Organic Gardening Cheat Sheet
The organic gardening cheat sheet below is very helpful if you need results
from your garden this year and don't have time to get over the learning
curve. Producing great results can take some time to master...not everyone is born with a green thumb. I have stripped down the
advice below to keep it as simple as possible. These are the things you should be doing to get great results this year.
The most important activities (starting seeds, garden bed
preparation, fertilizing, watering) have all been covered, as well as a few other important topics.
Seed Starting Cheat Sheet
On this organic gardening page you will find a list of seeds you need to start indoors. The list is organized from earliest to latest (for many different seeds need to be started at different times). The cheat sheet also tells you when each of the crops should be moved into your garden outdoors. Finally there is a section listing the crops you should be starting directly outdoors, organized again from earliest to latest.
Bed Preparation Cheat Sheet
This gardening cheat sheet will tell you when to prepare your garden bed. This page includes anything that needs to be done to the whole garden area. This includes how to do a soil test, how to adjust the pH of your soil, and what kinds of things you should add to your garden soil. Other adjustments may need to be made depending on what crops you are planning to grow (see the section below).
Garden Soil Preparation Crop by Crop
Once your garden bed has been prepared in general, you should decide where individual crops will be planted within the garden. Some crops prefer less fertilizer, some crops prefer more. Some crops like the addition of bone meal, while others grow better in a raised bed. This cheat sheet will help you get every section of your garden just right for every crop you plan to grow.
Garden Fertilizing Cheat Sheet
Some crops require lots of plant food. Even when you prepare your garden bed right, certain crops will benefit from the feeding of additional fertilizer. This cheat sheet will list those crops. It will also discuss some fertilizers that are appropriate to use. Finally, it covers the rate (or strength) of the fertilizer and the frequency (how often) you should be feeding these crops.
Garden Watering Cheat Sheet
You don't want to over-water, but you don't want to under-water either. In addition to that, seedlings need to be watered differently than fully established plants. Finally, watering instructions can differ from crop to crop...for example, beans tend to get leaf fungus if you get their leaves wet when you water them. This gardening cheat sheet will keep you on track with all the best watering tips.
Leave the Organic Gardening Cheat Sheet and
Go To the Garden Bed Preparation Page
Check out some Organic Soil Recipes
AffordableGarden Design&Setup
Hi everyone, Jason from Jason's Indoor Guide here. When I got started with hydroponic gardening more than 24 years ago, my first garden used rockwool cubes and B.C. Nutrients....and I remember thinking to myself yeah, sure, there may be a lot of advantages to gardening with hydroponics, for example there are very few pest problems, therefore very little pest control, no weeding, no plowing or tilling the soil, no soil testing or having to add things into the garden soil, no watering the garden....but for someone who just wants to grow their own vegetables and have more control over their food supply and the quality of the food that they eat, the cost of constantly having to buy grow media and hydroponic nutrients makes this an expensive hobby for most people...
Epic Nutrient Change
I suppose when you take into consideration how much money you save NOT
having to buy food at the grocery store, it is surely cheaper to grow
your own food hydroponically even with the cost of high quality
nutrients. Nevertheless, I didn't have a whole lot of money to work with
and I needed to make my efforts as affordable and effective as
possible....and in the last 24 years I HAVE learned a thing or two!
As you browse through Jason's Indoor Guide, you will notice all of the
systems that I use personally are homemade systems. As I got 3 or 4
years of experience under my belt, I quickly adopted a preference to
standing water systems and systems that use expanded clay pellets or
lava rock, because the media is re-usable and it eliminates a huge
operating expense. So once a hydroponic system is built, garden
maintenance is minimal- check and adjust the nutrient solution daily,
and to change it completely every 2 weeks....and the biggest operating
cost is the hydroponic nutrients. (and the electric bill, lol)...
Homemade Cloner
And, regarding the cost of the nutrients....I experimented for about 3 years with making different compost teas and nutrient teas, but there is still a lot of expense $$$ associated with making high quality nutrient teas....like kelp meal, liquid seaweed, rock dust, bat guano, un-Sulfured molasses, worm castings. You can eliminate a lot of this expense by becoming an expert at making high-quality colloidal humus compost, and use your properly made compost as the basis of your hydroponic nutrient solution.
Unfortunately, I have been gardening for over 24 years and I have only
just recently mastered this difficult skill....and even then, only
because I happened to find a very easy to follow, high quality technique
and decided to follow the instructions to the letter. I produced more
high quality compost in just one week than I was able to use in a whole
year! If you can master the technique, I highly recommend it. It is one of the top 3 things you can do to
increase the productivity of your food production efforts, while at the
same time decreasing the amount of effort required to grow all of your
own food, and decreasing the total cost of operating your food
production system.
And when I say decrease operating costs, I mean decrease them to almost
ZERO, especially if you are producing your own nutrients...
High Efficiency
Hydroponics
The ultimate solution to eliminate the cost of your hydroponic nutrients: Imagine a hydroponic system that does not require you to buy any nutrients, does not require you to make your own compost, and does not require you to brew your own nutrient tea. Seriously! No cost and no effort as far as providing nutrients to your plants! Plus, at the end of the gardening cycle you harvest all of your garden vegetables, PLUS YOU HARVEST FISH from the system--->
Aquaponics
This solution is aquaponics. If you are serious about producing all of your own food and being self-sufficient, this is the ultimate solution for reducing expenses (as much as possible), reducing the total amount of work required, and maximizing the productivity of your gardening efforts. I have been gardening for over 24 years, and it is the perfect food production solution in my opinion.
Besides mastering how to make high quality compost, learning aquaponics is one of the top 3 things you can do to increase your garden productivity, reduce your total costs, and reduce your total work. The product that I learned from is called Aquaponics4you. With all of my hydroponic gardening experience, the first time I came across the Aquaponics4you product I knew immediately that it was something very special! Place an aquaponics system outdoors and use the sun instead of grow lights, and you have reduced every garden expense to nearly ZERO!
The Same System/ 10 Weeks Later!
