It’s all well and good growing your own but many people spray the crops with pesticides to keep off pests, and then even use store bought fertiliser made from chemicals. Here’s a few simple tips to help you grow 100% organic and never use pesticides or inorganic fertiliser again.
Set up your own compost pile using some kind of container, whether it be an old drum or building your own small wooden fenced area. Everything can go in there that can decompose. Anything such as vegetable leftovers from dinner, any home grown fruit or vegetable that has gone off or spoiled, coffee grounds, eggshells, grass cuttings, tree leaves, teabags, pizza boxes, banana skins.
Anything that will decompose over time, even paper products like toilet rolls or newspapers (but not magazines as worms don’t like the shiny surface). Meat and bones will go rancid (and may even attract rats) if you put them in the compost. Same goes for strawberry tops, melon rinds and carrot peelings. For that use Bokashi pellets which will break down everything to make them all decompose. Bokashi pellets are available online.
Add to the pile at a ratio of three brown to one green through the season. Every fortnight or so turn the pile with a garden fork. Seeing steam rise when you turn the pile is a good sign as it indicates decomposition happening. When you see worms in the pile and the soil becoming crumbly and sweet smelling, then you’ve got garden black gold!
You might want to buy a ready-made composter with a spigot at the bottom. Compost will decompose but also have a slurry at the bottom which will become liquid. This liquid will be great plant food. It will also leave the dry mixture, the compost, which can be put around new growing plants. All compost is the same, microbes, fungi and bacteria that break down everything into dark brown rich material.
Or just buy organic seeds and organic compost. It may cost a bit more than the regular stuff but will be so much better for your produce and for your health. All organic will mean no pesticides going into your body once your produce is grown and that can only be a good thing.
If you have a lot of clay in your soil then add extra compost. If it’s too sandy then add compost to give it body. Compost will replace the fertility lost from the soil through plant growth. If you haven’t started composting yet then get going, you’ll be glad you did.
This article is brought to you by, and is the sole opinion of, Tim Campbell of AMT Campbell Brothers Ltd., developers of The Garden Pod. The Garden Pod is a space saving tool to help you garden in small places. Go to www.thegardenpod.net for more information. We are also on facebook at “The Garden Pod” and on twitter at @thegardenpod. Look out for our crowd funding campaign later this year on Indiegogo. We’re looking for help and investors so shoot us an email if you want to get involved. amtcampbellbrothers@hotmail.com