7 Tips For Achieving Gardening Success

By Eric Lancaster

Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium (NPK) are what those numbers on a bag of fertilizer stand for. However, the key to growing healthy plants is not just about NPK. Sometimes there are certain conditions in the soil that can block nutrients from getting to your plants. More often than not people kill their plants with love. They water too much or they over feed them. Growing healthy plants requires a combination of things and it all starts with the soil. Since soil is what your plants grow in, it is the foundation of gardening. Without a strong foundation, you're asking for trouble. These tips below are some guidelines professional farmers use to help decide what is needed for their next growing season. These also help them figure out why they may be having some disease or pest problems on their farm this year, or can help anticipate what may be coming next year. These tips can be useful to home gardeners as well and are not cost prohibitive.

1. Is your Soil Acidic or Alkaline? Know the pH of your soil -
Know whether you have an acidic, basic (alkaline), or neutral soil. To do this, you want to check the soil pH. Most garden suppliers sell simple pH kits to test your soil. They have easy to follow instructions and cost as little as $10 dollars. Soil pH has a huge impact on the plants you choose to grow. Refer to a plant guide to check which plants will grow best in the type of soil you have. Generally, it is more acidic on the East Coast and more alkaline on the West Coast and more neutral in the middle of the country. Soil pH can be adjusted using amendments such as lime, acid, and gypsum, however it takes time.

2. How Much Organic Matter Is In The Soil? -
Get a measurement of the organic matter in your soil as part of a soil analysis. Contact your local agricultural extension for some help. They can walk you through the process and also run the test for you at a low cost. High organic matter will sustain lots of life and also help with drainage and drought tolerance. High organic matter, say 3 or 4%, is great for drought tolerance, supporting chemical reactions, and for supporting life of worms, beneficial insects, and microbes. High organic matter is also important in fighting off erosion.

3. How Moist Is Your Soil? Know when to water and when not to.-
More often than not, people tend to kill their plants with love. In other words, they over-water. Get a moisture meter, put in the soil and water accordingly. Also, know the moisture needs of your plants. Some plants love water and others don't. Moisture also helps materials break down further in the soil, helps microbes, worms and insects survive during hot summer months and also helps fight erosion.

4. Is Your Soil Compacted? Keep it aerobic-
Most of the life in the soil requires some amount of air. Dense soils low in organic matter tend to go anaerobic. Clay soil is an example. Most pathogenic, or disease-causing, microbes are anaerobic. When soils get compacted or saturated with moisture, there is less oxygen and the anaerobic bacteria start to proliferate. This is the reason people want to add more organic matter, practice minimum tillage, and not over-water or over fertilize.

5. Is Your Soil Rich In Beneficial Microorganisms? If not, you probably have disease problems-
Microbes help convert nutrients into (bio-available) forms that plants can use. Adding in strait ammonia or high amounts of ammonia will burn a plant. Certain microbes will convert that ammonia to ammonium and amino acids and vitamins, forms that a plant can use without being harmed. Microbes produce enzymes and hormones that are needed by the plants for it to grow. Loads of beneficial microbes will also able to attack pathogenic microbes and breakdown many of the toxic substances they produce. Microbes are great to apply directly to the soil and on the plant as part of a foliar spray.

6. What Kind of Water Are You Putting On Your Soil? You could be adding problems and not even know it-
Here we are concerned with the pH of the water, the salts, and which minerals and is in the water being used to water plants and soil. If you are on municipal water, you can request a copy of a water analysis since municipalities are required to conduct regular tests and report them to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). If you are on a well, get an analysis done every few of years. A complete analysis costs between $45 and $65. Watch for cysts, bacterial contaminants as well as chemical contaminants. High pH water tends to have salts in it. Make sure to get a list of the minerals in the water. Watch mostly for salts as high salts can be toxic to many plants as well as affect nutrients. Once you know this, you can plan accordingly. It is also just good to know what the quality of the water you are drinking is as well.

7. What Kind Of Nutrients Are Already In Your Soil? Plan a nutrient plan based on the results.-
Get a soil analysis done. Take a several samples of your soil about 3 to 8 inches deep and send them to your local Agricultural Extension for an analysis. Be sure to remove the first 1-2 inches. You should get measurements of the following: Nitrogen (N), Potassium (K), Phosphorus (P), Sodium Absorption Rate (SAR), Zinc (Z), Magnesium (Mg), Manganese (Mn), Sodium (Na), Calcium (Ca), Sulfate, Electro Conductivity (EC), Organic Matter, Iron (Fe), Boron (B), and Copper (Cu). Use the results to calculate what is needed in your soil and follow up at the end of the season with another analysis to see what was used.

