Organic Gardening for Dummies, UK Edition E-Book

Sue S. Fisher

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 565

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Reduce a garden's impact on both the environment and the wallet

Organic Gardening For Dummies shows readers the way to ensure a healthy harvest from an environmentally friendly garden. It covers information on the newest and safest natural fertilizers and pest control methods, composting, cultivation without chemicals, and how to battle plant diseases. It also has information on updated equipment and resources. It helps the reader to plant organically year-round, using herbs, fruits, vegetables, lawn care, trees and shrubs, and flowers.

Organic Gardening For Dummies show readers how to:

• Plan out the perfect organic garden
• Protect wildlife and help pollinators in a garden
• Grow a range of organic vegetables, fruits and flowers
• Manage pests in an eco-friendly way

Leseprobe

Organic Gardening For Dummies®

Visit www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/organicgardeninguk to view this book's cheat sheet.

Table of Contents

Introduction

About This Book

Conventions Used in This Book

What You’re Not to Read

Foolish Assumptions

How This Book Is Organised

Part I: Understanding the Basics of Organic Gardening

Part II: Getting Stuck into Soil, Compost and Fertilisers

Part III: Growing Organically in Your Garden

Part IV: Managing Problems

Part V: The Part of Tens

Icons Used in This Book

Where to Go from Here

Part I: Understanding the Basics of Organic Gardening

Chapter 1: Gardening Organically: The Basic Techniques

Defining Organic Gardening

Building Healthy Soil

Planting Wisely

Ensuring diversity of plant types

Encouraging animal and insect diversity

Using Integrated Pest Management

Managing Nutrients

Reducing, Reusing, Recycling

Conserving water

Considering the source

Chapter 2: Benefiting You and the World: Great Reasons to Go Organic

Growing Organically for Your Health

Selecting alternatives to synthetic chemicals

Getting more nutrients from organically grown foods

Using fewer genetically modified organisms

Considering the Environment

Protecting wildlife

Helping insect pollinators

Minimising water contamination

Preventing soil erosion

Conserving water

Predicting the future for organic gardening

Chapter 3: Understanding and Planning Your Site

Knowing Your Garden’s Conditions

Understanding soil assessment

Considering your region’s climate

Thinking about your microclimates

Getting Started on Your Garden Design

Using basic design principles

Landscaping and arranging

Putting pencil to paper

Making a map

Putting it all together

Part II: Getting Stuck into Soil, Compost and Fertilisers

Chapter 4: Digging Beneath the Surface: Soils

Excavating Soil Components

Digging into the Topsoil

Turning over the composition of soil

Uncovering soil structure

Creating Fertile Ground

Understanding what plants need

Grasping how soil affects fertility

Measuring soil acidity or alkalinity: pH

Chapter 5: Building Healthy Soil

Knowing Your Soil

Testing your soil type: Sand, silt or clay?

Checking your soil drainage

Measuring the soil pH

Assessing the nutrient levels

Adjusting Your Soil’s pH

Adding Organic Matter: The Soul of the Soil

Becoming gung-ho about dung

Using compost: The prince of organic matter

Cultivating Your Soil

Understanding why cultivating is necessary

Digging: How deep to go

Getting help: Mechanical cultivators

Chapter 6: Composing Great Compost: Let the Rotting Begin!

