Guest Post: Organic Mulching ~ What's that all about?

When I first started gardening I often heard the terms mulching, soil conditioning, manuring, composting to name but a few and hadn't got a clue what people were talking about. Were they different or all the same? Did they come in bags or did you make them? 

My questions were endless and so I was delighted when Jerry Day offered to clarify mulching for everyone with a guest blog. Jerry has loved gardening and landscaping since he was very young. He loves to write about gardening topics and currently works for 1-800-Mulch-Pro in the U.S. helping others improve the exterior of their homes.

Types Of Organic Mulch That Can Be Used In Vegetable Gardens

Organic gardening is the process of growing flowers, ornamental plants, herbs, fruit, and vegetables without toxic chemicals or harmful pesticides. Some primary concerns for organic gardeners include pest control, soil preparation, weed control, and the preservation of garden plants. Applying an organic mulch as a layer that sits on the top of the soil is the best way to ensure a bountiful harvest throughout the season. A layer of organic mulch will adjust the temperature of garden soil as needed, eliminate fruit rot, and provide overall soil improvement. Organic mulch properly insulates the ground against cold or heat, and the spread of plant disease will be reduced.

Straw Mulch

There are several different types of organic mulch that can be used in vegetable gardens. Organic mulch is made from previously living material produced by nature. Straw, wood chips, dried leaves, and pine needles are some examples of organic mulch. The amount of mulch used in the garden will depend on the type of organic material used. If you are using stringy or coarse material like pine needles, applying several inches of mulch will bring the best results. When the growing season has come to an end, simply mix the mulch into the garden soil. This process increases the soil's organic matter in preparation for the next season.

Gardeners can use different types of natural material for organic mulch. Dried grass clippings are ideal for many root vegetables such as radishes, carrots, and beets. Mulch made from bark or wood chips are often used in shrubs, ornamental gardens, and garden borders. This type of mulch is not recommended for vegetable gardens. Materials like shredded leaves, hay, and straw are other types of organic mulch that can be used in vegetable gardens. For best results, only use dry materials for organic mulch. Organic mulch can be made from sawdust or shredded newspaper, these materials should also be dry before adding to garden soil.

Home made compost

One of the most well known types of mulch is home made compost made from organic material. Organic compost is made from natural material and discarded food items. Gardeners can use potato peels, lobster shells, vegetable leaves, citrus peels, and egg shells for organic compost. Natural products such as pea pods, feathers, seed hulls, and peanut shells are also used. If you will be using compost as mulch, it must stay moist to encourage root growth. Cover the soil with a thin layer of compost and top it with mulch made from dried grass or shredded leaves. An extra layer of mulch will allow the compost to stay moist, and plant roots will thrive.

Just about any kind of organic mulch can be used in a vegetable garden. After two or three planting seasons, you will know which type of organic mulch you prefer.

Do you use mulch in your garden? I liked the tip about covering the soil with home made compost then a layer of dried grass. What do you use?

Taking some 'me' time

Sometimes we just have to stop.

Sometimes life gets too busy, too stressed and can overwhelm. Our goals and dreams become tangled in the matted knot of thoughts and pressures that bombard us daily.

When that starts to happen we lose sight of who and what we are. We focus on the silly, inconsequential things, ignoring what's important and then a rising panic starts to well that we're not achieving what we desire, that we're failing and that life's starting to unravel.

Well I don't know about you but that's what happens to me on occasion and has been building over the past two or three weeks.

This week I was fortunate to be able to listen to Grainne O'Reilly talk about balancing our lives at Carlow's Networking of Enterprising Women lunch and have been practicing the breathing techniques she showed us that help to calm us when we feel under pressure or stressed (breath in for a count of five, hold for a count of five, breath out for a count of five).

It works, I can categorically say that as I've been practising it a lot since and as  soon as I was able to calm myself I was able to to recognise that I was so busy looking and worrying about everyone else, I'd lost sight of me and who I am.

So this morning and completely unplanned I took some time out. I dropped my eldest to school, parked up the car and sat by the beautiful River Barrow for 45 minutes. I stopped thinking about the dinner, the housework, teaching the class that I was due to see a short while later, social media, my own garden, the bank balance, the replacement car I still haven't bought since crashing my own and the zillion other thoughts that whiz around my brain every minute of the day. I sat down on a faded and flaky painted bench and allowed myself to soak in what was surrounding me at that moment in time.

