PDF files to download or links to other websites.
All Organic and Varied subjects:
Soil | Water | Seeds | Pollinators | Pests | Planting | Disease Control | Weeding | General Tips or All of the Above at other websites
SOIL

- First find out what type of soil you have: Soil types: alkaline or acid; clay or sandy – what amendments will you need.
- Rich Soil and Lawn Care tips organically
- How to improve your gardens’ soil
- Vemiculture – Mother Earth News
- Fish Emulsion organic fertilizer
- Organically raised chicken poop. Add water to make a liquid to put on soil before planting or use rabbit poop or bat guano.
- Compost – kitchen scraps
- Grass clippings-organic
- Evergreen Nursery organic mushroom compost
- City of San Diego residents, discounted compost bins available at select Dixieline ProBuild locations.
or Build your own bin:
Need a kitchen scrap collector? Sure-Close Containers are available for $20 and are great for storing your compostables before you add them to your bins. - Use Cover Crops to Improve Soil – Organic Consumers Association
WATER

- Self-watering-container
- Clay Pot Irrigation – a simple adaptation of an ancient technique

- Water with a drip line or soaker hose, water where it is needed not where weeds are. Water evaporates with sprinkler so do not water in the hottest part of the day.
- Best time of day to water – morning
SEEDS
- Best tips for starting seeds indoors – Mother Earth News
- Seed Saving: how to save money with an organic garden
- Plastic salad container greenhouse – Mother Earth News
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Starting plants from seed is economical and helps your plants get a head-start and produce an earlier and longer harvest. This video presents a step-by-step guide to the top tips that will help you easily raise healthy plants from seed.
How to start tomato plants from seed.
Spring is finally arriving, so to help you save a little money why not try our simple homemade plant pot ideas?
How to Make Biodegradable Plant Pots – Homemade Seed Starting Pots – YouTube
POLLINATORS – Bees
- Make bee waterer to help hydrate pollinators
- Don’t use GMO seeds or RoundUP, they will kill your pollinators and other beneficial insects.
- Keep your own bees and free flowing honey. Buy the kit and a Crowd-sourcing opportunity.
PESTS
- VARMINTS:
gophers – Victor traps with rabbit wire underneath to
protect from having them escape. - Bury wire mesh to discourage underground varmints.
- Rabbit wire mesh fencing to discourage rabbits from eating your corn and garden, as well as;
- Deer wire mesh fencing to discourage deer from eating your garden.
- ORGANIC PEST CONTROL:
- Bacillus thuringensis or THURICIDE:
for caterpillar & worm control, on fruits, vegetables, ornamentals and shade trees. - Safer Soap for aphids – Insecticidal soap “Safer” soap or make your own.
- NEEM Concentrate:
Insecticide, fungicide and miticide for use on flowering plants trees vegetables, fruits and nuts.
Disease control on Citrus, Fruits, Nuts, and Vegetables - For ants: ePestSolutions.com, ECO-exempt insecticide natural ingredient ant killer, repellent they do not like the smell.
Active ingredients: Eugnol thyme and wintergreen oil - Green Thumb recipe –
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Organic Pest Control – End Problems with Bugs Forever in Your Garden- YouTube 30min.
- Bacillus thuringensis or THURICIDE:
PLANTING
- Companion Planting – Mother Earth News

