Food-Gardening Lessons From A Wartime Victory Garden

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Build Organic Garden Soil with Black Gold

Building organic garden soil is the same as working the soil for any other kind of garden except for one thing: you must feed the soil with OMRI Listed products for organic gardening. The ground below your feet is not just dirt but a whole living breathing universe unto itself. Within those soil mineral particles are populations of microscopic bacteria, fungi, yeasts, protozoa and algae. They are collectively known as microbes, which feed on the remnants of dead plants, also known as organic matter. Organic gardens depend on high microbe populations to make plants grow strong naturally, resist pests and diseases, and produce a bumper crop of food or flowers.

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Better Results All Season Long with Black Gold®

Black Gold All Purpose with Multicote Potting SoilWith the advent of Black Gold® All Purpose, you are now able to enjoy the benefits of a premium quality potting soil with a fertilizer that will feed your plants for up to six months. Sun Gro sells this same fertilizer product to professional growers. By incorporating Multicote® into your potting soil, your plants will have a consistent supply of nutrients throughout the entire season.

Multicote®, a controlled release fertilizer, has been coated with a polymer that slowly breaks down to release the nutrients over time. Unlike other controlled release fertilizers in the marketplace, Multicote® will not release excessive nutrients in higher temperatures, thus ensuring your plant will thrive no matter what the weather. This baseline of fertilizer allows your plants to grow all season long, not just when you remember to fertilize. Additional fertilizations with a liquid fertilizer, starting a couple weeks after planting, will ensure your plants get all the nutrients they need, particularly if your plants are heavy feeders.

Ideal for all types of plants, Black Gold® All Purpose with Multicote® is a great choice for house plants, patio containers and hanging baskets. Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss with earthworm castings, forest humus, compost and pumice combine to provide your plants with both moisture retention and good drainage. Since this potting soil has a higher amount of peat moss, it is ideal for gardeners looking to reduce their fertilizer and water usage.

Think of all the benefits – you start with a premium potting soil; add a controlled release fertilizer that will lessen the frequency of fertilizing; and you get improved plant performance by using Black Gold® All Purpose Potting Soil with Multicote®.

The Best House Plant Potting Soil

BG African Violet front-2Do your houseplants need to be re-potted? If so, Black Gold® offers a wide variety of product choices. We have four specialty mixes to choose from in addition to three standard all-purpose mixes. They are the perfect house plant potting soils.

Black Gold® African Violet Mix – Finicky African violets thrive in this blend of Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss, compost, pumice, earthworm castings and screened forest humus. The pH has been balanced to create the optimal rich and porous medium for growing foliage and flowers. African Violets must be pot-bound to bloom, so it is important to choose the correct size of pot. You should choose a pot that is 1/3 larger in diameter then the plant, and keep in mind African Violets need to be repotted every six months. The new potting soil will give the plant new organic matter and nutrients, and will reduce the build-up of salts.

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All About Black Gold® Garden Compost

Black Gold Garden Compost Blend is a wonderful amendment and mulch for strawberry beds.
Black Gold Garden Compost Blend is a wonderful amendment and mulch for strawberry beds.

One of the secret ingredients used by successful gardeners is Black Gold® Garden Compost Blend. What exactly is garden compost? Compost happens when microbes break down or decompose organic or living matter. The next time you are on a walk in a forest, look down at the forest floor and you will find compost being made naturally. The final product is a dark, rich, earthy smelling material, which gardeners commonly call “black gold”. Today at Black Gold® we use garden compost in several of our products, which makes our slogan “All the Riches of the Earth™” so true.

Black Gold’s® ready-to-use garden compost is OMRI Listed. This means that our garden compost is so naturally rich and pure that it can be used to produce certified organic garden products. If you purchase compost that is not OMRI Listed, you may get a product that contains ingredients you may not want in your garden. Using Black Gold® Garden Compost Blend in your garden soil encourages earthworms and other beneficial organisms to multiply and improve soil structure, break down organic matter for plants and increase soil fertility. Healthy soil will help your garden grow plants that are strong, healthy, productive and more naturally resistant to pests and diseases. Garden compost provides organic matter and natural nutrients for your garden soil and also improves soil texture and structure. In sandy soils, garden compost helps the soil hold more moisture, while in wet, heavy clay soils, compost improves soil drainage.

Black Gold® Garden Compost can either be mixed into the soil before planting as a garden amendment, or applied to the surface of the soil as mulch. It is true that you can never have enough garden compost. That’s why we also encourage you to make your own compost, even while you are experiencing a bountiful garden using Black Gold® Garden Compost Blend. Information on composting can be found on the Internet by doing a simple search for “composting”. Plus, in addition to having a flourishing garden, when you compost you keep the material from filling up overburdened landfills.