Understanding Why Composting is Common Sense

Situating and Arranging Your Compost Area

Buying or building compost bins

Selecting solutions for small spaces

Getting Started: From Refuse to Riches

Choosing ingredients for your compost recipe

‘Cooking’ your compost heap

Speeding up the process: Compost activators

Loving leafmould

Working with wiggly wormeries

Handling Problematic Materials

Composting food waste . . . safely

Recycling woody prunings

Dealing with non-compostables

Chapter 7: Enriching the Earth with Organic Fertilisers

Becoming Familiar with Fertilisers

Debating organic versus synthetic fertilisers

Choosing between fast-release and slow-release fertilisers

Considering the big three nutrients

Providing secondary nutrients

Avoiding trace element deficiency

Applying fertilisers

Getting to Grips with Types of Organic Fertiliser

Buying organic fertilisers

Rocking-on with mineral-based fertilisers

Boosting your soil

Producing your own liquid fertilisers

Growing green manures and cover crops

Finding a Sustainable Source of Fertiliser

Part III: Growing Organically in Your Garden

Chapter 8: Settling in Plants and Keeping Them Happy

Planting Knowledge: Getting to Know Plant Types

Appearing here only once: Annual plants

Checking them out every two years: Biennial plants

Counting on them every spring: Herbaceous perennials

Persisting year on year: Woody perennials

Starting from Seed

Sowing seeds directly in your garden

Starting seeds indoors

Buying as Plants

Knowing your sources

Picking winners

Preparing and Planting

Putting in container-grown perennials, annuals and vegetables

Settling in bare-root plants

Planting trees and shrubs

Feeding, Watering and Maintenance

Chapter 9: Enjoying Home-grown Feasts

Going Your Own Way: Good Reasons for Growing Your Own Grub

Deciding What Plants are Suitable for Your Patch

Selecting the Best Varieties

Understanding What Crops Need

Supplying soil, sun and shelter

Watering and feeding

Succeeding in Small Spaces

Cultivating crops in containers

Producing fruit pots

Going up: Growing plants vertically

Using frames and supports

Raising windowsill crops

Extending the Season: Growing Early, Late and Exotic Crops

Starting early

Warming the soil

Using cloches and crop covers

Growing in a greenhouse

Putting polytunnels into service

Chapter 10: Raising Organic Vegetables

Planning Your Vegetable Garden

Rotating Crops: Problem Avoidance in Action

Gardening the Easy Way: No-Dig Beds

Grasping the benefits of ‘going to beds’

Sizing and shaping up

Preparing the ground properly

Choosing crops for raised beds

Determining What Veg to Plant . . . and When

Sowing, Planting and Caring for Your Veg

Sowing seeds and setting out plants

Fertilising: Feed me, feed me!