These tips should help dramatically improve your gardening experience. They will also help you figure out where you may be having some problems, where you don't and an idea why. It is not always as easy as getting some compost, digging a hole, dropping a plant and giving it some water. If you have some disease and/or pest problems, chances are one or more of the above items needs some attention. So, before you reach for some chemical solution to fix you plants, make sure you know that your plant has a healthy home with plenty of the right nutrients, moisture, pH, organic matter, microbes, and air. Over time you will have less and less problems and more and more success.

Eric Lancaster is Executive Vice President of TeraGanix, Inc., the exclusive North America distributor of Effective Microorganisms® and EM® Bokashi products. He has been using the Effective Microorganisms® at home and commercially for 14 years. You can learn more about Effective Microorganisms® at http://www.TeraGanix.com. 

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Vegetable Gardening For Beginners - 6 Easy Tips To Start You Off

By Abhishek Agarwal

Healthy vegetable gardens do more than provide a beautiful area in your yard. They repay your labor with nutritious food and a healthy varied diet. Vegetable gardeners are in tune with the environment, giving back to the soil what they take from it. Abundant vegetable gardens start with healthy, rich soil. Compost and mulch contribute to that natural wealth.

About 11,000 years ago, the first farmers began to select and cultivate desired food plants in the southwest Asian Fertile Crescent - between the ancient Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Although we believe there was some use of wild cereals before that time, the earliest crops were barley, bitter vetch, chick peas, flax, lentils, peas, emmer, and wheat. About 9,000 years ago, Egyptians began to grow wheat and barley. About the same time, farmers in the Far East began to grow rice, soy, mung, azuki, and taro.

Then, about 7,000 years ago, ancient Sumarians established the first organized agricultural practices that made large-scale farming possible. Of particular note, they established irrigation as a way to nurture crops where none were possible before. Vegetable gardeners today use many of the same techniques established in early history. But today's vegetable gardeners have millennia of experience behind them. Trial and error today is success or failure at the margins. Failure is not disaster.

As in centuries passed, a successful vegetable gardener cultivates the garden before planting for three main reasons: to eliminate weeds, to distribute air and nutrients throughout the soil, and to conserve moisture. Preparation of the soil is the single most important step in assuring abundant harvests.

Weeds are the most powerful enemy of a healthy vegetable garden. Letting them multiply in your vegetable garden will create much work and disappointment through the growing season. And when your vegetables begin to grow, removing weeds can your new vegetable plants beyond repair. Weeds also steal the precious nutrients necessary to produce healthy vegetables.

Rather than sacrificing the new garden to a patch of weeds, the successful vegetable gardener will cultivate the bed often, breaking up the soil to maintain healthy air, moisture, and heat to facilitate desirable chemical processes that produce abundant plant food. Ancient growers learned by trial and error the importance of keeping the soil loose around young plants. Early farmers deposited rotten fish beneath their crops as fertilizer and then used tools of shell and stone to nurture healthy soil and get plentiful air to the roots of their crops.

As important as air is water, even when the vegetable garden is a promise waiting for new seeds. Consider the process of "capillary attraction" - the ability of a substance to pull another substance into it. When you dip one end of a strip of blotting paper into water, you'll see that the moisture moves up the invisible channels formed by the paper's texture. But when you place the side edge of the blotting paper into water, the moisture won't move upward. In a vegetable garden, capillary attraction describes the attraction of water molecules to soil particles. Well cultivated, loose soil maximizes capillary action, maintaining an even distribution of moisture throughout your vegetable garden soil.

Even so, water stored in soil during rain immediately begins to escape, evaporating into the air. Surface water is the first to vaporize into the atmosphere. With capillary action, sub-surface water moves upward and evaporates. Left to natural processes, your garden will lose its moisture as quickly as if you left sponges in the topsoil. Cultivating your vegetable garden by hoeing the soil around your plants disturbs natural capillary action and slows the loss of water for your vegetables.

It's important to hoe your vegetable garden often, particularly those areas not shaded, at the very least every other week. If this seems too difficult, using a wheel hoe will reduce your labor and keep your vegetable garden healthy and productive. Looking somewhat like an old-fashioned plow, the wheel hoe allows you to cultivate very close to your healthy plants, maintaining an even depth and destroying new weeds before they get established. With the wheel hoe, you can cultivate as fast as you can walk.

