Home grown: the organic way
The
Lottery "Awards for All" programme sponsored this "Home Grown" course
that the ASK Organic Garden Club ran between May2007 and May 2008 in its
demonstration garden.
Do you want to start growing organic fruit
and veg?
Are you a beginner and want to learn some new gardening techniques?
Where would you like to grow some food? In raised beds, containers or
the open ground?
Download any of these information packs right now!
The leaflets are in pdf format, so download
Acrobat
Reader or
Foxit if you don't have software to read these files. The
leaflets are formatted for printing, so print page one, then print page
two on the back and then fold the paper in half to produce the leaflet.
What is Organic Gardening?
More
and more folk would like to learn to garden organically. They recognise
how important this approach is for the environment and that it produces
safe and tasty food but are afraid their garden will succumb to an
onslaught of weeds, pests and diseases. Not so! This leaflet will
outline some of the main ideas that underpin organic gardening,
including getting soil ready and choosing seed
Getting Started
Spring is the most exciting time of year in the garden: all the plants
are rushing to grow and our
green fingers are itching to get planting. Because the weather can still
be unpredictable we have to curb our enthusiasm a little and
carefully plan to ensure a succession of delicious fruit and veg for the
coming year.
Pricking Out and Planting On
May
is a very busy time in the veg garden as most of what you have already
sown needs attention. Seedlings and baby plants will be outgrowing their
spaces and the ground will now be warm enough to sow and plant out
directly into the ground.
The Healthy
Garden
Healthy
plants produce good crops and are a pleasure to look at but however
careful we are pest and disease problems sometimes arise. The most
effective way to combat a problem is to be vigilant and look out for
early signs, then correctly identify the cause and take steps to remedy
it. Know the enemy and apply measures that will disrupt its life cycle!
Be a Control Freak!
We
want our gardens to be as productive as possible, while at the same time
making sure our chosen plants get all the space and nutrients they need.
This means we must control weeds and the size, shape and health of the
plants we want.
Tender Veg
As
the risk of late frosts recedes, we can now safely plant out our more
delicate vegetables. The plants may be ones you have bought or swapped
or grown yourself in a greenhouse. All these varieties need to grow fast
to produce a crop in our short summer so they should be grown on a good
bed of compost or muck.
Growing Well
As
the summer develops, it’s increasingly important to maintain good
growing conditions. Plants that are growing strongly are much more
likely to withstand attack by pests and diseases. This includes keeping
them well fed and well watered. If pests do become a problem, biolgical
controls are a safe and environmentally sound solution.
Harvesting and Storing
Veg and fruit fresh from the garden is always tastiest but some crops
store perfectly well, providing you follow a few simple guidelines. Ways
to help you enjoy your garden produce for many months.
Forward Planning
We
want to continue to enjoy fresh veg from our gardens throughout the
Winter and into next Spring and now is the time to get going to achieve
it. A range of crops will stand our Borders’ winters and some Enviromesh
or a polytunnel or greenhouse will increase your choice. You can plant
in ground used for an earlier crop like peas or potatoes.
Autumn Tasks
As
the growing season comes to an end, we start to look forward to next
Spring and how we can start preparing the garden for next year. This
involves conserving soil nutrients and taking steps to reduce pests.
These
leaflets were funded by Lottery Awards for All