New Organic Gardening - Growing Onions in You Home Vegetable Garden

One of the oldest know vegetables is the onion. It is commonly used in a variety of recipes in the kitchens around the world and can be purchased in many different way, from fresh, canned, chopped, dehydrated, frozen and even pickled.

Growing onions can be done from seed, transplants or sets. When choosing seed to start your onions, you will have a larger choice of what you can plant, but can take five months for the seedlings to mature enough to be transplanted and they are more susceptible to disease.

Transplants are onion plants that were started from seed that same season. They can be purchased at some local garden centers, depending on where you live and can be purchased from on line sources. They are usually sold in bunches. They have a shorter growing season than seeds do but can have the same problems like disease.

Sets are the most common way that onions are planted in the home garden and are sold at most local garden centers. They are no more than an immature bulb. These sets are started from seed by sowing the seeds tightly together to create a very thick, tight growing crop of seedlings. This results in a stunted plant growth that will produce a small bulb. These small bulbs is what is sold as sets to be planted the next growing season. When purchasing your sets, keep in mind that they should be about 1/2 inch in diameter and solid, soft small bulbs will not produce a good mature onion, even over size sets that are bigger than 1/2 inch usually wont do good.

When choosing the variety of onion you want to grow, there is one thing that needs to be considered. Onions have what is called day length requirements. Some need 13 to 16 hours of daylight and others only need 12 hours. Choose a variety that is best suitable for your area.

Onions will grow best in a raised garden bed with a good healthy soil structure and plenty of compost or composted manure mixed in and drains well. The soil should have a fairly neutral ph level of between 6 and7.When planting seeds the soil needs to be fluffy or very loose.

Sow seeds directly into the garden bed thickly and cover with a 1/2 inch of fine soil. If you mix radish seeds in the same area they will serve two purposes, deter root maggots and help mark the area where the onion seeds were planted. Once the seedlings start to grow you can start to thin them to about 1 inch apart and then in about a month thin them to 6 inches apart. When you thin them this second time you will want to pull back some of the soil around the bulb to expose the top and sides, this is a great way to induce the development of the bulb.

When planting transplants you want to space then 4 to 6 inches apart and about 2 inches deep.If you are planning on harvesting the onions young then you will want to use the closer 4 inch spacing.

Sets are the third method of planting onions. When purchasing sets you can figure that one pound is enough to plant a fifty foot row. Trench your rows out about 2 inches deep and place the sets with the stem end up. This is the one thing that you will need to watch for when planting. Once you have the sets in place cover with a good garden soil and maintain then with the same methods as transplants.

Time to get ready to harvest your onions is when you see the tops start to turn yellow. At this time you want to bend the greens over horizontally, this will stop the sap from flowing through the stem and put all the plants energy into the maturing bulb. A couple days after you do this you will see the tips starting to turn brown, it is time to pull the onion bulbs from the ground. Do this on a sunny day and lay the bulbs on the ground to dry. When laying the out cover the bulbs by laying the bulbs in a row and covering the next row with the greens . This will help to prevent sun scalding.

Growing Your Own Herbs Garden

If youre not the type of person that wants to spend their time managing
an elaborate fruit or vegetable garden, you might consider planting and
maintaining an herb garden. While the product might not seem as
significant, youll still enjoy the constant availability of fresh,
delicious herbs to flavor your meals with.

First youll want to choose the herbs that youll plant. You might have a
hard time doing this because of the huge scope of herbs available. But the
best way to choose is to do what I did; just look at what you have in your
kitchen. By planting your own collection of these herbs, you can save
money on buying them from the grocery store while having the added benefit
of freshness. Some of the herbs you might start with include rosemary,
sage, basil, dill, mint, chives, and parsley among others.

When choosing an area to put your herb garden, you should remember that
the soil should have extremely good drainage. If the dirt gets watered and
stays completely saturated, you have no chance of ever growing a healthy
plant. One of the best ways to fix the drainage problem is to dig a foot
deep in the soil, and put a layer of crushed rocks down before replacing
all the soil. This will allow all that water to escape, thus saving your
plants.

When you are ready to begin planting herbs, you might be tempted to buy
the more expensive plants from the store. However, with herbs it is much
easier to grow them from seed than it is with other plants. Therefore you
can save a bundle of money by sticking with seed packets. Some herbs grow
at a dangerously fast rate. For example, if you plant a mint plant in an
open space then it will take over your entire garden in a matter of days.
The best way to prevent this problem is to plant the more aggressive
plants in pots (with holes in the bottom to allow drainage, of course).

When it comes time to harvest the herbs you have labored so hard over, it
can be fatal to your plant to take off too much. If your plant isnt well
established, it isnt healthy to take any leaves at all, even if it looks
like its not using them. You should wait until your plant has been well
established for at least several months before taking off any leaves. This
wait will definitely be worth it, because by growing unabated your plant
will produce healthily for years to come.

Once youve harvested your delicious home grown herbs, youll want to use
them in cooking. Why else would you have grown them? Well first the
process begins with drying them out. This is easily achieved by placing
them on a cookie sheet and baking them 170 degrees Fahrenheit for 2 to 4
hours. After theyre sufficiently dried to be used in cooking, you can
consult the nearest cookbook for instructions on using them to effectively
flavor a dish.