If you wait until weeds are established, you'll have to pull the weeds by hand, damaging the root systems of your vegetables, depleting the soil of nutrients, and creating a much greater workload for you as gardener. And the work you invest will not be to cultivate a productive crop. It will be to prevent damage that may have already been done. A wheel hoe is essential for a large vegetable garden, but it will also save much time and effort in a small one. However, a simple scuffle hoe is effective in small spaces as well. It takes less storage space and cultivates the soil effectively.

Preparing your vegetable garden properly before you plant vegetables is well worth the investment in time and labor. Keeping your vegetable garden rows free of weeds later on is slow going and difficult. Here are a few tips for keeping your vegetable garden clean and clear of weeds as your plants mature:

1. Work at the weeds while the ground is soft and/or moist. Soon after a rain is the best time. Weeds will come out by the root easier without breaking off, leaving the unwanted plant to grow again.

2. Just before you weed your vegetable garden, cultivate the rows with your wheel or scuffle hoe very shallow in the topsoil and as close to your vegetable plants as possible. This will loosen the soil and make weeds easy to see. A double-wheel hoe with discs is best for this purpose, especially for large plants.

3. Make sure all of the soil is loosened when you cultivate. Pull all the weeds out carefully, avoiding disturbing the vegetable plants. Your weeder will destroy weed seedlings, but you'll have to hand-weed near plant bases and where weeds have matured.

4. Use a small hand-weeder near your vegetable plants. It will loosen the soil, making weeds easier to
eliminate, and save a lot of wear and tear on your hands and fingers.

5. Practice with your wheel hoe. At first, watch the wheel's direction and the pressure you put on the handles. The discs or rakes will follow automatically, maintaining an appropriate cultivation depth in your vegetable garden rows.

6. "Hilling" was once a common way to nurture young vegetable plants. This is done by building the soil up around the stems of young vegetable plants, usually the after you've hoed your garden two or three times. In wet soils or dry climates, hilling may still be the way to go. But in most areas, level soil is best. It makes it easier to cultivate the soil in the long run, thereby assuring healthy vegetable plants through the growing season.

Rotating Vegetable Crops

Crop rotation, or growing different vegetable crops each time you plant, is an important part of maintaining a healthy, productive vegetable garden. Some Roman texts mention crop rotation, and early Asian and African farmers also found rotation a productive method. During the Muslim Golden Age of Agriculture, engineers and farmers introduced today's modern crop rotation methods where they alternated winter and summer crops and left fields fallow during some growing seasons. With Chemical Revolution of the mid-20th Century, crop rotation lost some of its appeal. But for home vegetable gardeners, rotation eliminates the risks of using dangerous chemicals and prevents the environmental consequences associated with modern pollutants.

Each different vegetable plant depletes the soil of different nutrients, and each leaves different nutrients as its roots and stems decay. Rotating crops with each planting keeps the soil balanced and rich. Planting the same crop time after time drains it of necessary nutrients, leaving it less productive. Crop rotation also reduces the build-up of pathogens and pests that destroy healthy vegetable gardens. Rotation helps maintain a healthy mix of essential nitrogen in your vegetable garden.

Rotating crops is more important with vegetables like cabbage, but it is a good practice for your vegetable garden generally. Even the hardy onion benefits from rotation, especially if you've done a good job of breaking up the old garden soil and mixing the remaining vegetable plants to serve as compost for the following crop. Here are some basic tips about crop rotation:

1. Do not rotate crops of the same vegetable family, for example turnips and cabbage. Be sure the following crop is a complete different type of vegetable.

2. Deep-rooting crops like carrots or parsnips, should follow vegetables with roots near the surface like onions or lettuce.

3. Follow root crops with vines or leaf crops.

4. Rotate vegetable plants that have long growing seasons with quick-growing crops.

5. Decide on your vegetable garden rotation when you're constructing your planting plan. Making these decisions in the middle of the growing season will be more difficult and waste time and money.

Abhishek is an avid Gardening enthusiast and he has got some great Gardening Secrets up his sleeves! Download his FREE 57 Pages Ebook, "Your Garden - Neighbor's Envy, Owner's Pride!" from his website http://www.Gardening-Master.com/762/index.htm. Only limited Free Copies available.

