There are many accessories needed inside a greenhouse.

These could be benches to set the plants, watering devices and more. How do you know which accessories you will need though?

• Read the list below to figure out the answer, and learn what to know about shopping for greenhouses online or offline.

Read the 12 Best Greenhouse Gardening Supplies and Accessory Products List!

2. Seed-Starter Supplies – These are always needed in greenhouses. This could included trays to sow the seeds, growing medium and so on.

3. Climate Control – This can include heaters, fogging systems, thermostats, humidistats, monitors and anything else to do with maintaining temperature or humidity.

4. Compost Bins and Soil Testers – There are different models of these available. It depends on whether you are testing for pH, light, moisture as to which one you have to buy.

5. Hydroponic Supplies – If you want to set up some hydroponics equipment, a hydroponic system in your greenhouse would be perfect and there are many accessories to accomplish this. From starter kits on the ingredients needed to nourish and care for plants to flow tables to aeration systems and more are easily purchased.

6. Raised Beds – These are nice when benches are not going to be used. Many commercial greenhouses use these. Using these mean you do not need to bend over as far to work on your plants. Also the soil can be better prepared more effectively.

7. Flooring – Not all people use flooring in a greenhouse, but it is nice to have. This could be done with paver blocks or rubber mats just for two examples.

8. Display Racks – These are convenient to have because many are on wheels for easy transport. When you are running a commercial greenhouse, you can wheel these outside to show customers. At night you can wheel them back inside again.

9. Wagons, Carts, or Hand Trucks – They are needed to transport more than one plant or the bigger, heavier ones. These are also needed for customers to carry around their purchases to pay for them in commercial greenhouse nurseries.

10. Produce Bags – These are nice when customers are buying apples or other produce from you. You can pre-fill them or let the customers fill their own. Vegetable cartons or berry trays could also be provided.

11. Fans – These are needed for ventilation in the greenhouse. Also some plants grow stronger stems by toughening up in a wind.

12. Heaters – The greenhouse heaters are needed to keep the temperature warm enough in the colder months. There are a variety of styles of these some are run by electricity while others use propane or natural gas. Even some solar-powered units are being sold today.

These are just some of the very best greenhouse accessories available for all models of greenhouses, today.

Each one’s situation differs and you might find other things you need to. Gardening in a greenhouse is a very rewarding activity when it is done the right way. To do this you need many various greenhouse accessories and supplies along with the greenhouse structure.

If you have heard about the health benefits of green tea on your body, then you will likely appreciate the goodness of compost tea on your plants and garden soil.

Both are prepared the same way, too – steeping in water until the goodness of the hummus or the leaves are extracted into the resulting liquid.

The Goodness of Compost Tea

The emphasis is on ready compost as making tea out of partially decomposed materials will cause harm instead of good for the soil and the plants.

Your efforts in making compost tea are well worth the benefits derived from them, which include:

• Improved plant growth because the compost tea protects the surfaces with good organisms. Thus, pests and diseases are prevented from attacking the plants.
• Improved soil structure due to the increase of nutrients as well as the reduction in the use of chemical fertilizers.
• Improved nutrient absorption from the soil into the plant because of the increased amounts of nutrients in the soil as well as the lack of pests.
• Lesser need for the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides mainly because of the increased nutrient uptake and the decreased presence of pests.
• Lesser water loss as the soil itself is better at holding on to the water. As a result, you also save on your water bills.

As you will observe, the benefits of using these compost gardening tips are interrelated and interconnected. Again, think of drinking your green tea for comparison purposes.

Compost Tea Production

The creation of compost tea is very simple despite its many benefits. That’s the beauty of making your own compost tea instead of buying ready-made products from the garden supply store.

1. You simply take an old bucket with no holes in it but with its tight-fitting lid still in place.
2. Place the ready compost about two-thirds of the way of the bucket’s rim, pour water until the rim and then replace the lid.
3. Just be sure that the lid is neither screwed too tightly as to prevent the gases from escaping nor too loosely as to allow pests to make their way into the mixture.

You will then leave the bucket for 2-3 weeks depending on how well you want the tea to mature.

Plus, the compost tea will ferment by itself, much like fermenting beer.
• The compost bucket will leach into the water, thus, producing an ugly brown liquid.
• It looks ugly but it is definitely one of the most beautiful things in the world for your plants and garden soil.

However, you should never use the compost tea in its pure concentration lest your plants die in the process. Instead, you should dilute it with water in a 10 parts to 1 part of tea ratio.

