Organic Gardening Tips

We’re currently going through a heatwave and drought here in Toronto. Up until this morning it hadn’t rained for over three weeks and temperatures have been getting up to 36 Celsius (96.8 F) plus humidity making it feel like 43 Celsius (109.4) or higher.

It did rain just a little bit early this morning, but it was barely anything. We really need it to rain for at least half an hour a day for a week to make up for the lack of rain. Most of my neighbors lawns have gone dormant and the city is urging people to water their trees. Yes, it’s that dry!

I’m glad my garden is fairly well established with long term perennial plants. That doesn’t mean that they don’t need water, but they have well developed roots and since I don’t make a habit of watering them daily my plants are holding up well enough.

My front and backyard gardens have more than 50 rose plants. Some of the roses are ten and twelve feet tall and one is at least eight feet wide. So you can imagine how much water my garden needs. I also have lots of Hostas, flowering shrubs, lavender, Rudebeckia, Heuchera, Astilbe and many other plants. I actually planted in layers so that something is always blooming or growing in each spot. For example where tulips or hyacinths might come up in April or May perennial Salvia might grow through the summer and fall.

While this drought is going on we’re only watering our garden every three or four days, but when we water we water deeply. That is supposed to be the best way to water plants anyway as it helps to develop a good root system. If I notice that any of my plants are looking a little wilty after a particularly hot day and the rest of the garden looks ok I’ll just hand water it – along with my hanging baskets and potted plants – those all need to be watered daily or at least every second day in this heat.

How is your garden standing up to the summer heat? How often do you water when it’s hot and dry out?

My husband and I are a little behind in getting things done in the garden this year.

Why?

Well it’s because we had a big delay due to our neighbors having a new fence put in. Part of their new fence was on our property line and that affected one “major” side of our garden, so we delayed a lot of our regular garden activities for about two months while we waited and waited for the fence to go in .. finally, around June 6th the fence started being put in and ever since then we’ve been furiously maintaining our garden and planting annuals and perennials to fill in any bare spots.

One of the regular activities that we were behind on was making up our batches of Alfalfa tea for the garden. We usually start brewing this up in two big garbage cans in the driveway in early May. It takes a few weeks to brew before it’s ready for the garden.

Our Alfalfa/ compost tea is a rich nutrient “tea” that we pour on our garden beds at least twice each season to give our plants a boost. Alfalfa is full of natural growth hormone for the plants and within about a week or adding it to our garden beds there’s always an amazing difference in our plants.

I’m not sure how much water our garbage pails hold, but the garbage cans are about 3.5 feet high and we fill them up to about three or four inches from the top with water after we’ve added all the ingredients. Now, I mulched my garden this year with red cedar mulch but before I did that I gave my garden beds another treat by adding a Little bit of sheep manure compost … there was a little bit of that left so I added perhaps as much as three cups of sheep manure compost to each garbage pail. It’s a little bonus in the Alfalfa tea since I rarely put compost in it.

The ingredients that I usually put in each garbage pail are:

4 cups of Alfalfa pellets
1 cup of molasses
1 cup of Epsom salts

Once all of the ingredients are in the pail I stir it up and then put a lid on it. I try to stir it every day. The ingredients will ferment a bit and it’s very important to stir it up well and aerate the mixture.

Depending upon the ambient temperatures outside it can take anywhere from two to four weeks for the mixture to be ready to use on the garden. For example since I live in Toronto, Ontario when I start up a brew in early May it’s still usually kind of cool in my area at that time of year so it could take three to four weeks. The mix that we just made a few days ago should only take two weeks since it’s starting to get fairly warm.

If you make a batch of Alfalfa tea for your garden I highly recommend that you put it on your garden either early in the morning or late in the evening because it does smell quite a bit. At least it does to me! I do find that if I lightly water the garden after pouring the alfalfa tea on my garden beds the smell dies down very quickly.

You have planted the herbs and watched them grow and flourish. They are extremely useful in so many ways. However, you will also know that for a successful home herb garden, there is a bit of work needed.

In order to use the herbs you will need to harvest them first and timing is a huge factor. Did you know that the essential oils in the herbs can be leeched away by the wind and heat?. You should harvest them on a still and dry day sometime around midsummer. On very wet days, herbs make very little of their oils. So wait for a few hours for the early morning dew to evaporate from the leaves and then pick them just before the flowers open. Click here for more: grow herbs at home

When harvesting, you don’t have to remove the whole plant. At this point, you are just taking a certain amount of growth for use. You do not need to use the herbs that you are harvesting at the time that you pick them. You can preserve them to use later.It is important that you leave at least two thirds of the plants foliage ant any time. The plant will need a good amount of foliage to re-grow well. You should also inspect the plant for insects and damaged leaves before you harvest it.

Typically there are three ways that people preserve their herbs for later use; drying, freezing, or preserving them in a medium like salt or vinegar. In order to dry herbs you need to bundle six to twelve stems together and remove any foliage near the base of the stems. You can secure the bundle with string. Hang the bundle in a cool location away from sunlight. For individual leaves, place them on a drying rack. Turn them  Remember to turn them often in order for them to dry properly. Some gardeners use machines like ovens or dehydrators etc. to dry herbs, although this may not be as good. For more visit our blog: Herb Gardening Blog

Freezing is a fairly easy method of preservation. Cut the herbs into ¼ inch pieces and place on a baking sheet lined with wax paper. Once the herbs are frozen, you can place them together in a bag and store them in the freezer until use.

The third alternative for storing your herbs is via a medium. For instance, you can cover herbs like chopped mint, basil or tarragon with vinegar and it will be preserved for several months. Or you can preserve your herbs by using alternate layers of flavored salt. The salt will completely dry out the herb and all that is needed is to separate them and store in an airtight tub.

Of course, people often use herbs fresh right out of the garden. Take care cleaning the herbs before they are placed fresh in recipes. In order to clean fresh herbs place them in a bowl filled with cool water. Use a sink if there are a lot of herbs to prepare. Place about two tablespoons of salt in the water. The salt in the water will drive away insects without damaging the plant. Remove the herbs from the water and dry them in a salad spinner.

Different types of herbs are used for many different uses. Each one will need to be picked and prepared in a slightly different way. So make certain you research the type of herb you are preparing beforehand to get the best from it. Click here for more: Herb Garden Guide