only thing it's growing in is my compost, used starbucks coffee grounds, and my baby's used bath water. Is that considered organic or is it nullified by the starbucks grounds.

 

Congrats on the garden... it looks terrific! I'm not doing as much with my garden this year as I did the previous two years, but there'll be enough to keep me busy. And of course, every time I go to the garden center, I can't help but pick up another little plant (last time, I picked up a watermelon... who can resist watermelon in the summertime? And we sure have the heat for good melons here).

 

I have a bunch of invasive clover seedlings carpeting my native plant garden. I dreaded the thought of spraying the large area with round up so I tried vinegar. The clover is dastardly and would repel the vinegar. Sure the leaves would get fried a tad but the plant would regenerate by the next day. I ended up mixing a little nut oil in with the vinegar and trying it again and it was about 99% effective. If one tries hard enough, there are plenty of solutions to gardening problems that are inert.

 

Wow, that's great news! I have to try that, too!

 

I used an almond oil that is no longer edible. You could get away with a cheap corn oil. The oil just ensures that the vinegar will stick to the leaves. For aggressive weeds, you may need repeat applications on contiguous days until dead. I'll see how it works in the long run if my clover stays dead. Today it seems to be greening up again.

 

As labor intensive as it is, I find pulling them to be the most effective.

When I bought my house 20 years ago, the planter beds across the front yard were loaded with oxalis. The weed kind, not the decorative want to have kind. Well, I started weeding. I did it every week. Eventually I could reduce it to once a month. Now.....it's all gone.

I'm using the same technique on the dicondra I've planted from seed in my new driveway area and it's working too.

Unfortunately this technique does not work on bermuda grass. A gardener told me they did a university study somewhere and they dug down and found the bermuda tubers/runners or whatever they call them were 12 feet down. They stopped digging. So....you can't get rid of the stuff physically. You have to do it chemically. I didn't at the time, but I'm going to start now. I'll be spraying the grass that's starting to come up through my brick patio areas. This will be thrown away...NOT given to my lovely little worms. I'll be bringing out the big guns as I doubt vinegar and nut oil is going to have much effect on bermuda grass.

 

if you have a fish tank use the water when you clean it