And the best thing about making compost tea?

You can actually use the compost for more tea brewing albeit the water used should be lesser in quantity with each passing fermentation process. When no more goodness can be extracted from the compost, you can just throw it back into the compost pile or compost bin and the process begins again.

Things to Know About Soil Composting Accelerators

It has been said many times that composting is the best way to secure organic fertilizer. However, it can be a slow process taking weeks at a time to produce the desired black gold from the composted materials. This is where compost accelerators can be of assistance to the gardener.

• However, adding in composting accelerators makes the process work more quickly under the right circumstances.

What Are the Types of Composting Accelerator?

You can purchase compost accelerators from garden supply stores, which can come in either powder or liquid form.

Usually, these compost accelerators come with instructions so it should be easy to apply them to the existing compost pile.

You can also use special types of worms as compost accelerators.

Again, these worms can be purchased in garden supply stores, which can include red wrigglers, European night crawlers and blueworms. Common earthworms are generally not recommended for this purpose.

You may also use natural compost accelerators available in your home and garden. Good soil is the best natural compost accelerator because of the beneficial microorganisms already present in them. Just work a few shovels into compost piles or compost bins, preferably soil from underneath trees or soil found in the woods.

Other natural compost accelerators include manure, straw, unpasteurized beer, nettles, seaweed and nettles.

• Just make sure to remove any salt from the seaweed as it can adversely affect the composition of the compost pile.

What Determines Its Success
Lest you think that compost accelerators will make for faster and better compost, think again. There are certain criteria in order to make the addition of the accelerators a success in every which way possible.

These conditions include:
* The compost itself must be of good quality. Thus, the materials in it are of the good kind, the moisture and air are in sufficient levels and the container itself is conducive to composting.
* Proper handling and turning of the compost pile is exercised. For example, you should never handle it when it is not yet ready.
* The weather itself is conducive to the addition of the compost accelerator. For example, it is not advisable to place compost accelerator in winter because decomposition is slower during cool weather.

You may want to have hummus as soon as possible. It is often better to just let Mother Nature perform most of the work with a little help from you. And if you do see that the compost pile you started is not healthy, it is best to just start all over again instead of trying to salvage the heap with an accelerator.

In conclusion, a compost accelerator is a good thing to have in your compost heap.

However, we highly advise using it in the right manner so as to get the most benefits. After all, Mother Nature turns everything to soil eventually and it will work on your compost heap whether you like it or not.

Boost Your Soil Composting Garden Efforts with Compost Tea

Avid practitioners of compost gardening know that there is no better all-in-one fertilizer and pesticide than plain old compost and it is called tea.  No, not the tea that you drink but the tea made from the mature compost mixed in with water and then steeped for a number of days before applying to the plants.

Reasons for Using Compost Tea Catchers

You might be asking about the valid reasons to go to the trouble of brewing and straining compost tea when you can just apply the plain compost on the plants.  Well, there are many but ultimately it is that well-brewed compost tea contains more beneficial microorganisms that can almost double plant growth rate.

In particular, compost tea helps in preventing foliar diseases that affects many plants, it increases the quantity of nutrients made available for the plants, and it speeds up the breakdown of harmful toxins that delay plant growth.  Many gardeners even report enhanced flavors of the vegetables upon which compost tea is applied.

Indeed, if you are not yet using compost tea in your garden, you are missing out on a many benefits.  So, starting today, get your hands dirty and make tea.

Composting Supplies You Will Need

You will need supplies for making well-brewed compost tea.  Of course, you can probably skip on some of the equipment but we suggest purchasing all of them since it will be an investment that can benefit you and your garden for many more years to come.

With that being said, you should have an aquarium pump sufficiently large run three bubblers, several feet of plastic tubing, a gang valve, three bubblers, a study stick for mixing, organic unsulfured molasses, strainer like an old pillowcase and a big bucket for decanting the tea.

• It is important to have the aeration equipment since tea that uses up oxygen too quickly will stink to high heavens and become anaerobic.  Keep in mind that anaerobic tea is counterproductive to plant growth.

Process of Making the Compost Tea

To start making the tea, you can follow these simple and easy steps;

• Connect the pump and the gang valve using the tubing. The tubing should go into the 3 ports of the gang valve with the bubblers at the other end.
• Place the bubblers into the bottom of the compost bucket and then fill it halfway with mature compost.
• Add in tap water, which has been aerated for an hour to remove any traces of chlorine, to about an inch or two of the bucket’s rim.
• Feed the resulting mixture with the organic unsulfured molasses and then stir.

