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Gardening
Grow your own organic vegetables
Garden's Alive! Organic Garden
Virtually everything you need to start a 4-by-4 foot raised-bed organic vegetable garden comes in this one convenient kit! The kit uses all organic and recycled materials. Seeds include beans, beets, lettuce, peppers, radishes, carrots, spinach, squash, tomatoes, and cucumbers.Gardener's Supply Company Space-intensive gardening items
Choose from space-saving vegetable growing options including the Tomato Tree (hanging tomato planter), the Square Foot Success Kit (for deck or patio), and the AeroGarden (grow veggies on your kitchen counter), as well as bean towers, tomato cages, and cucumber trellises.Johnny's Selected Seeds BIOSET Kitchen Salad Garden Kit
Grow fresh salad sprouts in your kitchen - just fill the Bioset germinator with water twice a day. Kit includes three different 1/4 lb. bags of sprout seed: crunchy, mild mung bean sprouts; slightly spicy broccoli sprouts; and sharp, spicy China Rose radish sprouts. Makes a great gift.The Encyclopedia of Country Living
This book is a compendium of advice on how to grow and preserve all types of vegetables, fruits, herbs, grains, nuts, and other foods. It's a must-have for anyone interested in large-scale gardening, small-scale farming, or self-sufficiency, covering such diverse topics as keeping bees, baking bread, and what to do if your cow has eaten nails.
Use organic soil amendments
Dave's Garden
Search a database by state/and or country for companies that sell organic soil amendments, rated by readers.Extremely Green Gardening Company Organic Soil Amendments
Select from a variety of organic fertilizers and soil amendments.Foxfarm Soil & Fertilizer Company
Buy liquid, dry, or soluble granular organic fertilizers.Gardener's Supply Company
Choose from organic fertilizers and plant foods for vegetables, flowers, raised beds, and even compost "tea bags" for houseplants.Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply
Choose from organic fertilizer, compost, and compost tea, as well as green manure seeds.TerraVive Soil Conditioner
Infused with beneficial bacteria, this natural soil conditioner is a bio-catalyst and bio-stimulant designed to improve soil structure, add organic matter, increase nutrient uptake, and stimulate microbial growth.
Make your own compost
Compost Guide
Compost Guide carries compost bins, tumblers, pails, thermometers, turning tools, and worm composters.ComposTumbler
Consider this large drum on a raised stand that turns with a crank and heats up to 160°F. It comes in two sizes. The company promises compost in 14 days.Gardens Alive! composting products
Choose from a selection of composting products including a 100 percent recycled plastic compost bin, compost tea kit, compost activator, redworms, and ready-made compost.NatureMill Automatic Composter
Even the city-bound can use this electric composter. The company claims it can be used in the kitchen, has carbon filters to eliminate odor, and costs about 50 cents per month to operate, depending on local electric rates.Plow & Hearth composting products
Put a stylish ceramic or stainless steel compost crock on your kitchen counter, empty it into a Tumbler Composter outside the kitchen door, and you'll have compost in less then a month.Sun Frost Scrap Eater Solar Composter
The Scrap Eater is an attractive garden planter, as well as an efficient composter. The composter uses solar technology and is made from three quarters of a solid oak Bordeaux wine barrel with a clear acrylic plastic dome.
Use natural pest control
DIRT WORKS
Not sure which product to buy? Choose from pre-packaged kits: a "Garden Pest Control Kit for the Medium to Large Garden and Yard," a "Back Yard Personal Bug Protection Kit," or a "garden pack" of nematodes and beneficial insects. Other products include hot pepper wax and insecticidal soaps.Extremely Green Gardening Company Organic Soil Amendments
Select from a variety of organic fertilizers and soil amendments.Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply
Choose from organic fertilizer, compost, and compost tea, as well as green manure seeds.Planet Natural
Select from all-natural remedies including traps, lures, barriers, repellents, beneficial insects, biological pesticides, insecticidal soaps, and oils. Check out their "Pest Problem Solver" to identify common insect pests and ecologically-friendly solutions.
Use natural disease control
Gardens Alive! disease control products
Buy Shield-All II Neem Fungicide for fungal diseases on vegetables, trees, shrubs, houseplants, roses, and ornamentals. Choose Plant Guardian Biofungicide (wettable powder or liquid concentrate) to prevent and fight especially challenging fungal diseases.HarvestSafe.com
Choose from a variety of organic fungicides including Green Cure, a non-toxic potassium bicarbonate formula, which can be used on 85 different flowers, trees, houseplants, fruits, vegetables, and turfs.Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply
Choose from organic fertilizer, compost, and compost tea, as well as green manure seeds.
