
Gardening organically can be a challenge. Diseases are common in today’s gardens. Are there effective organic treatments? Chemicals are “bio-accumulative” in our bodies, i.e. they build up over time until one day, our bodies can no longer handle them and strange physical conditions arise. So, here are four expert gardener tips to cut down the use of chemicals and create organically grown, and healthy gardens.
Boxwoods – Feeding Organically
Boxwoods are a staple in many gardens today. They make for great edges and other visual definitions around a garden. Deer stay away from them even in the winter. But there is one, now rather common disease that takes out boxwoods. It’s called boxwood blight.
Most expert gardeners/landscapers recommend using heavy chemical sprays to prevent outbreaks of boxwood blight. The same pathogen that affects boxwoods also takes out pachysandra. Today, there is a better, organic treatment out of Europe which goes a long way toward a healthy garden.
Fortunately, the Dutch developed a natural treatment for both boxwoods and pachysandra. The product now available in the US is called TopBuxus. It comes in tablets that you dilute with water. The mixture is then sprayed onto the plant once/month throughout the growing season. Super easy and really effective! Treat your boxwoods organically.
Organic Deer Repellents
This past winter saw deer busting through deer fences and grazing on plants long held to be deer resistant. The deer simply destroyed carefully tended to gardens. Even deer repellent sprays that worked perfectly well in years past only worked marginally. So what measures work to prevent deer damage today?
The simple solution: Hang CDs. Be sure they twist freely. The deer will not know what to do with the many color spectra coming from twisting CDs. Naturally, this only works when sunlight activates them.
The more substantial solution: This one also covers the all-important night times. Based on the success of blue light reflectors in Germany along roadways, Isotronic built battery-operated units that emit blue light at certain intervals to scare off deer. Sabine H. Schoenberg, SHG Living’s host of SabinesNewHouse has seen no further deer intrusions so far post the install of the blue light units. Time will tell, esp. during the coming winter season. I wonder what the smart experts on SHG Living, Reed, Smart Home Solver, and Steve Does can come up with.
Fertilizers Organically Handled
Expert gardeners will tell you that there are two staples in organic fertilizers – Hollytone and Plantone. What’s the difference? Plantone contains Biotone, which builds roots. Use Plantone for newly planted shrubs and trees to give them the best chance to build strong root systems and be beautiful for many years to come. Use Hollytone as general fertilizer for established plant material.
Here is one expert gardener tip: Spread a little Hollytone over pachysandra and vinca every other month during the growing season and they will grow and thicken into lush and full beds organically.
Smart Irrigation Systems
How often do you walk or drive past properties and the sprinklers are running even though rain is in the forecast? This is wasteful of precious the planet’s water resources. Expert gardeners urge to avoid overwatering lawns and shrubs to avoid disease. Unnecessarily running irrigation systems are expensive. It’s a cost you can and need to avoid.
The old and now truly outdated systems run with rain sensors installed in gutters. The concept is that water in the gutter gauges the amount of rainwater available to plants. This was always a flawed idea since functioning gutters channel the water away and into downspouts. In other words, there should not be any water build-up in the gutter. If there is, check the condition and the pitch of the gutters!
What is the expert gardener’s answer? Smart irrigation controllers. There are many on the market today. Most have only 8 zones which may work for small gardens. Rainmachine is one of the few designed for a 16 zone system. Check out also SHGLiving’s CaliKim’s many expert gardening videos for organic ways to garden.
Since the controller is relatively easy to install you may think you will not need customer service support. But think again. Rainmachine’s customer support is outstanding. They are patient during the setup, diagnose issues and even replace defective units during their first year of operation.
Implement these 4 expert gardener tips and you will be well on your way to an organically grown AND healthy garden. It’s really not difficult nor complicated. Getting to your healthy gardener requires more of a shift in mindset. Apply these 4 expert gardening tips and you are well on your way to healthier living. Start today – your body will thank you!