You should vigorously stir the mixture a few times each day.  This will introduce oxygen to the mix as well as shake the mixture of as many harmful organisms as possible.  Also, you must reposition the bubblers at the bottom to ensure that these gadgets are still evenly positioned.

Your compost tea should be ready in 2-3 days.

• If it is, you have to strain it into another bucket using the old pillowcase and then use the tea immediately.

You will discover that all the efforts in making the compost tea are well worth it.

You should be able to feed your plants a more nutritious mix and ward off those pesky pests.

Garden Soil Notes for Gardener Wannabes

Soil Gardening Tips: Acidity or Alkalinity

Plants need a good soil to grow. If your plants do not thrive or grow robust and bear a bunch of blooms, there must be something wrong with the soil. The soil might be too acidic or lack acidity.

• To fix the problem, look up the type of soil for the flowering shrubs you want to grow.

To grow roses successfully, you need a soil mixture of 50% organic material consisting of compost or rotted manure or humus and 50% sand, silt and clay. These should be blended in proper proportions.

• To check if you are doing right, the soil should be loamy – it should not be too muddy when wet or to hard when dry. This type of soil, assures good drainage which is important to grow healthy fat roses.

If you are growing a variety of plant, use a soil testing kit to check your soil.

If your soil has a high level of alkaline, plant poppies, chamomile, rosemary, lavender, and fennel – and watch them grow healthily.

There is no end to what you can plant on both types of soils.

• It is a good thing that you can have both types of soil in a garden or have your potted plants filled with soil that would benefit your selected plants.

Garden Soil Remedies

If you go out and buy a new home soil test kit it can easily determine soil pH. If the soil pH is lower than neutral pH 7, your soil is acidic. A Compost Tumbler will produce soil that has a very low pH level balance and then produce soil that’s a very low pH level.

To decrease the acidity of your gardens soil, sprinkle dolomitic limestone; that would be about 3 to 10 lbs for every 10 sq. ft. of garden soil but more is needed for clay-like soil.

• Gather the ash from your fireplace and spread the same amount over the area to decrease soil acidity.

For too much alkaline in the soil, that is soil with higher pH beyond the 7 pH neutral, increase the pH by adding peat moss, aluminum sulfate and sulfur to the soil. A correct ratio would be 1.5 lbs for sulfur, 10 lbs for aluminum sulfate, and 5 lbs for peat moss for very 10 sq. ft. of soil.

• Wood ash, hydrated lime, coffee grounds, and gypsum are also great for treating alkaline soil. The stuff is available at garden supplies shops in the locality.

The right soil is the secret to beautiful gardens and healthy greens and flowers.

Whether you are an expert or a newbie in gardening, you will soon know this sooner or later.

Pile it On: Starting and Maintaining a Compost Pile

Using compost for your organic garden has many benefits!

First, it is a natural way to return minerals and nutrients back to the soil. It is inexpensive to make, saving you money on buying nutrients from outside sources, and it helps the environment, both by eliminating the need for synthetic fertilizers and by decreasing the amount of waste you will be sending to the landfill. Garden Composters really make a difference in helping our environment and human physical health maintenance.

What Do You Use to Build a Compost Pile?

Mainly a compost pile is made up of vegetation that is left to decay. Occasionally, there are a few other items that are added in such as fish waste.

• Never add meat or anything with a high fat content to your pile as it will slow the decaying process, can create an very unpleasant smell, and attract certain animals you may not want roaming near your home.

Some things that work great in compost piles are:
• Kitchen waste, lawn clippings, chopped leaves, shredded branches, shredded paper including newspaper, weeds, straw and hay, tea leaves, coffee grounds, and vegetable peelings and waste.

How Do You Build a Compost Pile?

You begin by placing a layer of your vegetation materials, grass cutting, leaves, etc. in your 3 foot square area. When your pile reaches 6 inches, you then cover it with a layer of soil or manure that is 3 to 6 inches thick. Then keep alternating the layers until your pile reaches about 3 feet high.

You want to make sure that your compost pile is in a semi shaded area because you don’t want it to get to dry. If it does get dry dampen it with a hose but be careful it also does not get to wet. Turning your compost pile regularly will help it to decompose faster. A regularly turned compost pile will take 4 to 8 months to decompose enough to use it in your garden.

