written by: Jared McNabb
__By now I am sure that everyone has heard the term "organics" used one way or another. We need to do our part to help build a more sustainable environment to allow us to thrive and to keep our mother earth as healthy as she can be. We do this by taking extra measures to ensure that we are not being wasteful and continue to be efficient with the resources that are provided.
__So what does this have to do with organics? Organics is a broad term to describe sustainable living. Using and implementing an organic lifestyle, will not only better our gardens, landscapes, and crops, but will better our bodies as well. Organic growing allows our plants to thrive in harsh weather, hot or cold, wet or dry. We provide the nutrients and strong root system that will aid in our plants health by lowering their chance of being infested with a disease or parasites. Parasites, just like non-beneficial bacteria prey on the weak. If an insect population is given two options, a healthy strong plant or a plant with weak root systems, it will go for the easy kill. By giving our plants a fighting shot, we help eliminate the risk of loosing them to disease.
__When you grow organically you feed the soil, not the plant. The soil breaks down un-decomposed nutrients and substrates that allow the roots to take up what it needs. Fungi from compost teas and mycorrhizae build a "web-like structure" that provides a more effective route to feed the plant. A majority of synthetic fertilizers break down the soil and even kill off beneficial bacteria that would normally strengthen the plants. A great reference to a thriving ecosystem is all of the untouched wooded forests as well as rainforests. They feed themselves by a process that provides decomposition to keep an ever going cycle that allows it to be the way it is today. Read, research, inform.
Compost Made Easy!
Info from: http://www.css.cornell.edu/compost/worms/steps.html
written by: Jen Fong and Paula Hewitt
1- Acquire a bin. Reuse an old dresser drawer or fish tank, build a box out of wood or find/buy a plastic bin. The approximate size is 16" x 24" x 8" or 10 gallons. Make sure the bin is clean by rinsing it with tap water to remove any residues which may be harmful to the worms. For wooden bins, line the bottom and sides with plastic (an old shower curtain or plastic garbage bag works well).
2- Prepare the bedding. Instead of soil, composting red worms live in moist newspaper bedding. Like soil, newspaper strips provide air, water, and food for the worms.
- Using about 50 pages, tear newspaper into 1/2" to 1" strips. Avoid using colored print, which may be toxic to the worms.
- Place newspaper strips into a large plastic garbage bag or container. Add water until bedding feels like a damp sponge, moist but not dripping. Add dry strips if it gets too wet.
- Add the strips to the bin, making sure bedding is fluffy (not packed down) to provide air for the worms. Bin should be 3/4 full of wet newspaper strips.
- Sprinkle 2-4 cups of soil in bin, which introduces beneficial microorganisms. Gritty soil particles also aids the worms' digestive process. Potting soil, or soil from outdoors is fine.
3- Add the worms. Before adding the worms, find out how many worms you are starting with. The easiest method is to weigh the worms. If you do not have access to a scale, determine the worms' volume. The amount of worms is important for knowing how much food to feed them and for record keeping.
4- Bury food scraps under bedding. Feed the worms fruit and vegetable scraps that would normally be thrown away, such as peels, rinds, cores, etc. Limit the amount of citrus fruits that you place in the bin. NO MEATS, BONES, OILS OR DAIRY PRODUCTS.
- Cut or break food scraps into small pieces--the smaller, the better.
- Measure the amount of food. Feed worms approximately 3 times their weight per week. Monitor the bin every week to see if the worms are or are not eating the food. Adjust feeding levels accordingly. (If you start with one pound of worms, add 3 pounds of food per week.)
- Bury food scraps in the bin. Lift up bedding, add food scraps, then cover food with bedding.
5- Place a full sheet of dry newspaper on top of the bedding. This will help maintain the moisture balance, keep any possible odors in the bin, and help prevent fruit flies from making a home in the bin. Replace this sheet frequently if fruit flies are present, or if bin gets too wet.
6- Cover and choose a spot for the bin. Cover the bin with a lid made of plastic, plywood or cloth, but leave the lid ajar so the bin receives some air. If desired, you may drill holes into the bin. Place the bin away from windows and heaters.
FEED, WATER and FLUFF!!! To keep worms happy, feed them about once a week. If bedding dries up, spray with water. (If bedding gets too wet, add dry newspaper strips.) Fluff up bedding once a week so the worms get enough air.
Worm Castings
written by: Jared McNabb
__Worm castings, aka "vermicompost", is the heterogeneous mixture of decomposing vegetable or food waste, bedding materials, and pure vermicast that is processed and broken down during the course of normal vermiculture operations. Castings are the end-product of the breakdown of organic matter by certain species of earthworms.
__So what's so great about worm poop? For starters, castings contain water-soluble nutrients and bacteria that is a nutrient-rich organic fertilizer and soil conditioner. These bacteria that are found in worm castings are the inoculates that speed up the process of composting as well add nutrients and beneficial organisms. These organisms aid in the uptake of minerals that help influence hardiness and allow a more efficient flow and process of these nutrients macro and micro.
__"Worm Castings contain a highly active biological mixture of bacteria, enzymes, remnants of plant matter and animal manure. The castings are rich in water soluble plant nutrients, and contain more than 50% more humus than what is normally found in topsoil." (1)
__"Worm Castings are packed with minerals that are essential for plant growth, such as concentrated nitrates, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium and calcium. It also contains micro nutrients like manganese, copper, zinc, cobalt, borax, iron, carbon and nitrogen. Best of all, is that these minerals are immediately available to the plant, without the risk of ever burning the plant. Remember that animal manure and chemical fertilizers have to be broken down in the soil before the plant can absorb them." (2)
__So what does this mean? It means, stronger, healthier, more efficient, and better blooms without the use of synthetic organic/inorganic materials.
