Hello and a warm welcome back to HuwsNursery.
In today’s video you will learn or be refreshed about the top ways to growing healthier vegetables
in your organic garden.
Organic gardening faces more challenges than conventional gardening methods due to a zero-tolerance
to harmful chemical use.
But, it is very possible to get a higher-yielding harvest because other gardening methods overlook
fundamental points to a stronger crop.
This brings me to the first tip.
Nitrogen fixation.
Nitrogen fixation is a key building block to a fertile soil for your vegetables.
Plants need the ammonia form of nitrogen for essential life components like proteins and
amino-acids however they can’t use the nitrogen which makes up 80% of the air we breathe in.
Therefore planting legumes like peas and beans will fix nitrogen in the soil by being stored
in their nodes.
This nitrogen can then be used up by other plants requiring this.
Companion plant broad beans, sugar snap peas, peas and other legumes with other vegetables
and as a result they will promote plant growth.
Secondly is to mulch raised beds in the autumn with a 3inch layer of either well-rotted manure,
leaves or leaf mould and cover with a dark plastic.
Make sure it is moist beforehand.
This will let earthworms and decomposers to work thoroughly at decomposing the organic
matter over winter resulting in a more fertile soil to grow vegetables in spring and also
being warmer as the black plastic absorbs warmth.
Ensure you poke a few holes to allow a flow of oxygen otherwise decomposition will not
be possible.
If you’ll like to see a detailed video click on the annotation above and learn the steps
to success in 6 minutes.
Thirdly is growing in containers.
This is an especially important tip if you have a small garden or even limited to a balcony
but growing organic vegetables can be done in almost any situation.
Also people with larger gardens should strive to include containers to grow some of their
produce in but why?
Containers makes it easy to transport plants, stops them becoming invasive for example Mint
and it can be used to grow vegetables on hard surfaces for example on a patio on a trellis
which will maximise yields.
Containers don’t have to be plastic.
You can easily assemble together wooden plant boxes or make hanging baskets out of dowels
to grow cherry tomatoes.
Possibility is endless.
My fourth tip is to work with nature by attracting beneficial insects such as pollinators or
bugs which will help keep pest numbers down.
I strongly suggest you devote at least 10% of your space to attracting beneficial insects.
That does not mean to simply plant flowers as you can still use the plants you grow as
food.
Borage is one well known flowering herb which both attracts dozen of beneficial insects
but you can also add the leaves and flowers to salads.
A colourful way to bring pollinators is to grow a flower border consisting of herbs for
the likes of marjoram, mint and borage along with cornflowers and buckwheat.
This will create a paradise for visiting bees and why not create a movable paradise for
example planting in a bucket or a wheelbarrow and be able to move it around your garden?
The fifth and final tip for growing organic vegetables is to get ahead of the game with
weeds.
As organic vegetable gardening is against the use of chemical weed sprays it can only
take a few weeks to get overrun by weeds.
Weeds unfortunately will always outgrow vegetables.
Originally all vegetables were weeds but after thousands of years of cultivation they’re
weaker therefore weeds will win in the battle for space.
But there are plenty of methods which will help you get that vital step ahead of the
game.
My personal favourite method is mulching using up the abundance of free resources for example
leaves, cardboard and grass clippings we can source from our own backyard, in the house
or in your local park.
This fall collect leaves and in the spring you can use them to place in between rows
of plants stopping light hit the bare patches of ground and also adding nutrients as they
slowly decompose.
Add a 2-3 inch layer and repeat when you see weeds poking through.
Another great mulch is wood-chippings which you can get for free or for a very cheap price
in a local saw mill.
Black plastic is a less aesthetically appealing method however we got great results when we
used it to plant our squashes and you can see that video by finding the link in the
description.
I hope that you have found this video interesting and I would love to know what your top tips
are?
So please post them down in the comments section.
Thank you for watching and I’ll see you again soon in another video, remember, don’t
panic and grow organic!