The roar of the weir drowned out most of my own noise as the water cascaded down the mossy concrete bank, taking it's long journey to the sea. I was still able to hear the birds singing around me as they hopped around the pink blossomed branches of nearby trees and listen to the ducks quack as they jumped out of the river and settled down for a snooze.

I noticed the shadows cast from trees mirrored on the flowing river, the cold breeze on my skin and the clouds as they moved across the sky, darkening the light around me at times and then shining so brightly you could almost hear the daffodils sing as they soaked up the sun's rays.

I stopped doing everything and lived for that moment in time, thinking how lucky I was that I was able to do just  that. How grateful I am that I live the life I do and am surrounded by the people I know in both real life and my virtual social media world. It was a special moment in time and one I want to keep hold of because all those worries I mentioned wont be going away, they're still there but they needed to be put back into perspective.

I left that tranquil place and drove to my gardening class with a smile. Because I'd stopped for just a brief while I was able to talk about, teach and share my passion for what I do. I was able to function again.

Today is a new day. I'm back. Are you......?

What does it mean to be organic? (more than you may think...)

I recently asked this question to a random selection of people at the KLCK bloggers network meeting and bar one, the answers were varied and general. 

Then I overheard a radio interview where the respondent was telling all the listeners about their "fabulous organic garden" and I knew fully well that it wasn't organic. Chemical free YES, organic NO. 

Why should that bother me so and is there a difference you may wonder? Well yes there is a difference and quite a big one. When you're an organic farmer who's struggling to sell your produce at a higher cost than non-organic, having likely gone through two full years of vigorous testing to achieve your well deserved certification, getting it wrong must be so frustrating! Organic vegetable gardening and certification involves a combination of many things but many feel worth the time, expense and effort to achieve that status.

At Greenside Up we teach and garden chemically free, we strive to be as organic as we possibly can and follow as many of the principles listed below as possible. However my seeds aren't all organically sourced, my manure is from a non-organic neighbouring farmer and my hens aren't feed organic feeds (though they are GM free). It would be incorrect of me to say that I garden 'organically' as that would be an injustice to those who actually do.

So what does the term ORGANIC actually mean?

It means avoiding the use of pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilisers by finding ways of dealing with pesky little bugs without reaching for a spray. It means weed management rather than automatically spraying them. It means sourcing organically farmed animal manures and making composts & leaf moulds.

Slug damage

It protects biodiversity by encouraging and maintaining habitats for plants, wildlife and animals - planting native hedges, wildflower areas and encouraging beneficial animals such as hedgehogs and toads into the garden.

It encourages people to shop and buy locally produced food rather than automatically driving to the big out-of-town supermarket.

It’s all about the soil – maintaining a healthy soil by rotating crops, adding natural fertilisers such as green or farmyard manures and keeping the soil covered when not in use.

Encouraging beneficial insects

It prohibits the use of genetically modified organisms (eg seeds).

It ensures that animals are reared to the highest standards, fed on chemically free grassland and are free range.

It encourages the preservation of water and ensures that pollutants aren’t released into the waterways.

How do you know if something you buy is certified organic?

In Ireland it will carry one of two symbols as shown above to tell us so, either from IOFGA or from the Organic Trust. Different countries have different certifying bodies such as The Soil Association in the UK and others around the world, all offering advice, support and guidelines to anybody who wants it. If the produce you're being sold as 'organic' doesn't carry a symbol from a certifiable body, then chances are it's not organic.

If you care about what you eat but find it expensive difficult to buy organic food, here's a list of the top 12 fruit and vegetables that were analysed for pesticide residues by the US Dept of Agriculture & Food & Drug Administration in 2011. With number the top one holding the greatest concentration...

Green and Scarlet Curly Kale - grown chemically free in my garden

Apples

Celery

Strawberries

Peaches

Spinach

Nectarines

Grapes

Sweet peppers

Potatoes

Blueberries

Lettuce

Kale

So if you're not yet growing all your own fruit and veg and can only afford to put one organic item in your shopping basket every week, this may help you to decide which one.

