Monday 7 July 2008

Go Wild Gardening!


A productive organic garden makes you feel pleasingly wild while being a heaven for not only you, but also for the wildlife !


Idea behind being an organic gardener is that you do everything the nature's way. Scientific evolution departed us from nature. We tend to find quick fixes for everything now without realizing their long-term effects on our environment

Pesticides sprays done on crops that we eat, not only devastate our health and environment, but they also kill beneficial insects that are less tolerant to these deadly chemicals.

These friendly bugs are nature's way of pest control. Attracting beneficial insects and wildlife to your garden will control many pests for you such as snails, slugs and greenflies.

Tiny parasitoid wasps prey aphids and caterpillars. Lacewing larvae and ladybug larvae and adults exterminate aphid populations and the ground beetles target on a variety of ground-dwelling pests. But these friendly bugs are very sensitive and less tolerant to pesticide sprays.

These innocent creatures need to feel welcomed in your garden. For this purpose, companion planting is encouraged. Dill attracts aphid eating hoverflies. Strong scented flowers not only attract bees and other beneficial insects but also discourage pest attacks on your crops. Garlic plants keep away aphids. Planting marigolds with tomatoes also ward off aphids.

Even some crops are grown together with strong fragrance to avoid pest growth such as carrots and leeks are advised to be planted together because they drive each other's pests away.

Peppers, tomatoes and eggplants like to be grown together. Crop rotation also helps in avoiding pest buildup. This means growing crops on alternate plot each year.

For me these pests have not really been a trouble. But being close to wildlife is divine. So this year I am planning to introduce new flowers and herbs to my garden that will make my organic garden complete.

photos: Sweet williams: Foxglove : Cornflower


Sweet William or Dianthus barbatus is a perennial plant and its nectar attracts birds, bees and butterflies and it's an edible flower, which doesn’t mean that I am going to try to eat it, but it will defiantly beautify my food!

Digitalis purpurea or fox glove flowers are usually biennial which means that they flower a year after planted. But now mostly fox gloves seeds available, flower within 5 months of sowing the seeds. These unlike the sweet William are poisonous ones. It is used for medical purposes and in study of molecular biology. I love this one and most excited to see this amazing 4 feet tall flower stem grow!

Corn flower or the bachelor's button, is another outstanding cut flower. It's an annual. which means that the die after flowering. This is also edible and attracts birds, bees and butterflies. Many folklores are associated the flower and its also known for its blue pigment, and other herbal uses.

Zinnias : Asters :Lavender


Do also have zinnias, asters and daisies in my list and the most amazing herb lavender that has uncountable uses. Its essential oil is famous and wildly used for herbal and medical and decorative purposes.

Lavender flowers produce nectar that provides good quality honey for the beekeepers. Which means it attract lots bees and also birds and butterflies. Bunches of lavender are grown in gardens to deter insects.

I am still not sure about flowering season of some of them. But some will defiantly be there when my crops are growing.

I can almost foresight my brilliant crops with stunning flowers; fluttering butterflies, buzzing bees and a perfect natural environment not only for me but also for the wild life.

It’s a sight so heavenly that it must be felt in real.One can never get bored watching a tweeting bird, swinging on a branch, and can never stop oneself from adorning and running after a butterfly, refreshing scents of flowers will never turn off anyone's mood, smell of earth will always make one take a deep breath to fill up the aroma of life inside! Because nature is made for man, and being away from it have flooded our lives with imitations, be it around us or within us.

Appreciate nature, and be a part of it!

photosfor this blog were randomly collected from different websites.

4 comments:

  1. you write very well.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Pasha, m thinking of participating in the flower show this yr !... n u ll help as usual:P

    ReplyDelete
  3. AoA,

    You are doing a wonderful job. In this age of materialism where excessive use of chemicals/living unnatural life is causing lot of mental and physical diseases, your articles are the rays of hope rather workable solutions for such problems.

    Keep it up.

    Kauser Uncle.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Rafay
    miss i like each and every paragraph
    and i READ IT 10 times miss your
    website ROCKSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

    ReplyDelete

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