Organic Gardening Tips - Smiling Gardener

Plant Sickness - Why Do Pests Eat The Sick Plants In Your Garden?

phil@smilinggardener.com (Phil Nauta - Smiling Gardener) — Sat, 05 May 2012 02:56:24 +0000

Message to my subscribers - sorry about the new popup form. It just comes up once, so you won't see it again. I do find these things mildly annoying, but it really helps to get people into the 15 free lessons.

Studying plant sickness is fascinating because we know pests only dine on sick plants.

What I have for you today is some info on why those plants invite pests when they're sick, and how to avoid that.

Is 10-10-10 Fertilizer Really The Best Choice For Your Garden?

phil@smilinggardener.com (Phil Nauta - Smiling Gardener) — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 03:55:24 +0000

10-10-10 fertilizer is certainly one of the most popular fertilizers. This week, I received a great question about the nutritional difference between it and compost:

Most bags of compost and manure say they have about .1-.1-.1 of the big 3. I have tested my own compost and it is somewhat higher but still not in the 10-10-10 range recommended for most plants. So, how do you get enough without using fertilizers? Is 10-10-10 the same as .1-.1-.1? Am I missing something?

I'm really glad you asked. There are 3 things I'd like to address...

Garden Fertilizer Tips - How And When To Fertilize

phil@smilinggardener.com (Phil Nauta - Smiling Gardener) — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 03:14:30 +0000

Today I continue with the garden fertilizer tips. Last week, I outlined a basic fertilizer schedule and received a couple of comments from people who disagreed with my suggestions, so I thought I'd address their concerns here in more detail.

I always appreciate any feedback people have to give, even when it runs counter to my advice. Some great learning opportunities come when we have these discussions.

Fertilizer Schedule - When To Fertilize For Optimal Soil/Plant Health

phil@smilinggardener.com (Phil Nauta - Smiling Gardener) — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 04:26:09 +0000

If you've ever wanted a fertilizer schedule to follow, I have some tips for you.

Fertilizer companies often create a schedule for you that outlines exactly when to fertilize, but that's often done to maximize their revenue, not the health of your garden.

Growing Nutrient Dense Food - 3 Tips For Organic Gardeners

phil@smilinggardener.com (Phil Nauta - Smiling Gardener) — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 03:54:20 +0000

For this article, I'm going to go beyond the basic soil management stuff, such as watering and mulching, to briefly cover what comes after that on the journey to nutrient dense food.

Here are 3 steps you might look into after having already become comfortable with the basics:

Should You Plant Early Or Hold Off With These Record-Breaking Temps?

phil@smilinggardener.com (Phil Nauta - Smiling Gardener) — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 12:19:13 +0000

Two very cool things have happened this week, and I'm pretty much freaking out with excitement:

Winter became spring for a few minutes and then turned into summer (we had picnics outside every day this week!)
The Smiling Gardener Academy launched yesterday (more people have joined than I had anticipated and everything seems to be going great so far!)

How Vegetable Gardening Is Like Songwriting

phil@smilinggardener.com (Phil Nauta - Smiling Gardener) — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 20:20:43 +0000

Do you ever feel like you'll never grow a perfect 12 brix tomato, or have much success at nutrient-dense vegetable gardening at all?

It took me a long time to get past that feeling, and sometimes I still experience it even though I've been at it for a long time - and I would say I'm a pretty decent vegetable gardener.

Soil Nutrient Testing - 2 Ways To Approach It

phil@smilinggardener.com (Phil Nauta - Smiling Gardener) — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 12:05:39 +0000

My first year as an professional organic gardener wasn't always easy.

My mind was full of all this incredible information I had learned studying organic gardening the previous year, but I didn't yet have the experience, especially with more advanced things like soil nutrient testing and fixing problem lawns.

Plant Diseases And Pests Aren't Caused By A Lack Of Pesticides

phil@smilinggardener.com (Phil Nauta - Smiling Gardener) — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 09:05:49 +0000

When I first started teaching organic gardening, I was told not to draw parallels between plant diseases and pests in the garden and human diseases, for fear of offending people.

It was one thing to teach people that plant diseases attack only unhealthy plants, but to hear most human diseases attack unhealthy people can be just too much to take, especially since most of us have someone close who has had one of the major diseases, and it could come across that I was faulting them for getting the disease.

Pesticide Side Effects - An Insecticide Is Not Just An Insecticide

phil@smilinggardener.com (Phil Nauta - Smiling Gardener) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 01:52:57 +0000

There are many pesticide side effects, but an important one that a lot of people don't know about is the effect of pesticides on non-target organisms.