Need Some Quick Gardening Advice? Read This

The fall season has arrived and the task of emptying our container gardens is at task. However, instead of storing your clay pots in a garden shed for the winter season, why not replace the summer annuals with edible fall vegetables. Having mums in your favorite clay pot signifies fall, however, consider adding alternative edible plants like leafy lettuces such as arugula, endive, bok choy and radicchio. When it is time for a quick salad, simply snip a few leaves, and you will instantly have delicious ready to eat salad.

If you want something fun to do that will benefit you in the kitchen, try growing some herbs in your window. Some herbs may not take kindly to this, but many will! In this way you have some herbs always fresh and handy, and they add a nice touch to the house.

If you're looking for a natural fungicide to protect the seed flats or trays that you plant this fall or winter, the solution is easy. Simply put a dusting of sphagnum moss that is milled or ground across the top of the flats or sprinkle it between each row of seeds. The acid in the moss helps to prevent the development of fungus, keeping your seedlings strong and healthy.

Soak seeds overnight, preferably in a cool, dark place. Place some seeds in your smaller pots and add water almost to the brim. This will give your seeds a healthy head start in the growth process. This increases the chances of survival for the seeds.

Plant your garden in stages. Put in a new vegetable every week, or plant vegetables with different maturation speeds when you do your planting. This helps prevent you from having a large harvest all at once, and will better allow you to enjoy the fruits (and vegetables!) of your labors.

Put compost down on the soil in your garden about two weeks to a month before you plan to plant. This allows the compost enough time to integrate with the soil. Giving the compost time to stabilize means that your soil pH will be steady enough to test, and your plants will be ready to thrive when you plant them.

You can get most of the gardening tools you need second-hand. Visit yard sales and estate sales near you to look for gardening tools at a very low price. You can also visit online trading or donation groups to trade items you have for gardening tools, or even to find find free tools.

Make a profit off of the garden by selling micro crops. There is a huge demand for micro crops from restaurants and organic markets who are willing to pay a premium for these fresh vegetables. Specialty mushrooms, baby corn, rare herbs and other micro crops are in very high demand, and can earn a gardener upwards of fifty dollars a pound or more.

As you plan your garden this year, change the layout so that it's different from where the various plants were located last year. For example, place your tomatoes in the part of the garden where the corn grew last season. This rotation of crops will help keep your soil from becoming depleted of the nutrients needed by each type of vegetable.

The activity of organic gardening is one that can be enjoyed by everyone, but only those very serious into it, will try to perfect their organic gardening techniques. Now with more organic gardening knowledge to add to your "bag of tricks," you can easily become a great organic gardener, too.View more gardening products: phoenix home and garden

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