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10 Organic Gardening Tips

By Jennifer M. Regan

Are you interested in creating your own organic vegetable garden? Here are some green gardening tips that will lead you in the right direction:

10 Organic Gardening Tips

1. Test your soil:

If you are looking to have a successful outcome with an organic vegetable garden, you should first test your soil with a do-it-yourself home testing kit before you plant anything. These testing kits can be found at local garden centers and on the Internet at garden speciality stores. The kits use a number scale, 0 to 14, that helps you determine the acidity or alkalinity (also known as pH) levels of your soil. For most vegetables, an ideal number is about 6.5. If the results are too acidic (towards the low end of the scale) or too alkaline (towards the high end of the scale), your plants will not be able reap the benefits of the soil's nutrients. Once you know the results of your soil, you will be able to adjust the soil accordingly by balancing these levels with the nutrients it is lacking.

2. Make plans ahead of time and decide where and how you will grow your garden:

Before you begin digging up your lawn, take a look at your property and decide where you would like to plant a garden. Location is very important, as you will want to pay attention to the position of the sun throughout the day (your plants will need healthy doses of direct sunlight each day), the rockiness of the ground, the drainage quality of the soil, and the location's relation to your main water source.

If you have high quality soil in your yard and you have determined a location, you will want to take advantage of the benefits found in it. Healthy soils have upwards of 650 million microorganisms per one gram of soil. These organisms already present, such as earthworms and other forms of soil life are essential to the life of the soil and will help your garden prosper by providing your plants with valuable nutrients and minerals.

What to do if your soil is not healthy or if you do not have space for a garden at home:

• Build a raised bed
By making a raised bed, you will have control over the garden's soil quality. When building your bed, use untreated wood, stones, or brick as a side border and be sure to make the border at least 16 inches high as the depth is important. The plants' roots will need room to stretch and grow.

• Consider container gardening
If you are a city dweller, you do not have to miss out on the benefits of growing your own produce. Plant in containers that are large enough to accommodate root growth. Be sure they also have drainage holes. If you are planting organic herbs, pots that are at least 6 inches across are ideal. Another helpful hint is to use plastic pots instead of terra cotta pots. Plastic may not be as aesthetically pleasing, but they will hold moisture longer and will not dry out as quickly as terra cotta pots.

•  Join a local community garden

Another option is to join a community garden in your area. This is a great way to reap the benefits of growing your own organic food if you do not have land at home. Community gardens are vacant lots or fields that have been turned into mini-farms so that members of the community can plant small gardens of their own. To find out if there are community gardens near you, contact your local parks and recreation department, visit the website http://www.communitygarden.org, or take a stroll in your neighborhood and see if any gardens exist. If you stumble across one, step inside and ask a member what you need to do to join.

3. Select authentic, high quality organic vegetable seeds to use in your garden:

Organic seeds can be found at local nurseries, garden stores, home centers, online seed stores, seed catalogs, and farm supply stores. Always make sure the seed company is "certified organic" and be sure to stay away from any seeds that are "genetically engineered." To save money, start growing the seeds indoors and transplant outdoors when ready.

4. Make your own compost:

Compost, also known as "gardeners gold," is a vital element in organic gardening that improves the soil structure of your garden. Compost provides a great source of nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, and micro/macronutrients essential for plant growth. It also aids in stabilizing soil moisture and pH which helps keep the soil cooler during the summer months.

Other benefits of organic compost:

• Great source of food for wildlife because it attracts insects and fungi that eat decaying matter. These small animals support larger animals like songbirds
• Suppresses plant disease
• Assists in controlling soil erosion
• Acts as a mild herbicide
• Reduces need to apply commercial fertilizers
• Reduces amount of waste sent to landfills
• Reduces gas emissions that would result from transporting kitchen waste to a landfill

How to compost:

• Build or buy a compost bin. These can be found at home centers, garden centers, and online.
• Place compost material in repeated layers. To give your compost the best result, alternate layers of green matter with brown matter. An example would be alternating kitchen scraps with straw/stalks or dead leaves with grass clippings.
• Cover compost heap for optimal results. This will avoid moisture loss and keep in heat.
• Keep the pile moist as a wrung-out sponge.
• Aerate and turn compost pile over frequently.
• When ready, pile will look like fresh fine soil.

Some ideas for good compostables:

• Kitchen waste
• Aquarium water, plants, and algae
• Sawdust
• Tea leaves/coffee grounds
• Pet rabbit or hamster droppings
• Eggshells
• Old spices
• Lawn clippings (thin layer)

Make leafmould:

Leafmould is a dark brown, rich and crumbly material that is created from naturally decomposed Autumn leaves that have fallen onto the ground. It is an excellent soil conditioner and mulch, a great earthworm meal, and is easy to make.