To Get Pampered:
For landscape assistance, maintenance or installation, please contact us at:
Houston
(713)682-7442
President
Greg McNabb
gmcnabb@pamperedlawns.com
Vice Presidents
Jason McNabb
Manages: North & Central Offices
jmcnabb@pamperedlawns.com
Kelly (McNabb) Aylesworth
Manages: Southwest & Galveston Offices
kmcnabb@pamperedlawns.com
Maintenance Sales & Marketing
Jared McNabb
jaredm@pamperedlawns.com
Installation/Construction
Jay Hartley
jhartley@pamperedlawns.com
Neem Away Chinch Bugs
__Each season has their pests or problems and Summer is no exception. During these few months we will more than likely run across a chinch bug infestation. Neem oil soap is an insect control product derived from the oil of a neem tree. It is effective as an insecticide or in some cases as a fungicide.
__"Chinch bug infestations can usually be controlled by pouring a neem oil soap product over affected turf areas. Do not use on drought-stressed plants, bleeding hearts, crown of thorns, gardenia, horse chestnut, jade plant, Japanese maple, lantana, mountain ash, sweet peas or new growth on conifers. For insect control, the active chemicals in neem oil soap act in two ways, they either repel insects or kill them. Unlike synthetic pesticides, the neem oil soap molecules do not act as a nerve or stomach poison, but rather they degrade the protective, water-proofing insect exoskeleton. The neem oil soap breaks down this exoskeleton, disrupting normal membrane functions, which often causes the insect to dry out and die."(3)
__""Neem is a natural product and is very safe to use. In fact neem oil has been used in Southeast Asia as an insecticide, to clean teeth, and to treat boils. Leaves from neem trees are eaten 'to purify the blood' in Hindu rituals. And neem oil is used in soap manufacture in India." (4)
Rainwater Conservation
written by: Jared McNabb
Photo from:http://www.simplyrainbarrels.com/images/D/350medoak090504Use.jpg
__Let's face it, the Summer has just begun, we are already in the triple digits, and it isn't going to get cooler for a few more months. We have less rain during this time and we are already seeing dry weather conditions in our lawns and beds. Something needs to be done because drought tolerant or not, our plants need water.
__One obvious way to solve this would be to simply pull out the hose, crank up the valve, and let the water flow. Though this works, we are wasting water that could be conserved for other uses. For those of you that own irrigation systems on your residency or at your community, they are great for ease of use. You literally set it and forget it. Here is the underlying problem with that: "Each year, irrigation accounts for 30 to 50 percent of Texas urban water use, averaging 20 gallons of water per sqft/year (871,200 gallons per acre). Using a rainwater harvesting system, a 1,000 square foot roof area can collect 600 gallons of water from only an inch of rain. Harvested rainwater can help reduce the demands on surface and groundwater for urban landscape irrigation, save municipal water supplies, and lower homeowner water bills."(5)
Molasses, it's not just for Cooking.
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__For those of you that love to cook, the name molasses is most likely familiar to you. For this article, we will not cover the next great recipe that uses molasses, but we will discuss the benefits of applying a horticultural grade molasses to plants, trees, grasses and even using it as an insect repellant.
__"Molasses is a carbohydrate that is food to many beneficial soil organisms. These organisms can aid in the breaking down of nutrients in the soil so plants can more easily absorb them. They can also help aerate the soil, which is especially important for those people who have a lot of clay or compacted soil." (6)
__"Molasses also contains several trace elements that cannot be found in many synthetic fertilizers, such as Carbon, Potash and Sulfur. These all contribute to the plants health and are the reason that molasses is added to many of the organic fertilizers out there." (6)
__"Molasses has also been shown to chase off fire ants. Here in Texas, we have a severe fire ant problem and there is no telling how many tons of poison has been put into or onto the soil to control them. Molasses will not kill fire ants, it will repel them from the current area, which means that you will not have to worry about a fire ant outbreak. Molasses is food for many beneficial soil organisms, so only apply it to the soil at 2 to 3 tablespoons per gallon of water and apply it directly to the soil." (6)
__"To apply as a foliar spray mix only 1 to 1 ½ tablespoons per gallon to your sprayer. You then spray the leaves of the plant to include the underside of the leaves. Make sure not to do this in the heat of the day, because any liquid left on the leaves on a hot day can burn them." (6)
Seaweed Extract
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__"Seaweed contains all major and minor plant nutrients, and all trace elements; alginic acid; vitamins; auxins; at least two gibberellins; and antibiotics." (7)
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__Journeytoforever.org states, "It is a matter of common experience that seaweed, and seaweed products, improve the water-holding characteristics of soil and help the formation of crumb structure. They do this because the alginic acid in the seaweed combines with metallic radicals in the soil to form a polymer with greatly increased molecular weight, of the type known as cross-linked. In a nutshell, these salts, formed by alginic acid with soil metals, swell when wet and retain moisture to a large extent. This helps aid in getting oxygen to the roots and preventing compactation." (7)
__"Seaweed fertilizers are an especially useful product in organic gardening. They contain almost every micro-nutrient and they deliver a healthy dose of natural plant hormones. Seaweed is also loaded with carbohydrates, which the plants use as a building block and which large populations of beneficial micro-organisms use as a food source." (8)
