Organic Gardening Hacks

For those who know me, you know that I have always been a self declared brown thumb. Gardening has never been my thing.  In fact, last summer I killed 3 basil plants alone.  Well, this spring I decided, I was gonna do this! I was gonna grow a small garden and it was going to be organic. 

Step 1 was to order my heirloom organic non GMO seeds from SEEDS NOW.  I decided to start out simple with green bell peppers, jalapeño peppers, beefsteak tomatoes, basil, cilantro, and Italian parsley.  

 

Well between now and then I have had an ongoing battle with the squirrels.  Which is still very much ongoing so the story of my pepper plants is to be continued as they have been caught in the crossfire. 

My tomatoes and herbs look beautiful! I couldn't be more proud.  So 2 of my favorite  Organic Gardening Hacks came from my great grandmother.  How cool is that.  Sometimes when we hear the word organic, we think it has to be a new age complicated thing. When truely it is simply how generations before us always used to grow their food; before pesticides and genetically modified seeds came to be in common use. 

The best way I can think to describe organic is "think about it as old school, it's the food our grandparents used to eat".  

So taking that into consideration here are 2 Organic Gardening Hacks that if have used consistently. 

Ground Egg Shells

When egg shells are ground into a fine dust and sprinkles on plants they act like sharp shards of glass to beetles. This will repel the beetles from hanging out and making a lunch of your hard grown veggies.

 

I collected a handful of organic cage free egg shells, washes and dried them. 

Then I used my food processor to break them down into shards.  My food processor can not get the pieces fine enough so then I transfer them to my coffee gender. ( it helps to use the food processor 1st so your coffee grinder doesn't have to work so hard) 

Then sprinkle a layer on your plants. 

Another Organic Gardening Hack is to use coffee grounds as fertilizer. 

 Just throw in the used coffee grounds from that mornings coffee to your soil.  It helps to add nitrogen.  I have used this tactic for years with my flower pots and I believe they have lead to some of the largest mutant like marigolds I have ever grown last year.