Weeding and watering

Harvesting time

Vegging Out With Veg Varieties

Alliums: Onions, shallots, garlic and leeks

Asparagus

Brassicas: Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and company

Legumes: Peas and beans

Lettuce and leafy salad friends

Peppers and their aubergine cousins

Potatoes

Root crops: Carrots, parsnips, beetroots and radishes

Sweetcorn

Swiss chard and spinach

Tomatoes

Vining crops: Cucumbers, squash, pumpkins, courgettes and marrows

Chapter 11: Growing Herbs for the Home and Garden

Growing Herbs

Fitting herbs into your garden

Watching for invaders

Taking a Look at Some Common Herbs

Basil

Calendula

Caraway

Chamomile

Chives

Coriander

Dill

Fennel

Horseradish

Lavender

Mint

Oregano

Parsley

Rosemary

Sage

Sweet marjoram

Tarragon

Thymes

Chapter 12: Picking from the Berry Patch

Bearing Fruit: Berry Basics

Choosing where to grow your fruits

Controlling weeds

Buying plants

Discovering the Delights of Soft Fruits

Beautiful blueberries

Ramblin’ brambles: Blackberries and friends

Keeping current with currants and gooseberries

Going ape for grapes

Robust raspberries

Rhubarb rhubarb

Sublime strawberries

Chapter 13: Cultivating Fruits and Nuts for Your Organic Orchard

Getting to the Roots of Fruit Tree Anatomy

Accepting that size (and shape) does matter

Cross-pollinating: Sex and the single tree

Budding genius

Looking After Your Fruit Trees

Planting for success

Pruning fruit trees

Preventing pests and diseases

Coming Over all Fruity: Choosing Fruit Trees for Your Garden

Adding apples to your plot

Cheering up your garden with cherries

Picking peaches and nectarines

Peering into the world of pears

Plumping for plums, damsons, gages and prunes

Going Crazy for Nuts

Angling for almonds

Craving cobnuts and filberts

Waiting for walnuts

Chapter 14: Saying It With Flowers

Mixing It Up with Flowers: The Basics

Creating mixed borders

Preparing your soil

Planting and aftercare

Selecting and Growing Flowers of all Types

Enjoying annual events

Planting perennial favourites

Blooming bulbs

Fancying fantastic foliage

Running for the Roses

Making the right rose choice

Choosing disease-resistant roses

Buying roses

Planting roses

Fertilising and mulching for roses

Watering your roses

Solving common rose troubles

Chapter 15: Managing Garden Trees and Shrubs

Planning for Long-Term Success

Putting everything in its place

Avoiding troublemakers

Giving Your New Trees and Shrubs the Best Start

Selecting the right season

Picking out healthy plants

Getting short-term care right

Taking the Long View for Trees and Shrubs

Fertilising follies

Practising pruning

Choosing the Perfect Trees and Shrubs

Painting your garden with flowering and ornamental trees

Filling your garden with flowering and foliage shrubs

Considering conifers

Chapter 16: Creating and Caring for Your Organic Lawn

Getting Down to Grassroots

Choosing the Right Grass

Preparing the Soil

Planting the Lawn

Going for turf

Creating a lawn from seed

Maintaining Your Organic Lawn

Grasping the full importance of mowing

Watering your lawn

Avoiding lawn problems with cultivation, not chemicals

Switching to Lawn Alternatives

Growing ground covers

Converting a lawn to something wilder

Making a meadow

Part IV: Managing Problems

Chapter 17: Creating a Natural Balance: Preventing Pests and Diseases Organically

Dealing with Pests the Organic Way

Choosing pest- and disease-resistant plants

Making your garden less inviting to pests

Identifying culprits and problems

Establishing thresholds

Preventing and controlling pests

Welcoming Natural Pest Controllers into Your Garden

Identifying beneficial insects

Attracting beneficial insects

Encouraging other natural predators

Observing Commonsense Organic Pesticide Use

Knowing pesticide types

Protecting yourself, the plants and the environment

Keeping records

Chapter 18: Managing and Controlling Insect Pests

Understanding Insects

Managing Insect Pests

Removing pests manually

Barring the way with barriers

Resisting with repellents

Tricking with traps

Controlling pests biologically

Cleaning up pests with soaps and oils

Using plant-based insecticides

Getting Rid of Common Insect Pests

Chapter 19: Battling Plant Diseases

Diagnosing What’s Wrong with Your Plant

Understanding Plant Diseases

Finding the fungus among us

Battling bacteria and viruses

Protecting Your Plants Against Disease

Choosing plant varieties wisely

Keeping plants dry and mulched

Preventing plant disease in other ways

Getting to Grips with Disease-Control Techniques and Products

Combating Common Garden Diseases

Rooting Out Environmental Problems

Dodging weedkiller damage

Avoiding lawn-mower and strimmer damage

Defending against leaf scorch

Fortifying against nutrient deficiency

Steering clear of salt damage

Fending off frost and winter injury

Chapter 20: Outwitting Invading Creatures

Gearing Up For Battle

Combating Larger Animals

Defending against deer

Battling beastly badgers

Warding off those wascally wabbits

Guarding against grey squirrels

Fighting off feline foes

Vanquishing Voles and Mice

Defending Against Lofty and Low-down Creatures

Beating the birds

Maintaining your defences against moles

Chapter 21: Weed It and Reap!

