Organic gardening is a chemical-free and earth-friendly method of gardening. Organic gardening and conventional gardening differ on how they control pests and nourish the soil. Conventional gardening uses chemical pesticides and chemical fertilizers while organic gardens use organic means of enriching the soil and organic weed killers and fertilizers.
The materials that can be used for mulching are varied, the best being really good farmyard or stable manure especially if well mixed with plenty of short straw.
Not all varieties give entirely satisfactory blooms from side buds; some will produce blooms very much under size and somewhat lacking in petals, even, in a few instances, showing a tendency to an open or “daisy-eyed” centre.
There is a wide range of remontant strawberries which increase the strawberry season by cropping heavily in. September and October. Even soils rich in lime, on which it is not easy to grow the normal strawberry varieties will produce perpetuals happily. Many people like to cover the rows with cloches or ganwicks early in October so that the berries can go on swelling and ripening until late in November. They usually yield. their heaviest crop the first season after planting but they will continue to crop for a number of years. I, however, likes to make a new bed every second year in the spring. Sometimes this has to be done by splitting the old plants because some varieties do not produce runners.
As strawberries can easily be damaged by frosts in late April or May, some thought must be given to protecting the blossoms during the calm cloudless nights when the B.B.C. give a frost warning in the 6 p.m. news.
Mezereon is a small, sparsely branched shrub growing to a height of 30- 120 cm. The twigs are greyish, the buds dark brown. The flowers appear before the leaves in early spring (February-March) and have a strong fragrance. The round drupes ripen in July and contain a single ovoid black- brown seed. Both fruit and bark are poisonous.
As a general guide, apply feed added to the water at every second or third watering. By using plain water in between the feeds, any leftover chemicals in the compost (growing medium) will be washed through, avoiding the build-up of any residue. Feed very sparingly during the winter and more liberally in summer, when there is better light and higher temperatures to balance the extra nutrients being supplied.
Having set up your greenhouse with the correct equipment and prepared it for orchids, use the central staging for the largest plants that need the most headroom. Above these, along the ridge board and elsewhere, suspend orchids, such as vandas and stanhopeas, that like to grow in hanging baskets. These can be attached by the clips that are supplied with aluminium greenhouses, or you can hang them from hooks in timber rafters.
It is tremendously important to try and get the young runners planted in August. This makes all the difference to. the life of the plants. Planting, of course, can be carried out in September as well and even in the spring but the author advises August, planting for the best results-every time.
Each year, in February, hoof and horn meal should be applied at the rate of about 3 oz. to the sq. yard. This is distributed over the straw and is allowed to wash in. On very light land, likely to be low in potash, wood ashes may be applied at lb. to the sq. yard, or a natural form of sulphate of potash at 2 oz. to the sq. yard. The potash dressing would only be necessary once every three or four years.