Choose the correct watering system
Clean Air Gardening
Clean Air Gardening, a carbon-neutral company, offers a variety of rain barrels.Nelson
Nelson products are available at popular retailers and include sprinklers, nozzles, automatic watering devices, brass "quick connects," hose repair kits, and the Simple Soaker, a soaker hose that can be set up in 15 minutes.The Drip Store
The Drip Store offers a variety of drip irrigation systems. Download the free "Drip Irrigation Installation & Planning Guide."
Apply mulches
Bio-Film "Plastic" Mulch
Bio-Film Mulch is made of cornstarch, biodegradeable and compostable polyester, and vegetable oil. A company trial showed that 90 percent of the mulch—which looks like black plastic—biodegrades in 90 days, blocking weeds until plants are established.Mulch It! book
A practical guide to using mulch in the garden and landscape.
Use recycled materials in the garden
Dirt Cheap Gardening book
Hundreds of ways to save money in your garden, including using recycled materials.
Grow seeds and plants suitable for your climate
Johnny's Selected Seeds
This Maine seed supplier sells organic and heirloom seeds, specially suited to colder climates. The website includes a seed calculator and a blog.Seeds of Change certified organic seeds
Seeds of Change cultivates and sells hundreds of open-pollinated, organically grown, heirloom, and traditional vegetable, flower, and herb seeds. Its eco-friendly plastic seed envelopes can be recycled, resealed to save unused seed, or reused.Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange sells heirloom seeds and other open-pollinated (non-hybrid) seeds with an emphasis on vegetables, flowers, and herbs that grow well in the Mid-Atlantic region.Vermont Wildflower Farm
The Vermont Wildflower Farm sells regional wildflower mixtures for all areas of the country.
Introduce beneficial predators to keep pests away
Extremely Green Gardening Company Beneficial Insects
The Extremely Green Gardening Company offers beneficial predators and parasites to combat a wide variety of insect pests, including aphids, caterpillars, grubs, leafminers, mealybugs, Mexican bean beetles, spider mites, thrips, and whiteflies.Gardens Alive!
Gardens Alive! offers beneficial predators to control a variety of insect pests found on crops, lawns, and trees. Beneficials include lady beetles, green lacewings, chrysoperla rufilabris larvae/eggs, trichogramma, and nematodes.
Use natural weed control
Ace Scuffle Stirrup Hoe
The Ace Scuffle Stirrup hoe has a sharp, double-edge blade that cuts on both push and pull motions.Burnout 2 Weed & Grass Killer Concentrate
Burnout 2 is nontoxic, pet safe, and can be used around playgrounds. This organic weed control is made from clove oil, vinegar, and lemon juices, and is a broad-spectrum, natural herbicide which kills weeds in eight hours or less.Gardens Alive! WOW! Supreme Pre-Emergent Weed Control and Lawn Fertilizer
WOW! Supreme controls crabgrass, dandelions, and other broadleaf weeds while feeding your lawn a balanced, all-natural fertilizer. It reduces germination of dandelions and other broadleaf weeds by as much as 90 percent with twice yearly applications.
Comments
10:39am
Hi
Would you like to know more about composting, you can download a quick guide and presentation on my web site.
www.organik.nb.ca (under links)
Marc Landry - Organik Touch
1:23pm
thanks organik
im riting a report and that really saved me
ur link is very helpful
10:06am
Back to Natives Restoration, a green non profit 501(c)3, designs native landscapes for homeowners and businesses http://btnportfolio.blogspot.com/
Some funding for our educational programs is acquired by designing locally native landscape plans for homeowners and businesses. Locally native plants are beautiful and attract butterflies and birds to your garden. We sell native plants and hold workshops to help you install your garden. We also consult with landscape architect design firms to develop locally native plant palettes for large scale projects.
We encourage and use only California Native plant species, using species as locally native as possible. We do not advocate or use hybrid stock or 'California Friendly" species as all non-native species have the possibility of becoming invasive under the correct circumstances. More on this here: Why non-natives are BAD!
Why hybrids are bad:
"Hybridization is a major cause of extinction worldwide because of translocations of organisms and habitat modifications by humans. Understanding the processes of hybridization and the different types of hybrids that are produced is important for developing effective conservation policies to deal with hybridization."
The problems with hybrids: setting conservation guidelines
pp. 613-622(10) Trends in Ecology and Evolution
Authors: Allendorf F.W.; Leary R.F.; Spruell P.; Wenburg J.K.
'Xero-Scaping' or xeriscaping is not just cactus and sand. If you live in the desert then maybe a good portion of your landscape should include the locally native cacti. However a commitment to xeriscaping is more than that, it is the reduction of water use and loss along with reduction of chemical fertilizer and herbicide uses. With over 1200 species and counting of native plant species in Orange County and over 5000 in California, choices are almost endless for that 'specific look' you are in search of! .