Ecological, Organic Gardening

Organic gardening is the one that uses the means of the nature itself. It is the way for the respectful gardening with environment. The problems that have been caused by the abusive use of chemicals, and the bigger consciousness raising by the current society on ecological matters, has cause an increasing demand of organic gardening.

To meet the organic gardening parameters, the first step is to be conscious with ourselves. This gardening is going to provide benefits to us, and, furthermore, we make our contribution on the environment conservation.

So it is easy to understand what is necessary for being an organic gardener:

- Save natural resources: Don´t waste water
- Reuse garden residues

- Avoid the chemicals’ use. Search ecological options instead.

- Think how to favour our flora and fauna.

The Organical Gardening tries to save water, phytosanitary products and fertilizers; promote habits and attitudes that contribute to the conservation and protection of the environment and health.

On the other hand, the gardening based on the chemicals use, waste of water and vegetal residues, it is an unsustainable gardening. And in the long run, it is more expensive.

Basic rules of Organical Gardening

1. The garden design

- Use preferably native plants. Look what kind of plants are growing near your garden because those plants will be the best plants to land on your garden. The advantage of using native plants is that they demand less maintenance because they are more resistant to the absence of water, to the grounds, to the plagues, to the illness, etc.

In case of having exotic plants, select those plant that can be better adapted to your garden conditions (temperature, humidity, exposition, ground characteristics…).

- Group together the garden species according to its water needs:

When designing the garden it is interesting to study if in our garden there are microclimates. For example, if you have a dark zone, with shadow most of the time, you could design a wet garden. If you have a sunny garden with blotter wind, it is more suitable to design one dry garden or xeriscaping.

- Choose the more suitable species for your garden looking the physicochemical characteristics of the ground (texture, pH, organic matter, etc.)

It is not very responsible to plant a garden with high water needs if you live in dry zone with low rainfall, because there may be water cuts. Cactus and succulent plants are a good solution, they are hard and there is a great variety of species.

- Buy your plants in local garden centers where they guarantee the quality of the plants. Furthermore, the plants have grown with similar climate conditions to the ones the plants will have in our garden. This way the plants will be acclimatized from the beginning.

- Use small plants, they will adapt better to your garden and you will have a big percentage of success.

- To save water create shadow zones: threes, shrubs or garden furniture (fences, pergolas,…).

- Protect the plants against the wind, because it can dry them: hedges, threes, fences, wattles, etc.

- Plant groups and mass that create microclimates to retain humidity, give shadow to the ground, protect the plants against wind and avoid weeds

- When planting, keep in mind its adult dimensions. Do not plant very close to each other; give them space to grow well.

- Use ground cover plants to cover and to preserve the ground.

2. Irrigation

- Irrigate at early morning or in the evening, never at the sun.

- The native plants live with the rain water, that´s why they don´t almost need irrigation, except for the beginning, when they need irrigation to root well and to get over the first summers.

- With the spreading irrigation system the water is saved and the plants “use” better the water they receive.

- Try to save as much water as possible.

3. Fertilization

- In Organic Gardening it is not recommended to use conventional chemical fertilizers because the nitrates contaminate underground waters.

- The excess of fertilizers cause excessive sprouting and make the plants more prone to suffer plagues as aphids or mites.

Organic fertilizer

- In the organical cultivation is fertilized with organical fertilizers and with natural mineral fertilizers.

- In addition, the native plants almost do not need fertilizers.

- Make your own home compost recycling the vegetal rests, like pruning branches, reaped grass, 

leafes, food rests, etc. Another Organic options are worm humus and manure.

4. Padding

- The padding or mulching consist on cover the ground near the foot of the plants with different materials, with 1^31⁄32in. to5^29⁄32in. thickness

IIt maintains the humidity of the ground reducing evaporation. We save water, and it facilitates that the plant’s roots find enough humidity at shallowness.

Because of the superficial humidity, the washing of fertilizers decreases.

It improves the thermal conditions of the plant’s root mass, increasing the temperature of the ground during the day. While on the night, it complicates the exit of the infrared radiations of the earth´s surface and it restrain the warm. This property provides a bigger temperature than the wuth naked ground and a cushioning of his fluctuations, which gives earliness to cultivation.

With the increase of the temperature and with the ground´s humidity, the nitrification process is favored.

If the using mulching is opaque, the absence of solar radiation prevents the development of weeds that fights with cultivations for water and nutritious resources.

The mulching works as a barrier between the ground and the fruits, reducing the sanitary problems, specially the putrefaction. 

Paddind or mulching materials. There is a big quantity in the market.

- Grinded pine bark

- Peat moss, humus, compost.

- Gravels and coloured loose stones.

5. Weeds

- Till the land well and remove by hand all stolons, bulbs and rhizome before seeding.

- Avoid the use of chemical herbicides.

- Clean the perennial grasses that reappear once and again with the hoe every time they reappear.  They will be losing strength progressively and there will be less and less.

- The mulching on the plants base with pine barks, straw, compost, manure, peat moss, gravel, etc. is another method to avoid weeds.

- An Anti-Weed fabric is very useful for shrubs mass, for pebbles, for cactus gardens, on gravel roads, etc. You can get the esthetic finish covering it with pine barks, gravels, colored loose stones…

- Cover the ground with Cover Plants that hamper the sprout.

6. Grass

The grass is the principal water consumer of the garden, the organic gardening tries to reduce the grass areas.

There are types of grass with little consumes of water, drought resistant.

There are other options to cover the land:

- Ground Cover Plants.

- Shrubs’ mass.

- Pine barks’.

- Gravel and colored loose stones.

- Paving

The grass need a lot of maintenance and work: irrigation, fertilizers, cuts, aired scarification, reseeding, plagues’ and fungi’s control.

ORGANIC ORCHARD

The Organic Orchard is gaining more importance inside the organic gardening; both for amateurs and for producers.

The organic products’ demand is growing every year. The interest in knowing where the products come from and knowing about their cultivation is growing every day. To commercialize the products as “organic products”, they have to be cultivated following certain standardized cultivation systems.

A particular does not need to search any regulation, but he can pay attention to the regulation principles and practices.

The main objective of an organic orchard is to keep and to improve the environment of the under- ground and the aerial part of the plants.

Other essential concepts are:

- Conservation of the animal life.

- Keep the environment and the orchard sustainability

- Recycle

- Reuse

- Local resources use.