Winning the Weed Wars

Knowing your enemy

Facing up to wicked perennial weeds

Mulching for weed prevention

Pulling and cultivating

Firing weeds with flame guns

Resorting to organic herbicides

Covering the ground with cover crops

Clearing overgrown ground

Spotting Problems that Weeds can Hide

Providing homes for insects, good and bad

Harbouring diseases that spread

Part V: The Part of Tens

Chapter 22: Ten Best Organic Gardening Practices

Enriching Your Soil

Mulching Early, Mulching Often

Choosing Healthy, Disease-Resistant Plants

Putting Plants in the Right Place

Using Organic, Slow-Release Fertilisers

Encouraging Beneficial Organisms

Practising Integrated Pest Management

Trapping and Blocking Pests

Avoiding Toxic Pesticides

Promoting Diversity

Chapter 23: Ten Ways to Be Eco-Friendly

Letting Perfection Go

Reducing, Reusing and Recycling

Composting Kitchen Scraps and Garden Debris

Reducing (Or Eliminating) Your Lawn

Planting a Tree

Choosing Human-Powered Equipment

Minimising All Forms of Pollution

Teaching Your Children Well

Sourcing Your Food Locally

Considering the Seventh Generation

Cheat Sheet

Organic Gardening For Dummies®

by Sue Fisher, Ann Whitman, Suzanne DeJohn and the Editors of the National Gardening Association

Organic Gardening For Dummies®

Published byJohn Wiley & Sons, LtdThe AtriumSouthern GateChichesterWest SussexPO19 8SQEngland

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About the Authors

Sue Fisher began her horticultural career in 1980, training in commercial horticulture and working in the nursery and garden centre industry. It was her initial training that sowed the seeds for a lifetime passion for organic gardening, with the conviction that putting so many chemicals on plants just could not be healthy!

For much of the first part of her career, Sue was plant buyer for the Frosts group of garden centres and landscape company, and the winner of many top industry awards. But promotion brought with it distance from the plants that she loved, so in 1990 Sue struck out on her own as a garden writer and designer. The BBC spotted Sue’s passion for her subject and commissioned her first book within a year, and her features in the press won her the coveted Garden Writers Guild trade press Writer of the Year award. Now her published work spans ten solo books, including the UK adaptation of Gardening For Dummies (she has also acted as technical editor for several other titles in the For Dummies series); contributions to a number of other books with top gardeners including the late Geoff Hamilton, Alan Titchmarsh and Carol Klein, and a wealth of articles in newspapers and gardening magazines. Sue has broadcast on radio and TV, and lectured to many audiences, from garden clubs and societies to tour groups. Her designs have transformed numerous private gardens, using planting styles from contemporary to cottage. With memories of the birth of her own love of gardening, she also advises schools on garden management and design.

Recently, Sue moved to Devon where she is currently transforming a half-acre plot above the Tamar Valley into a haven for all the family, using a contemporary approach to wildlife and sustainable gardening design.

Suzanne DeJohn describes her fascination with all things botanical as encompassing a curiosity about the natural world and a passion for the science that explains what she sees, all wrapped up in an aesthetic sensibility that inspires her to find beauty in the simplest expressions of nature. ‘As gardeners, we must take our cues from nature and follow the principles that govern healthy ecosystems. It’s the only way we can create an environment that can sustain us now and for generations to come.’

Suzanne has worn a variety of hats in her twelve years with the National Gardening Association, including work in the education, editorial and IT departments. She coordinated NGA’s online question and answer service for six years and has answered literally thousands of gardening questions. Convinced that gardeners are curious and love to learn, she was inspired to create the Exploring the Garden series of in-depth, online courses that teach the principles of botany in the context of the garden. Suzanne also does Web- and print-based graphic design work for NGA, takes photos for the websites and creates illustrations to accompany articles.

Suzanne’s varied background includes a BS in geology from Tufts; university courses in botany, soils and plant pathology; a stint as a research assistant in plant pathology; and several years as a self-employed artist and graphic designer. She’s worked on a landscape crew, as well as on a dairy farm and an organic vegetable farm, and spent several years as a cook at a natural foods store. The common themes running through these seemingly disparate vocations are plants, beauty, nature and healthy food. Suzanne strives for balance in her life by combining time spent outdoors in her gardens with time spent at the computer, communicating what she has learned about plants and gardening.