To make leafmould:

• Collect fallen leaves (avoid evergreen leaves) and place in a container to rot Leafmould matures best in high moisture, so the best time to collect leaves is just after rain.
• Wait 9 months to a year for the leafmould to mature.

5. Use water wisely:

Water conservation, harvesting, and recycling are great methods for organic gardening.

• Recycle/harvest rain water
Not only is rainwater is a great way to hydrate your plants, but it is also an excellent way to lower your monthly water bills, reduce storm-water runoff, and prevent flooding and erosion. It is generally clean, free of containments and byproducts such as minerals, fluoride and chlorine and has a low pH which plants and soils like. Rainwater can be collected and stored using gutters, downspouts, rain barrels and/or cisterns and can be used whenever needed, even later in the season during dry weather.

• Use a soaker hose
A soaker hose is a great and easy way to save time and money in your garden. Water seeps out of soaker hoses and delivers water directly to your plants' roots while keeping the leaves dry, which helps prevent disease. Hand watering is time consuming and tedious, sprinklers can be wasteful due to evaporation and runoff, and drip irrigation is expensive.

• Avoid grey water
When recycling water, avoid use of grey water (household waste water that comes from sources such as sinks, washer machines, and showers) on any plants used for consumption. Grey water may contain phosphates, nitrogen, and pathogens that can be harmful to your health.

Watering tips:

• Water your garden when the air and soil are cool, typically in the early morning or evening hours. During these times, less water will be lost due to evaporation.
• Water deeply but less often. Direct the water at the root systems at the base of the plant. This will encourage plants to grow deeper roots, causing them to need less watering. Shallow watering causes the roots to grow close to the surface, making them more vulnerable to drought.
• Remember that plants and soil in containers will dry out much faster than in the ground and require frequent watering.
• Avoid watering leaves. Excess water film on a plant makes it more susceptible to disease.
• Shallow rooted vegetables such as beans and greens need to be watered more often with lighter applications than deep rooted plants like corn and tomatoes. These vegetables require more water but less often.
• Use a milk jug. For a clever trick, take a 1 gallon milk jug and poke very small holes into the bottom. Bury most of the jug next to your plants when you plant your garden. If you leave it uncapped, you can place your water hose nozzle into the opening to fill. With this method, the water slowly drips into the ground and encourages deep plant roots. This self-irrigation system is great for whenever you need to travel and leave the garden unattended.

7. Weed Control:

Weeds can be a serious threat to gardens because they remove valuable moisture, nutrients, sunlight and growing space needed by crops.

Some ways to control weeds:

• Select high quality vegetable seeds or transplants By planting high quality seeds, the chances of them containing weed seeds or seedlings is very low.
• Rotate your vegetable crops As crops differ in their ability to compete with weeds, rotating crops between hardy competitors and weaker plants can reduce weeds.
• Use ground cover The use of ground cover and organic mulches such as hay, straw, glass clippings, and manure in your garden is one of the most effective ways to control weeds. Spread the ground cover 2-3 inches thick as this will block sunlight and prevent weed germination and growth.
• Transplant seeds Transplanting seeds instead of sowing them gives plants a healthy head start in defense against weeds.

Methods of removing weeds:

• By hand This method is most effective after a recent rain because the soil is loosened.
• Thermal A short blast of heat directly onto the weed causes it to wilt and die. This is most effective on driveways and paths and is not always ideal for gardens.
• Hoeing This is effective for larger patches of newly cleared ground.

7. Make sure you have earthworms

Earthworms are essential to a successful garden. Vermicompost, the combination of organic matter and earthworms' castings is a high-octane form of compost that provides the soil with an immediate all-purpose fertilizer loaded with nutrients and nitrogen. By tunneling through the earth, earthworms aerate the soil which improves the soil's access to air and drainage so that water reaches the deep roots of plants more easily. They also encourage beneficial soil bacteria while discouraging disease and predators such as crop destroying insects.

Don't have earthworms in your soil? Here is how to get them:

• Discontinue use of any toxins in your garden.
• Spread 2-3 inch layers of organic matter on top of the soil each year - this will attract earthworms
• Use leafmould - this is a great earthworm meal.
• Order earthworm eggs online. Once you receive them, scatter them onto the ground and in about 3 months they will be adults and ready to reproduce.

