Tips and tricks

Companion planting
Growing of mutually beneficial plants in close proximity to repel pests and improve growth. For a print friendly list of companion planting click here.

pH Balance
pH balance varies from plant to plant but a good figure is around 6 – 6.5. The pH of soil can change fairly dramatically from year to year depending on what sort of compost and fertilizers are added. It is recommended you perform a pH test on your soil if your plants have slow or stunted grow or are not growing favourably.

Trace minerals
Trace minerals include zinc, manganese, boron, sodium, copper, iron, magnesium, molybdenum and chlorine. These are essential for strong healthy plant growth. A lack of trace minerals may cause growth deformation, weak disease immunity and stunted or slow growth. A good source of trace minerals is Seasol and other fish emulsions.

NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium)
It is important to have a good balance of NPK in the organic garden.
Blood and bone are good sources of nutrition for plants as they contain nitrogen and iron from the blood, phosphorous and calcium from the bone. Potassium can be obtained from potash and can also be found in fairly large concentrations from wood ash (very basic pH), horse manure and in the chemical fertilizer potassium sulphate.

Magnesium
Found in Epsom salt as magnesium sulphate.
Calcium is found in agricultural lime and also dolomite. Along with magnesium these will raise the pH.

Benefit of organic
Organic forms of fertilizer have the ability to slow release. This is because they require microbes to breakdown the organics to a state which can be adsorbed, thus plants are not required to be fertilized as often as chemical fertilizers. Chemical fertilizers may also result in salt buildup and pH imbalance which is why organic is favourable.

Crop Rotation
Crop rotation is the process of seasonally rotating dissimilar crops to reduce disease buildup and nutritional imbalances. This maintains soil fertility and plant health.

Water saving
By using raised garden beds you are already a water saver. Vegetables are an essential part of life, however conventional farming practices are very water inefficient and they consume far more water per vegetable than a well mulched raised garden bed. We also have some very water efficient raised garden beds, these are known as wicking bed systems. They have a water reserve at the bottom filled with sand, on which organic soil sits on top and wicks (draws up) the water from the reserve. Thus, the roots will target the water reserve at the bottom, and there will be substantially less water evaporation off the topsoil. These systems only need to be watered once a week.