Food-Gardening Lessons From A Wartime Victory Garden

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Tag: compost

“Weed” is a Four-Letter Word

 

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Reusing cardboard can add new life to the garden, if properly applied.

Ever notice how many challenges in the garden are four-letter words? Wind, hail, rust, mold, cold, vole, mole, deer, bugs, ouch, and weed conjure up stressful garden situations, which must be immediately addressed, leading to even more work (another four-letter word). How we deal with the cursed weed that pops up here and there in our little corner of Eden usually involves back-breaking hoeing, tugging, digging, or spraying. What if there were easier, more organic ways to eliminate weeds before they even sprout? This is where using effective mulches can help clean up both your garden and your vocabulary.

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April 22: Celebrate Earth Day with the Paul Parent Garden Club and Helpful Composting Advice

Thanks for celebrating Earth Day with Paul Parent on Sunday, April 22nd, 2012, when Dan Jacques, a Technical Specialist for Sun Gro Horticulture, was interviewed on the value and benefits of composting at home. Dan was full of helpful advice, plus the rules to follow when composting at home and the importance of only buying OMRI-listed compost, such as our Black Gold Garden Compost.
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Kids and Compost

Kids and Compost
In my garden, I have a compost pile that gets our kitchen vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, tea bags, and grass clippings. As you can see by the photo, I believe it is important to get kids involved in gardening and letting them learn about compost and worms is a good start. Compost is so beneficial to the soil and I add some whenever I am setting out new plants. I never have enough of my own and so I am constantly using Black Gold Garden Compost Blend when planting. It is amazing how much it improves the soil.

Super Organic Leaf Mulch

leaf mold bin
Fall leaves are an important source of organic matter that decomposes into soft, rich leaf mulch or mold. To harvest, create a corral using woven wire to contain the leaves. Fill with a foot deep layer of leaves, wet it, then pack down tightly. Sprinkle Black Gold All Purpose Fertilizer on top and dump in any left over potting soil from this year. Repeat layering over and over as leaves fall, adding more fertilizer to speed decomposition and increase your leaf mold fertility for fabulous results next year.
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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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Products for Fall Planting and Winterizing Your Garden

BG-Fert-Citrus-Avocado-Vine-OMRI-120608Fall is a wonderful time to garden. You can look over this year’s accomplishments and start developing your plans for next year, but it is also the perfect time for working in your garden.

Planting garden beds, color bowls and hanging baskets with fall annuals is a wonderful way to extend the joy of gardening throughout the remainder of the year. Be sure to add some Black Gold® Garden Compost Blend, Soil Conditioner and garden amendment or planting mix to your soil with either Black Gold® Rose & Flower or All Purpose Fertilizer to ensure a flower-filled display. Color bowls and hanging baskets with Black Gold® All Purpose Potting Soil or Black Gold® Natural and Organic Potting Soil make good choices for fall plantings.

Moving your outdoor herbs inside can be a very worthwhile fall activity. All you need to do is repot them in an indoor container and place them on a window sill that gets about 6 hours of sunlight. Those fresh herbs will be particularly flavorful, and it can be as easy as planting your favorite herbs in a container with Black Gold® Natural & Organic or Black Gold® All Purpose Potting Soil.

Fall is the best time of year to over-seed an existing lawn or start a new lawn from seed because the temperatures are cooler and the rain patterns are more consistent. Black Gold® Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss is a crucial ingredient in the lawn enhancement process. When you spread the peat moss on top of the lawn seed, it will keep the seeds moist and you will have quicker and more uniform grass seed germination.

Tree and shrub planting in the fall is natural for most plants. At this time of year the plants are starting to go dormant while the soil temperatures are still warm in comparison with the air. Both of these factors promote root development. After you start with the appropriate Black Gold® fertilizer, add your choice of Black Gold® Garden Compost, Soil Conditioner and garden amendment or planting mix to amend the soil. Simply follow the instructions on the back of the fertilizer box and amendment bag to add a new tree or shrub to your garden.

Planting spring-blooming bulbs in the fall can be a wonderfully rewarding activity. Black Gold® Garden Compost, Soil Conditioner and Garden Amendment or Planting Mix are great choices to improve the soil structure and enrich the soil with organic matter. Try using Black Gold Bone Meal to fertilize your bulbs so they will develop a good strong root system before they appear next spring.

Summer bulbs need to be dug up and stored in the fall after frost has blackened their foliage. Dry Black Gold® Peat Moss is a great choice for storage of most bulbs. However, a pre-moistened Black Gold® Peat Moss is the right choice for dahlias. Black Gold® Perlite can also be used to store bulbs that need to stay dry.

After raking up your garden’s leaves and plants, why don’t you put them in your compost pile instead of having them hauled away to either a landfill or a commercial composting site? If your compost pile becomes overwhelmed with the leaves, bag or pile them up separately and gradually add them over the winter as you add kitchen waste to your compost pile. Be sure to add Black Gold® Fertilizers to start the composting process.

And last but not least, be sure to add Black Gold® Garden Compost , Soil Conditioner and Garden Amendment or Planting Mix to any open location in the garden in preparation for planting next spring. May your fall gardening be full of joy and satisfaction when you garden with Black Gold® potting soils, amendments and fertilizers.

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.

Compost the Black Gold® Way

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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–such as leaves, grass clippings, and vegetable waste. The next time you take a walk in a forest look down at the forest floor, and you will see compost being made naturally from fallen leaves. The final product is a dark, rich, earthy smelling material that gardeners commonly refer to as “black gold” because of its high fertility. And whether bought by the bag or made at home, it does wonders for the garden.

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