Easy Organic Gardening and Moon Planting

766 Pages·2012·3.03 MB·English

by  Lyn Bagnall

Scribe Publications
EASY ORGANIC GARDENING
AND MOON PLANTING
Lyn Bagnall has been actively involved in professional
horticulture and garden design for more than 30 years,
including working for two major retail nurseries in Sydney.
Lyn and her husband are certified-organic farmers on a small
property in the mid-north coast of New South Wales, where
they grow fresh culinary herbs for market, wine grapes, and
fruit and vegetables.
Lyn has also written the Biological Farmers of Australia’s
Organic School Gardens program for Australian primary
schools, and regular articles on gardening and moon planting
for a range of Australian magazines. Her magazine articles, as
well as her blog at www.aussieorganicgardening.com, have
been popular with both amateur gardeners and commercial
growers.
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Scribe Publications Pty Ltd
18–20 Edward St, Brunswick, Victoria, Australia 3056
Email: [email protected]
First published by Scribe 2006
New edition (with revisions) published 2009
This updated edition published 2012
Text and illustrations copyright © Lyn Bagnall 2006, 2009,
2012
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under
copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without
the prior written permission of the publisher of this book.
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication data
Bagnall, Lyn.
Easy Organic Gardening and Moon Planting: updated edition
with moon-planting notes from 2012 to 2017.
New ed.
9781921942563 (e-book.)
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Organic gardening–Australia. 2. Organic gardening–New
Zealand. 3. Astrology and gardening–Calendars. 4. Planting
time.
635.0484
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www.scribepublications.com.au
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Contents
Preface
1. THE LOWDOWN ON DIRT
Why is your soil so important?
Soils and soil pH
Earthworms
Green manure and cover crops
Crop rotation
Companion planting
2. KEEPING SOIL HEALTHY
What not to use in your garden
Soil nutrients
Organic fertilisers
Making a compost factory
Compost worm farming
3. YOUR GARDENING DIARY
Gardening zones in Australia and New Zealand
Moon planting
Month-by-month planting and garden activity diary
4. BEDS, BOXES AND POTS
Planning or renovating your garden
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Making an instant garden
Growing plants from seed
Planting shrubs, trees, vines, and herbaceous perennials
Container gardening
5. DROUGHT-PROOF YOUR GARDEN
Efficient watering
Drought conditions and water restrictions
Mulching your garden
Drought-tolerant plants
6. THE FOOD GARDEN
Summer sun protection
Shared or separate beds?
Culinary herbs
Popular fruits and vegetables
7. GARDEN FAVOURITES
Native trees and shrubs
Popular native plants
Foreign favourites
Plants for shady, dry areas
8. PRUNING AND PROPAGATION
Types of pruning
Pruning fruiting plants
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Pruning shrubs and trees
Pruning roses
Propagating plants
Taking cuttings
Saving seed
9. SOLVING PROBLEMS NATURALLY
The organic approach
Friend or foe?
Organic pest control
Bushfire season
Protecting plants from frost
Repairing hail-damaged plants
Organic weed control
Summer and winter projects
10. MOON PHASES AND BEST GARDENING DAYS TO
2017
Glossary
Bibliography
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Preface
ORGANIC GARDENING AND FARMING are particularly suited to
Australia because our soils are fragile and our climate can be
harsh. Australia has also been labelled ‘the driest continent on
earth’. Organic cultivation repairs damaged soils by making
them biologically active. As a result, soils become more
moisture-retentive, resistant to erosion, able to eliminate
organisms that cause plant disease, and provide, in natural
form, all the nutrient minerals that plants, animals and
humans require. Where soils are rich in minerals, as in New
Zealand, biologically active soil gently releases essential
nutrients that become locked up in soil when synthetic
fertilisers have been used.
Organic cultivation is just as suitable for large and small
gardens, with or without vegetable patches, and for growing
plants in pots as it is for farming because all plants respond
positively when grown as nature intended. Your organic
garden will require less watering, be stronger and healthier,
more adaptable to climate change, and more resistant to pests
and disease. As you will see in this book, it is easy to convert
a conventional garden to organic cultivation by starting with
the most important element: your soil. Step-by-step guides
will show you how to make your soil biologically active, and
detailed information on growing pure foods and keeping
decorative parts of your garden looking beautiful have been
included. The gardening diary provides an easy-to-follow
routine for all aspects of organic gardening. Although written
for Australia, the organic cultivation methods and gardening
diary are suitable for all parts of the Southern Hemisphere,
where our growing seasons are entirely different to those in
the Northern Hemisphere.
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Organic gardeners and farmers do not use synthetic fertilisers
or chemical pesticides, fungicides or herbicides because these
chemicals destroy or inhibit beneficial organisms in soil.
Research has shown that some popular pesticides increase the
incidence of asthma, while others are neurotoxins, which
affect humans and animals, and can accumulate in our bodies.
The neurotoxic, systemic organophosphates are of particular
concern, because these pesticides cannot be removed from
produce. Eliminating the use of poisons will make your entire
garden a healthier place for your family, pets, soil and the
birds and other beneficial wildlife that visit.
Far from being old-fashioned or quaint, organic cultivation is
gaining worldwide momentum as more people realise the
effects that chemicals used in farming and gardening are
having on our health, the quality of our food, and the
environment. Although our demand for pure food has resulted
in the growth of the Australian organic industry at the steady
rate of 25 per cent per annum, Australia still lags far behind
most developed countries in its adoption of organic
cultivation. It saddens me to think that our children or
grandchildren will not be able to choose pure food in future
because inadequate separation distances determined by our
governments for genetically engineered (GE) food crops will
undoubtedly result in organic farmers losing their certification
when seed, or stock and poultry feed become contaminated
with GE pollen. Without certification, consumers will have no
guarantee that their food is organic.
Easy Organic Gardening and Moon Planting has evolved
from my observations as a horticulturist, working and
gardening in different climate zones in Australia, and from
my magazine and internet articles on gardening and moon
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