Ann Whitman earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Plant and Soil Science at the University of Vermont. She also completed a Master of Arts degree in Landscape Design from the Conway School of Landscape Design in Massachusetts. Ann is the author of Trees and Shrubs For Dummies (Wiley Publishing, Inc.) as well as How-To Landscaping Basics and Water Gardens: Simple Steps to Adding the Beauty of Water to Your Garden, both published by Time Life. She also contributes to several gardening magazines and websites. When she’s not writing, Ann gardens on fertile river-bottom soil in Vermont where the winters are long and the summers are short, but worth it.

The National Gardening Association (NGA) is committed to sustaining and renewing the fundamental links between people, plants and the earth. Founded in 1972 as ‘Gardens for All’ to spearhead the community garden movement, today’s NGA promotes environmental responsibility, advances multidisciplinary learning and scientific literacy, and creates partnerships that restore and enhance communities.

NGA is best known for its garden-based curricula, educational journals, international initiatives and several youth garden grant programmes. Together, these reach more than 300,000 children nationwide each year. NGA’s websites, one for home gardeners and another for those who garden with kids, build community and offer a wealth of custom content.

To find out more about the National Gardening Association, write to 1100 Dorset St., South Burlington, VT 05403, USA, or visit its website at www.garden.org or www.kidsgardening.com.

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Introduction

If you want to grow food and maintain your garden without using synthetic garden chemicals and fertilisers, this book is certainly for you. But organic gardening is about much more than just producing safe food and chemical-free lawns. To garden organically and successfully, you need to enlist the help of nature and roll out the welcome mat to billions of soil bacteria, pest-munching birds, amphibians and other creatures. Organic gardening is also about making conscious decisions on sustainability and taking responsibility for actions that affect the world outside your back door, past the end of your driveway and beyond the boundaries of your home town.

Many people proudly claim to be environmentalists, while knowing very little about how to be a good steward of their own garden. This book gets you started on the path to making healthier choices for your own garden and the world, while having a lot of fun and exercise and gaining the satisfaction of carrying out informed and eco-friendly gardening.

About This Book

Organic gardening covers a lot of ground, so to speak – from maintaining a lawn and growing roses to harvesting fresh fruits and vegetables. This book takes you step by step through building and maintaining healthy soil, encouraging helpful insects and other organisms, choosing problem-free plants and getting them off to the right start. In addition to the basic concepts of organic gardening, we also include information about how to grow fruit and veg for eating, flowers for beauty, trees to sit under and lawns to stretch out on – without harmful chemical pesticides, fungicides or weedkillers, or synthetic chemical fertilisers.

Conventions Used in This Book

Here are a few conventions we use in this book, designed to help you navigate your way through the content:

Italic is used for emphasis and to highlight new terms that are defined.

Boldfaced text is used to indicate the action part of numbered steps.

Monofont is used for website addresses.

We give measurements in metric, followed by imperial equivalents.

An ‘x’ in a species name indicates a hybrid cross: C. x lavaleei,for example, indicates the Lavalle hawthorn, a variety of Hawthorn (Crataegus species).

What You’re Not to Read

Although we want to believe that you’re going to pore over every word in this book, we know that you may be in a hurry or just want the basic information. Therefore, we make any ‘skippable’ information easy to recognise by placing it in sidebars or marking with a Technical Stuff icon. Although interesting and related to the topic at hand, such info isn’t essential to succeeding as an organic gardener.

Foolish Assumptions

In writing this book, we make some assumptions about you:

You want to create a safe, beautiful and healthy place for your family to work and play.

You want to harvest the freshest, tastiest and most nutritious fruits and vegetables possible.

You care about the environment and want information that helps you care for your garden or allotment in an ecologically sound way.

