Basic Organic Garden Care

Watering - One big mistake many gardeners make is to water their garden too little and too often. When you water, you should do a long deep watering down the rows, not on top of the plants. This forces the plant to grow a strong taproot straight down to get at the water. Plants with a strong taproot will need to be watered less and will be much stronger. If you water your plants over the top of their roots too little and too often, they will only grow short small roots at the surface of the soil. These plants will be weak and will topple over. A heavy rain will wash the soil away from their roots and destroy them completely.

A good way to provide a good, soaking watering is to purchase a soaker hose. These are black foamy water hoses that leak water through their porous sides. Wind these hoses through the garden up and down each row. For a small garden, this is an easy way to soak them as you only have to turn on the faucet and turn it off when it is finished. For larger gardens, you can use a sprinkler that gets a good even coverage, or hand water it. To soak it, water it until water begins standing in puddles between the rows for more than one minute before soaking into the ground.

Weeding - You may need to weed your garden at least twice a week. Go through and pull up anything that is trying to grow that looks like it should not be there. While you are checking, you can also look at plants for signs of disease or pests. A few bugs on a plant are alright. It is when you have huge colonies or the plant begins looking a little sick that you should be worried. Take the proper steps to alleviate the problem.

Aeration - Plants need air to get to their roots in order to stay healthy. There are a few ways you can keep your garden soil aerated. Earthworms are the best option. You can purchase earthworms or dig them up from other areas in your yard. Turn over some soil in the garden and place the earthworm on top. It will find its way down into the soil. Earthworms are not harmful to plants and do an incredible job of aerating the soil naturally so you never have to do anything. You can also try using spike clogs. These can be bought at a few garden stores. Walk around in the garden with them to churn up the soil. This is great for lawns as well. The final option is cultivating the soil. For larger gardens, use a large cultivator. For smaller gardens, you should use a hand cultivator. Use the cultivator to make holes in the soil and turn it up just a little between the rows. Be careful of any roots.

Roots - Sometimes dirt can get washed away from the plant's roots. If the plant has not been buried deep enough, cover the roots with soil again. If it is caught early, the plant can usually be saved. If it has only been a couple of days since planting, you may dig up the plant and bury it deeper. Be careful not to damage the plant's roots.

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