8. Keep a gardening journal

By keeping track of your garden's progress, you will be more prepared next year to tackle issues that came up this year. You will also have a place where you can jot down experiments, experiences: the good and the bad.

9. Protect against predators and pests:

Make your garden friendly to the native wildlife in your region. This will attract and encourage natural wildlife pest controllers to your garden. Ladybugs, birds, frogs, toads, and bats all help to keep pests such as aphids, insects, and snails in check.

Other beneficial garden predators and the pests they feed on:

• Centipedes: feed on slugs and eggs
• Preying mantis: feed on all types of insects
• Spiders: feed on insects and arthropods
• Lizards: feed on insects/pests
• Frog/toads: feed on all types
• Ladybugs: feed on aphids

To protect against pests:

• Plant nectar producing plants Tiny flowers on plants such as sweet alyssum will attract beneficial insects, such as predatory wasps. The alyssum's aroma will also scent your garden all summer. Herbs like parsley, dill, and fennel will attract ladybugs which will also eat intruding insects.
• Choose native plant species over imported varieties whenever possible Native species have better "immune systems" and will be able to fight against insects in your area better than an exotic plant will.
• Try companion planting Companion planting is growing two or more different types of species of plant together for the benefit of one or both. For example, by pairing a flower with a vegetable plant, many adult insects will visit flowers for pollen and nectar and in return are effective natural controllers of unwanted pests on the vegetable crops.

How does companion planting work?

• Companions help each other grow: Tall plants provide shade for shorter plants sensitive to sun.
• Companions use garden space efficiently: Vining plants cover the ground, upright plants grow up. Two plants in one patch.
• Companions prevent pest problems: Plants like onions repel some pests. Other plants can lure pests away from more desirable plants.
• Companions attract beneficial insects: Every successful garden needs plants that attract the predators of pests.

Examples of good companion plants:

• Carrots and onions: Pests attracted to carrots' sweet smell can be confused by the pungent smell of onions.
• Corn and beans: The beans attract beneficial insects that prey on corn pests such as leafhoppers and leaf beetles. In addition, the bean vines will climb up the corn stalks.
• Cucumbers and nasturtiums: Nasturtiums are said to repel cucumber beetles and can create a habitat for insects such as spiders and ground beetles which help defend the garden from destructive pests.
• Radishes and spinach: Radishes attract leafminers away from the spinach. The leafminers will damage the radish leaves, but since radishes grown underground, no damage is done to the radishes.
• Cabbage and dill: Cabbage can help support the floppy dill plants, while the dill attracts the tiny beneficial wasps that control cabbageworms and other cabbage pests.
• Tomatoes and cabbage: Tomatoes are repel diamondback moth larvae (caterpillars that chew large holes in cabbage leaves)
• Cauliflower and dwarf zinnias: The nectar from the dwarf zinnias lures ladybugs that help protect cauliflower plants.
• Collards and catnip: Planting catnip alongside collards can reduce flea-beetle damage on the collards.

Other ways to deter pests from your organic garden:

• Create barriers and deterrents: Try hanging shiny silver objects in your garden. The reflection produced from the sun can confuse insects such as aphids which orient their flight patterns by sunlight.
• Rotate your crops each year This will aid in keeping pest and disease problems at bay as well as correct nutritional deficiencies.

10. Last few tips on garden and soil care:

• Avoid compacting soil by walking on it excessively This restricts air movement and makes it hard for roots to penetrate.
• Do not over dig This will destroy vital soil structure.
• Cover Keeping plants covered with things like mulch helps protect soil structure.
• Avoid overfeeding and over or under watering Let the plants performance guide you.

I hope you will be able to share the same satisfaction and gratification I experience when I build, create, and tend to my own vegetable garden. Have patience, be willing to get dirty, and be ready to smile and reap the bountiful benefits of an organically grown vegetable and herb garden.

Enjoy!

In good health

Jennifer M. Regan, NASM-CPT, C.H.E.K HLC

Jennifer Regan is the founder and owner of Bamboo Core Fitness, a personal training and holistic lifestyle coaching business based in the Boston and Metrowest areas.

Jennifer holds a BS in Exercise Science and Minors in Health and Nutrition from Ithaca College, is a National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer, and a C.H.E.K Holisitc Lifestyle Coach. In addition, she is a Cancer Wellness Specialist and holds certification in AED, CPR, and First Aid.

For more information on health, nutrition, and fitness topics, please visit her web site at: http://www.bamboocorefitness.com

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