If you want to store your herbs for later usage, you should keep them in a
plastic or glass container. Paper or cardboard will not work, because it
will absorb the taste of the herbs. During the first few days of storage,
you should regularly check the container and see if any moisture has
accumulated. If it has, you must remove all the herbs and re-dry them. If
moisture is left from the first drying process, it will encourage mildew
while you store your herbs. Nobody likes mildew.

So if you enjoy herbs or gardening, or both, then you should probably
consider setting up an herb garden. It might require a little bit of work
at first to set it up for optimal drainage, and pick what herbs you want
to grow. But after the initial hassle, its just a matter of harvesting
and drying all your favorite herbs.

Growing Your Own Herbs

If you're not the type of person that wants to spend their time managing an elaborate fruit or vegetable garden, you might consider planting and maintaining an herb garden. While the product might not seem as significant, you'll still enjoy the constant availability of fresh, delicious herbs to flavor your meals with.

First you'll want to choose the herbs that you'll plant. You might have a hard time doing this because of the huge scope of herbs available. But the best way to choose is to do what I did; just look at what you have in your kitchen. By planting your own collection of these herbs, you can save money on buying them from the grocery store while having the added benefit of freshness. Some of the herbs you might start with include rosemary, sage, basil, dill, mint, chives, and parsley among others.

When choosing an area to put your herb garden, you should remember that the soil should have extremely good drainage. If the dirt gets watered and stays completely saturated, you have no chance of ever growing a healthy plant. One of the best ways to fix the drainage problem is to dig a foot deep in the soil, and put a layer of crushed rocks down before replacing all the soil. This will allow all that water to escape, thus saving your plants.

When you are ready to begin planting herbs, you might be tempted to buy the more expensive plants from the store. However, with herbs it is much easier to grow them from seed than it is with other plants. Therefore you can save a bundle of money by sticking with seed packets. Some herbs grow at a dangerously fast rate. For example, if you plant a mint plant in an open space then it will take over your entire garden in a matter of days. The best way to prevent this problem is to plant the more aggressive plants in pots (with holes in the bottom to allow drainage, of course).

When it comes time to harvest the herbs you have labored so hard over, it can be fatal to your plant to take off too much. If your plant isn't well established, it isn't healthy to take any leaves at all, even if it looks like its not using them. You should wait until your plant has been well established for at least several months before taking off any leaves. This wait will definitely be worth it, because by growing unabated your plant will produce healthily for years to come.

Once you've harvested your delicious home grown herbs, you'll want to use them in cooking. Why else would you have grown them? Well first the process begins with drying them out. This is easily achieved by placing them on a cookie sheet and baking them 170 degrees Fahrenheit for 2 to 4 hours. After they're sufficiently dried to be used in cooking, you can consult the nearest cookbook for instructions on using them to effectively flavor a dish.

If you want to store your herbs for later usage, you should keep them in a plastic or glass container. Paper or cardboard will not work, because it will absorb the taste of the herbs. During the first few days of storage, you should regularly check the container and see if any moisture has accumulated. If it has, you must remove all the herbs and re-dry them. If moisture is left from the first drying process, it will encourage mildew while you store your herbs. Nobody likes mildew.

If you enjoy herbs or gardening, or both, then you should probably consider setting up an herb garden. It might require a little bit of work at first to set it up for optimal drainage, and pick what herbs you want to grow. But after the initial hassle, it's just a matter of harvesting and drying all your favorite herbs.

Growing the Greatest Flowers Around

Most every gardener strives to grow the best, most stunning flowers around, but that goal is hard to get hold of. Whether you want to raise prize-winning blooms or just have a home garden filled with of beautiful flowers, there are some things you can do in order to ensure your garden is in the best shape possible.

Soil chemistry counts
The chemical make-up of the soil is one of the biggest factors that contribute to the success or failure of your garden. If the soil in your planting beds is poor in nutrients, it is unlikely that your plants will thrive or produce those beautiful flowers that you want until you enrich the soil with the nutrition the plants need.

Dont make the mistake of thinking that the soil chemistry is the same all over your yard. It is important to test the soil in each area of your property that you plan to plants, especially if the areas are away from each other. This can be important if part of your property is on a slope, or if it has been used for other things in the past.

The slope of the land and the soil type in your area are important considerations to make. A complete analysis of the soil in your yard will give you a good place to starts and a help you to monitor the quality of the soil as your garden matures.

Know what your plants will need to thrive
You probably already have an idea about what you want to plant in your garden, so it is important that you understand what those plants will require in order to grow and flourish. Although many types of annuals, perennials, and bulbs can grow and thrive in a broad range of soil and weather conditions, others can have special requirements for food, water, and soil conditions.

For example, if you are interested I n cultivating roses in your garden, you will need to know the pH level of your soil, and adjust it if you need to. Roses are commonly acid loving plants, and therefore they will not thrive in soil with a higher alkaline level. Getting some humus and tilling it into the soil can amend alkaline soil. If the humus does not do the job, adding sulfur to the soil can raise the acidity level.

Keeping an eye on nutrition
The nutrients in the soil will dictate the health and vitality of your plants and flowers. If the phosphorus and nitrogen levels, as well as the presence of other types of organic matter are not sufficient, your plants may be malnourished, and not thrive at all. Nutrients can be added to poor soil by suing humus or any number of good-quality fertilizers.

Now you understand why the chemistry of your garden soil is so important in growing your ideal garden. Having the best flowers around is a big task to fulfill. Make sure that your garden soil is ready for the duty.