There are various methods to keep a healthy topsoil in your garden, however, which way you choose will depend entirely on the quality of the topsoil in the first place.

One of the most useful things for the gardener to learn is to understand the workings of what is known as topsoil balance. The balance of topsoil is a great way to learn about the chemical and physical properties of topsoil. This also means that topsoil chemistry and physics as well as biology are learnt about further ensuring that nutrients and structure are perfectly balanced.

Using a system called Mikhail topsoil balance can be maintained easily. This method helps topsoil by ensuring good quality variability and making sure that the soils composition and amount of living organisms can thrive. Topsoil needs a skeleton to enable the other elements of its make-up to exist and be sustained, rather like the human body. In soil, Calcium, Magnesium, Sodium, Potassium and Hydrogen are all elements essential to keeping the structure healthy.

The balance between biology and nutrients are maintained through use of the Mikhail system as well. The structure then also needs to be balanced. Essential elements for plant nutrition are Phosphorous, Potassium, Nitrogen and Sulphur. Once the topsoil’s structure has significantly improved and balance corrected, then fertilizer can be added to maintain the correct levels of these elements. The most common fertiliser is known as NPK, and most general fertilizers actually consist of these chemical elements. A topsoil’s trace element content is particularly important.

Testing the topsoil is the best way to discover exactly what is missing, what isn’t and how improvements can be made. Using soil testing apparatus is the perfect way to test the soil and get the necessary information for making improvements. The required fertilizer, lime and other soil improving material can then be obtained to ensure that the topsoil performs better.

Organic gardening is growing plants using vegetable or animal-based fertilizers in place of the synthetically made ones.

It is also about doing pest control naturally too without using the commercial insecticides. The pest control is a combination of beneficial insects and natural solutions to keep pests away without spraying harmful chemicals.

• Growing organically might be becoming more popular today, but it has actually been around since the beginning of gardening. Chemical fertilizers did not come on the scene until the 1840s. Farming and gardening since then has been more chemically based than organically based. In recent times though it has been found that all these chemicals are harming our environment, they are also used in greenhouses. It is now being recommended that you return to using organic fertilizers for the health of your soil and the environment.

There are many benefits to gardening organically:

The food that is grown this way has more nutrients and vitamins in them to help one fight off diseases. You are also not ingesting as many chemicals eating organically-grown food. No growth hormone, pesticides, chemical fertilizers and no added preservatives or flavouring are used either.

• Studies have proven that children have a much lower level in pesticides in their systems when they eat organic foods compared to food grown using other methods. Food grown organically gets delivered to the market with all of its nutrients intake. This food taste much better too.

Doing gardening is much more enjoyable to do organically too.

• You don’t have to protect yourself while working with dangerous chemicals. This makes gardening much more satisfying to do. It is a great way to relax or get your daily exercise too. Gardening can even be a type of therapy for people to become more emotionally fit along with improving the overall fitness of the body. Any regular physical activity including gardening lowers your risk for obesity, certain types of diabetes, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, heart disease, and stroke.

• Gardening organically can bring out your inner child. Remember your childhood when you played in the sandbox or made mud pies in the rain? Digging in the dirt and planting flowers or vegetables give you this same fun feeling that you had as a child.

Organic gardening is no more expensive to do than any other gardening method:

• If you are buying your fertilizers both types cost about the same. But if you do your own composting of you kitchen and garden scraps this can cut down on how much fertilizers are needed.

• Through the use of beneficial bugs the pesticides will not be needed as much and possibly eliminated all together. This is a natural way to control many garden pests. Many times just planting the right plants enables the plants to fight off pests, also plant or use natural elements that fight off the pest too, such as cucumber peels keep ants away.

There are many methods for gardening available today.

• Not all of the methods use the synthetic or chemical fertilizers and pesticides. You can work in harmony with nature and have a luscious garden, by doing it organically.

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Sustainable landscaping is the process of working with the environment where you design landscapes that is in tune with the weather conditions

It needs no other resources such as organic  minerals or any other soil nutrients.

There are many different levels of sustainable landscaping, the best way to get involved is to just start somewhere by setting short and long term goals.

A small objective could be putting up a composting bin.

A much better way could be creating a sustainable area where harmful chemicals are eliminated for good.

Following are helpful tips on how to create a sustainable landscape:

1. Shrink Your Lawn

Those expanses of green turf take an enormous amount of resources.

Take out some lawn and design a natural background.

You’ll save on fresh water and this ultimately save you money on water bills.

Moreover, you may not need to use the raker or the hoe often.

2. Store rain water in barrels

Harvesting rain water in barrels helps to conserve water and save money.

Usually rain water is pure and of good quality.

You can even use it for drinking consumption.

3. Use a protective cover like mulch.

Mulched beds improve the appearance of any landscape.

Though more valuable than this is that it germinates the seeds and provides micro-nutrients when it decays.

