When you decide to try your hand at organic gardening, one of the most frustrating parts of the entire process is trying to control pests, disesases, and other miscellaneous problems that come up with any form of gardening. Thankfully though, there are natural techniques which can be used to solve many of these common gardening problems, and one of those techniques is known as companion planting.

Companion planting is the process of planting specific flowers, herbs, and vegetables together in a way that either enhances the taste of the vegetables, and/or serves to help naturally control common pest and bug related problems in the garden.

Companion planting is important and useful for natural garden pest control, but it's also very important in vegetable gardening too. When you decide to plant two or more vegetable plants close together in your garden, you could end up with either a very bad tasting vegetable, or an extremely good one. And how your vegetables taste is dependant upon which companion plants you chose to plant together.

If for instance, you plant basil close to your tomatoes, or put them together into the same container garden, you can enhance the flavor of the tomatoes - particularly when using them to make home made sauces such as spaghetti sauce.

Chives is another excellent companion plant for tomatoes as well as carrots. Not only will the flavor improve, the growth of these plants will too. Chives also helps to keep aphids away from tomatoes, and they're thought to help keep carrot rust flys away too.

Chives can even help prevent black spot on roses. They need to be planted near the roses for two or three years before they begin to help prevent this common disease though.

Planting cabbage with celery, dill, onions or potatoes will benefit all these plants, but trying to plant cabbage too close to tomatoes or strawberries may cause problems with both growth and production.

Marigolds, also known as Calendula, are a very common flower to use for repelling pests around your home and garden. These little flowers have been used for this very purpose for centuries. You can scatter them throughout your yard and garden to help repel a variety of common bugs and pests. You need to plant marigolds which have a scent though, or else they won't work to repel the bugs. Some people don't like the scent of marigold flowers either though, so if you've never smelled them yourself, you may want to before planting too many.

Tags: Companion Plants, Marigolds, Organic Gardening

Fertilizing an organic garden is easier than most people think. Just as you can improve the flavor of vegetables by planting certain plants together, and you can help repel common pests, insects and diseases by planting certain plants together, you can also fertilize your garden naturally using specific plants too.

One of the best fertilizers you can use in a garden of course, is compost. And compost is made with all natural, organic materials such as grass clippings, shredded leaves, sawdust, fireplace ash, and even shredded newspapers. You can also toss in fruit and vegetable matter from the kitchen to help your compost become even more rich and fertile for use in any area of your garden.

Besides compost though, you can actually just put certain plants into your garden area to help fertilize the soil, and provide additional nutrients your plants need.

Alfalfa for instance, is a wonderful hardy plant which can survive in almost any conditions, yet it's very high in a large number of vitamins and minerals that are beneficial to your soil in general. Alfalfa will provide your soil with nitrogen, iron, magnesium, phosphorous, and potassium for instance, plus it's long strong roots will help break up hard, rocky, clay like soil too.

German Chamomile is an annual growing herb which will reseed itself each year if you leave some of the flowers unpicked each season. This herb helps contribute calcium, potassium, and sulfer to your soil. It's also excellent for improving the taste of cucumbers, cabbage, and onions. A perennial version is the Roman chamomile, and it will grow in almost any kind of soil with full sunlight.

Clover is an excellent addition to any garden. It has long been considered a source of "green manure" and can be a companion plant to almost anything. In fact, it's particularly useful for increasing the soil fertility of grapes. Clover will attract many beneficial insects to your garden too.

Comfrey is another herb which has wonderful medicinal healing properties, plus it provides your garden soil with calcium, potassium, and phosphorous. This herb likes to grow in moist areas.

Kelp is a natural seaweed which works wonderfully both as a fertilizer and a pest repellant. You can put a natural kelp supplement pill into the soil near any plants to help them grow more beautifully, and you can even drop one into a flower vase to help your cut flowers live longer. Put kelp into a tea mixture for spraying, and it feeds the plants through their leaves while also repelling a variety of common garden pests and bugs too.

Tags: Alfalfa, Natural Fertilizers, Plant Foods, Organic Gardening

Herb gardening is a wonderful way to grow various types of food for your kitchen, have certain types of natural medicine on hand, or simply enjoy the ease of growth and beauty herb plants often provide.

Most people grow herb gardens in their kitchen, to use as flavors in various foods and dishes they cook throughout the year. Many herbs though, can also be used in salads or teas, and since many herbs have very pleasant smells of their own, they can be used for general household air fresheners too.

Most herbs are quite easy to grow and they're perennial plants too, which means you can have blooming, producing plants for many years after planting just once. Herbs will often grow quite well in container gardens, or you can plant them straight into the ground outside too.

In fact, one favorite herb garden design is known as a wagon wheel. Some people go out and find actual wagon wheels to do this with, and it does make the design more attractive when you can. Simply lay a wagon wheel on the ground outside in the location you want your herbs to grow. A good choice is usually close to the kitchen, so you'll have salad and soup ingredients on hand as needed.

With your wagon wheel laid on the ground, you will simply plant a diferent herb into each "pie" slice of the wheel, bewtween the spokes. You can plant more than one type of herb in each space of course, depending on how much of any given kind you think you'll use throughout the year.

Another favorite way to plant herbs is in containers that will sit inside on the kitchen windowsill, or on the porch or patio. Herbs grow wonderfully in container gardens, and several things can be planted together to help improve growth and flavor if you'd like. You can also create herb container gardens based on usage instead. Plant an herb tea garden in one container for instance, an herbal soup garden into another container, and an herbal salad garden or medicine garden in containers of their own.

Some herbs are invasive though, so you must be careful when trying to plant them outside particularly. Mint for instance, will quickly over run almost any garden area you plant it in. It's best to plant mint into their own containers, and even if you plant to put them outside at some point, you should leave them in the container and plant the entire thing into the ground instead of putting the plant into the ground alone. This will help you be able to control the growth and expansion of the plant, and ensure it does not choke out other important plants you have growing.

Tags: Herb Gardening