Has that surprised you at all? I was shocked to see that apples were the greatest culprit, especially knowing how many un-sprayed apples drop to the ground and are wasted in gardens across the country every autumn!

Product Review: "BecauseWeCare"TM Compostable Seedling Pots

"becausewecareTM" seed pots

I was intrigued when I saw this new range of environmentally friendly, fully compostable seed pots 'becausewecare TM' available in Ireland. I was therefore delighted to receive a package in the post  from the distributor containing a selection of pots to try out.

Our choices are limited in the gardening world when we try to be 'green'. Recycled plastic pots do exist (I love the colourful range by Elho, see below)  but when it comes to seed pots we usually have a choice of:

a)  regular plastic pots
b)  peat based pots
c)  home made paper or cardboard pots

elho 100% recycled plastic range

So, given our limited choices any initiatives to address this dilemma are worth considering.

The strange looking pots are made from a combination of cornstarch and biodegradable constituents that depending upon  conditions, will start to break down, taking two to six months to decompose in domestic circumstances, sooner in industrial compost.

The legume family of vegetables (peas and beans) don't generally like their roots to be disturbed so these 'becausewecareTM' pots seem the ideal vessel to sow pea seeds into. The seeds can be planted into compost and then the whole pot buried into the garden soil once they've germinated and grown on for a while.

Although pea seeds can be sown directly into soil we have to patiently wait for soil temperatures to warm up (10 - 12 degrees). Sowing them into compostable seed pots is therefore a way of starting them earlier, giving them a head start as the seedlings will already be established by the time the weather's warmer (usually from March onwards).

Seedlings will also have a better chance of surviving a slug attack if they're planted out with several leaves on as opposed to germinating directly in the garden soil and having their leaves nibbled off as soon as they appear.

I started a tray of peas off in newspaper pots three weeks ago but to give me a succession of peas to harvest, was keen to sow some more today.

When you first pick up the pots they're very flexible but as soon as they have compost in (I used a Westland Peat Free compost) they firm up nicely. The flexibility of the pots makes them very versatile as instead of sitting rigidly in a tray leaving gaps, I was able to fit more seed pots in than usual, using up all the space in my washed food tray. (The tray makes the pots easier to handle and means you can water the tray rather than the seed pots).

If I wasn't using my usual cardboard or paper pots, I would definitely consider using these as an alternative. I've yet to see how well they compost once they're buried in the soil but will be keeping a close eye on them over the coming months.

Eco-toxicity tests have been undertaken on these pots and have been shown to have 'absolutely no harmful effects on soil as part of the degradation process'.

If you don't want to bury your pots with seedlings in, you can of course sow seeds into them, remove the seedling and transplant as traditionally  done with plastic pots, rinsing the pots off and re-using them. These compostable pots are said to have a shelf life of two years and once they start to disintegrate, can be added to the compost heap along with kitchen scraps.

The "becausewecareTM" compostable pots are available from a limited number of garden centres around Ireland (see the website for local stockists), or online from Irish Green Award finalist The Secret Garden Centre at €4.95 for 25 three inch pots.

Recycled boots (and other things)

Wellie Boot Rack

Reuse, recycle - do you?

Recycled doesn't have to mean packing everything into a bin or bag and sending it off to the local centre.

Pallet gate

Recycling, or up cycling, is about thinking differently. 

It's about coming up with ideas for reusing items that they weren't originally intended for.

Container vegetables - winter lettuce & edible violas

Pallets are a big favourite of ours - from shelves to compost bins, gates to welly boot racks.

Pallet shelving

Seed containers

We also use carrier bags, boots, old milk churns and anything else we can think of for garden containers. 

Old cd's and computer disks are kept and strung around the veggie patch in spring to act as bird scarers. 

Toilet roll inserts and food containers are saved ready for seed planting.

(My favourite dark bottomed sausage container & clear chicken container that fitted together perfectly, making a sweet little propagator were accidentally recycled 'for real'... oops) 

All cups & crockery are saved for  using as 'crocks' in container planting

Surprisingly, once plants are growing in it, or latches are fixed to it, our junk no longer resembles rubbish at all.

Do you have any favourite ways of re-using your 'rubbish'?