Mulch slows soil erosion, retains moisture and helps to prevent weeds.

You’ll save some time watering your plants, in turn lets you enjoy your garden.

4. Compost, Compost, Compost

Composting organic waste from your home improves garden soil because it generates humus.

By composting you minimize your garbage wastes, thus lessening the greenhouse gases.

You save on your expenditures on chemicals as well.

5. Plant the natives

Indigenous plants can adjust in any soil condition and weather the harshest climate.

They are also better able to resist pests and diseases, thus reducing the need for harmful chemicals.

6. Attract Pollinators to Your Yard

By growing a variety of plants you increase the number of different wildlife species that are attracted to your garden.

Insects, bees, birds and bats contribute to a healthy ecosystem by transporting pollen from one plant to another during fertilization.

7. Plant Deciduous Trees

Consider deciduous leaf shrubs near your home to cut your electricity bills in summer season.

Deciduous trees drop their foliage in fall and this allows more sunshine in your house.

But, trees deliver more than cost savings; they are important carbon sinks and help to reduce global climate change.

8. Plant Edible Ornamentals

Aside from beautifying your garden, it would be great if you can have edible shrubs in them.

Onion chives, scallions, and cherry tomatoes would look nice in your ornamental orchard.

9. Choose natural resources

Rather than using exotic materials trucked in great distances for your landscaping projects, consider using stone, salvageable concrete, used bricks, and other recyclable materials found locally.

10. Use alternative power gears

You can use a push reel mower rather than a power mower.

You can just use a hoe and hand shears rather than an electric weed trimmer.

You can just allow leaves on the ground to decay to convert into soil nutrients instead of still using a leaf blower.

Better yet, think of having a meadow rather than just a lawn.

I have been involved with Sustainable Calgary Landscaping in Calgary, Alberta Canada for a long time. These Tips have been implemented with my company for over 8 years.  We have had alot of fun Landscaping in Calgary over the years. What we do will work almost anywhere in the world to create sustainable landscapes.

Remember, just because I use this with Landscaping Calgary, doesn’t mean it won’t work in your local area. Now get out there and try things out!

Written by: Custom Stone and Waterscapes ?3829 Parkhill Place SW, Calgary, AB T2S 2W6 (403) 870-1142

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Backyard gardening is getting more exciting each year, as we learn more about the Do’s And Don’t of backyard gardening.

Last year was the first time I planted zucchini but I put it on the wrong side of our garage and there wasn’t much sun during those all important summer days. Needless to say it didn’t get very big.

Also I couldn’t seem to get the slugs under control. We had one zucchini that was about 6 inches in length. Not my proudest moment.

This year I planted the zucchini on the south side of the garage and I used a few techniques to get rid of slugs, a very persistent garden pest. I tried the beer method to get them drunk and have them drown but that didn’t work at all.

Egg shells seemed to work but we don’t eat many eggs, certainly not enough for the area my zucchinis occupy.

I am so proud of my Zucchini’s this year

However, Slug B Gon worked really we and is eco-friendly which is most important to Jenny and I.

I went out a few minutes ago, in the rain, to get a zucchini to grill up with dinner tonight. Mmmm love grilled zucchini with olive oil and some herb mix.

They are well hidden in amongst the leaves so I had to hold the leaves back with my hand to get the shot about. Then I cut it off at the stalk.

Then I put in on the edge of our vegetable garden for the next picture, it almost looks like a cucumber but it sure won’t taste like one once I am done grilling it.

This zucchini is almost longer than my entire zucchini plant was from last year. What a difference a little more sun will make. Bon Appetit

I was looking at my tomato plants and was kind of proud to see them coming along, I could even see a couple of tomatoes starting. I love watching them grow in size every day.

Then my fishing buddy Jamie picked me up to go fishing and we stopped back at his place to put the canoe on the roof of the car. He showed me his tomato plants and I almost fell over. They were already three feet tall, while mine were still just pushing two feet.

Why Were Jamie’s Tomato Plants So Big?

I asked him what he was feeding them and he just laughed and said he wasn’t doing anything other than giving them water if they did it.

Then he mentioned that when he plants things close to the house like his tomato plants they can be planted early season and they grow like weeds with the extra time in the ground and the heat provided by the sun beating off the house.

Maybe I will plant my garden all around the outside of our house next year and see if I can get tomato plants to grow like that.

Cucumbers Climbing on Lattice

Jamie sent me a picture of one of his cucumber plants grabbing onto the lattice. I think this is an excellent way to guide the cucumber plant and save garden space.

We have limited garden space this year as I didn’t have the energy I was hoping for and didn’t get to triple our garden size. It just got too hot to soon and I was done for.

Maybe this fall my son will help me remove enough sod from the yard and we can increase the garden size for the next season.

I really like the idea of using a lattice to guide creeping plants. It may even work for our zucchinis