You’ve heard about organic gardening but you need more specifics and perhaps convincing that organic is right for you.

Whether you come to this book in total gardening ignorance or have some experience under your fingernails, you can find plenty of hands-on, how-to information to make your organic garden better than you believed possible.

How This Book Is Organised

To make navigating through this book easier, we divide it into the following parts, each one containing relevant chapters.

Part I: Understanding the Basics of Organic Gardening

If you think that you want to become an organic gardener but aren’t sure what that entails, start with this part. It contains plenty of detail to get you up and running, covering the basic concepts of organic gardening, from soil health to planning low-maintenance gardens.

Part II: Getting Stuck into Soil, Compost and Fertilisers

The foundation of organic gardening is creating and maintaining a rich and healthy soil. Turn to this part to get started on testing soil; recycling your garden and household waste to make your own compost; and buying and using natural, organic fertilisers.

Part III: Growing Organically in Your Garden

The chapters in this part describe how to grow the most popular vegetables, herbs, berries, fruits and nuts, trees and shrubs, flowers, bulbs and lawns. In each chapter, we offer advice about how to choose the best plants, how to plant and maintain them, and where to obtain more information.

Part IV: Managing Problems

Turn to this part whenever you spot trouble in paradise and want to discover what to do about it. Here you can find everything you need to know about insects, diseases, animal pests and weeds, including specific control measures and products. Most importantly, as an organic gardener you can find how best to avoid trouble in the first place.

Part V: The Part of Tens

Use these two handy chapters to impress your friends at parties and win them over to an organic lifestyle. You can find the best organic practices and ten ways to have an eco-friendly home and garden. Go spread the word!

Icons Used in This Book

This book uses a variety of icons to highlight neat tips, common pitfalls and interesting and helpful information. Here’s what they mean:

If something saves you time or money, or helps you make a better decision, we flag the paragraph with this icon. This icon also appears by sources that help you find particular plants, equipment or help.

This icon indicates key organic gardening principles and practices.

This icon alerts you to actions that may be dangerous to you, your plants or the environment. Proceed with caution!

If an action, technique or idea is especially good for the environment, we use this icon. Although, of course, just about everything in this book is eco-smart.

This icon marks more in-depth information for readers who want to dig a little deeper into the subject. If you just want to know the basics, feel free to ignore the info you find here.

Where to Go from Here

We design this book so that you can dive into any chapter that grabs your interest. If you’re new to organic gardening, start with Chapter 1 or Chapter 22’s summary of organic practices. If you’re experienced and can’t wait to plant veggies, go straight to Chapter 10. Or thumb through the Table of Contents or index for specific topics, until something catches your eye.

Part I

Understanding the Basics of Organic Gardening

In this part . . .

If you’re unsure what organic gardening is all about, jump right into this part for an overview. Chapter 1 introduces the foundations of organic gardening and living sustainably at home, along with basic organic planning techniques that you can use whether you’re growing edible crops, flowers or border plants. Chapter 2 describes the benefits of gardening organically, right at home and in the wider environment. If you need to justify your organic preferences to chemically orientated gardeners, you’ll have plenty to say after reading this chapter.

Evaluate your own garden’s conditions, such as sun or shade, frost and soil conditions, with help from Chapter 3. And if you’ve ever wondered about climate and microclimates, this chapter is the place to turn. After gathering this information and more, you can match the right plant to the right place and begin planning your organic oasis. (Chapter 3 also covers creating a basic garden plan.)

Chapter 1

Gardening Organically: The Basic Techniques

In This Chapter

Understanding the organic gardening philosophy

Nurturing your soil

Managing pests

Practising conservation

Everyone agrees that organic gardening means avoiding the use of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides. But the theory and practice of organic gardening go far beyond that simple concept. Growing organic food and flowers, and managing your whole garden on organic principles, represents a commitment to a sustainable system of living in harmony with nature. For many people, organic gardening is a way of life.