How – using a wire mesh
Example: tall corn, vineing peas, squash - Transplanting from starts, remember to spread the roots carefully
- Where to plant
- Thinking about sun exposure:
- Thinking about staying out of the shade and water suck of big trees
leave enough room for plants to grow and for tending, after plants take off you may need to thin. - 10 flowers to grow with vegetables –
Companion Planting: How To Deter Pests and Encourage Beneficial Insects Flowers among the vegetables are more than just a colourful addition. They attract pollinating insects to fertilise the flowers of beans, peas, tomatoes and all those crops that depend on pollination to produce a crop. In some cases they may act as a decoy or a repellent to harmful insects such as aphids. Some are beneficial to and attract predatory insects such as ladybirds (ladybugs), wasps and hoverflies. These are particularly useful in controlling pests naturally without your intervention.Some also act as soil improvers: either by fixing nutrients in the soil or acting as green manures if dug into the ground at an early age. Some just look pretty, attract the bees and provide some lovely blooms for cutting for the house.
- Strawbale Gardens – strawbalegardens.com
Straw Bale Gardening allows anyone, even those with the worst soil conditions, to grow a terrific garden that is productive and much less labor intensive. For anyone with difficulties bending over or doing the heavy work that is usually involved in turning the soil and digging to plant and harvest crops, the raised height of the Straw Bale Garden makes those chores obsolete. Harvesting potatoes means simply knocking over the bale at the end of the season and picking them up, no digging required. Weeding will also become a thing of the past, there are no weeds in a Straw Bale Garden. Stop spending money buying containers, building raised beds, and buying special planting mixes. Minimal maintenance resulting in maximum production, through Straw Bale Gardening. It will completely change everything you thought you already knew about gardening. Try this method and I assure you that soon you will understand why this is the perfect way to grow a vegetable garden. Click link to find out more.
- Apartment Gardening – RealFarmacy.com – and more gardening articles
- Raised Beds with cast off pallet wood – RealFarmacy
- Gardening Soil Bag Gardening
- Vertical-farm-industry and ways to do it at home – I thought our group might be interested in this as a means to avoid GMOs. Last spring I bought my own Tower Garden(aeroponics system) this last year, and placed it on my backyard patio. I got wonderful results and a diverse type of organic produce this whole last year. A couple of weeks ago, I turned it off to clean it. Outside of the fact I needed help to clean out the roots, I got it all cleaned and it will be good to go again shortly.
Click on the link above to access the whole story of the article. There are many different varieties of these Tower Gardens systems sprouting up lately. I’m proof that a city born and bred gal can grow wonderful produce in a small corner of a backyard patio in a typical Clairemont house in San Diego for a whole year with minimal effort.
by Josie Hill from our “Label GMO’s group” in San Diego
SEASONAL DISEASE CONTROL CARE
- TREES AND ORNAMENTALS
use LIQUI-COP: Foliar feed for trees in dormancy, Copper Fungicidal Garden Spray
WEEDING
- Best is to pull them rather than using chemicals that hurt bees, diminish soil nutrients. Never use Round UP!
Try this instead:
HOME MADE WEED KILLER:
1 gallon of white vinegar
1/2 cup salt
Liquid dish soap (any brand)
Empty spray bottle
Put salt in the empty spray bottle and fill it the rest of the way up with white vinegar. Add a squirt of liquid dish soap. This solution works best if you use it on a hot day. Spray it on the weeds in the morning, and as it heats up it will do its work. - Why you should NOT use chemical pesticides in your gardens, NOR genetically modified seeds. See articles on the Organic Gardening Page also.
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6 ways to kill weeds no-roundup-required
GENERAL KNOWLEDGE
- I Love Gardening.com
- Nutrition to grow on: Gardening Resources
- California Rare Fruit Growers – with local meetings and they also have a magazine that you can subscribe to
- Permaculture: www.permies.com, there are local meetup groups
- Growing Passion show on KPBS: The award winning National Gardening Association’s website offers a wealth of information for parents and teachers. “Digging Deeper” offers a Parent’s Primer, classroom stories, gardening activities, and kids gardening FAQ’s. The online store features children’s gardening supplies for home or school. The Teacher’s Room page offers classroom stories, activities, and advice.
- Master Gardeners San Diego – Get ready for March Madness as we begin the busiest month for gardeners since October. While it still may rain or turn chilly for a day or two, the weather is ideal for tending to garden chores –planting, pruning, fertilizing and fine-tuning everything from perennial beds to backyard orchards and veggie patches. Remember to keep weeds in check, water if precipitation is inadequate and spread mulch to feed the soil. Rewards for all this work will be many next month, when gardens are glorious and beckon all to enjoy.
- Northern Homestead for my friends in colder climates but lots of recipes and food storage advice.