How to Use the Compost

• You can either mix it right into the soil as you are turning it to begin planting, or you can spread the compost around the growing plants to add nutrients, either way the compost will help your plants to grow while retuning nutrients to the soil.

A compost pile may seem like a lot of work to a beginning gardener, and it does take work.

• However, when you think of all the health benefits you will reap from eating vegetables and herbs that contain no chemicals, as well as money you will save on not having to purchase fertilizers from outside sources you will agree that the work is well worth the benefits.

Create Soil Compost Gardens with these Organic Gardening Tips from Expert Gardeners

Those interested in developing a brilliant looking garden have probably weighed their options regarding adding compost to it. Compost can certainly improve the look of a garden to a great degree considering the fact that it can certainly provide scores of nutrients to the garden, it should be no surprise that it delivers many positive effects.

Some, however, may look at the packages of compost that is available in stores and wonder if it truly is of the highest quality level. They may even have concerns as to whether or not the price is fair. And some may even wonder if it is really worthwhile to purchase some type of Compost Equipment or if it can be made in the home.

• Well, you can definitely gain benefits from purchasing ready made compost but there really is nothing all that complex about purchasing it. Actually, it is fairy easy to make compost because you already have access to the ‘raw materials’ needed to produce it. Basically, if you have anything organic you wish to dispose of, you can turn it into compost.

Of course, you will need to designate an area in the yard to make your compost.

• In order for a compost pile to be effectively made, it needs to be in contact with the earth. While some may purchase a ready made bottomless compost basket, this is not necessary. You could always place a basket upside down over top of your compost pile. Again, the key is that it touches the earth because earthworms and other insects common to the ground will aid in creating the organic environment needed to develop effective amounts of compost.

For many, any excess that comes from cutting the grass can be a great way to start a compost pile or use composting accessories. So can adding leaves to the mix as well. Even simply raking up the yard and throwing whatever the rake collects can start of a compost pile quite nicely.

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Making Garden Compost Soil

The next step would be to regularly add any items from your dinner table that you commonly through out. Orange rinds, coffee grinds, discarded bones, and any food items can be placed in the pile. Over time, these items will slowly degrade into the compost mass that will be used to feed your garden.

• Some will even add paper products to compost piles. Old newspapers are a common addition to such piles. While this is not always a bad idea, it can take a LONG time for paper products to degrade into the compost. Then again, if you do have the time to spare, this should not be considered much of a problem.

It is critical that the compost is never dried out. Once it dries, it will cease to be of little value since all the organisms it in will wither and die. As such, you will need to add water to the compost pile at least once a week so that it remains damp.

Conclusion:

In about six months or more, your compost pile should be at the stage where it will be of benefit to the garden. Once it reaches this point, you can add it to the mix and watch your garden grow healthier.

Benefits of Compost Gardening: Harvesting Your Organic Fruits of Labor

Compost gardening involves the use of organic fertilizers made from food scraps, plant materials and paper, to name a few.  As a result, the crops harvested are often labeled as organic for as long as the use of commercial pesticides and fertilizers are kept at minimal levels, even completely eliminated.  Thus, you will discover that the benefits of compost gardening often centers on the enjoyment of its organic fruits.

Higher Nutrient Levels

Although many manufacturers of conventionally-grown foods contend that their products contain similar levels of nutrients against organically-grown produce, a growing number of studies have proven them otherwise.   For one thing, the organic fertilizers used in Compost Bin Gardens contain the essential nutrients needed by the plants – no more, no less.

Thus, the harvested plants contain just the right balance of vitamin and minerals albeit in higher ratio of concentrations.  Now, contrast that with commercial fertilizers where one is almost always not enough since one fertilizer does not contain all the nutrients necessary.

• For another thing, organic plants produce more antioxidants since they must rely on their own defenses to defeat pests and diseases.  Thus, you get more nutrients courtesy of higher levels of antioxidants.  Also, studies have shown that organic crops have 10-50 percent more phytonutrients than their conventional counterparts.

Organic is Better Tasting Produce!

Blind consumer studies have also shown that organic produce tastes better than the conventional food items.  In your own experience, you will also notice the difference and, hence, opt for the organic foods.

Indeed, the benefits of compost gardens are such that you get to eat healthier foods while making your body healthier through exercise. Now, that’s a double whammy, so to speak!

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Lesser Pesticide Residues & Chemicals in Foods

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Yet another claim by manufacturers of conventionally-grown foods is that the pesticide residues in their fresh produce are well within safety levels for human consumption.  However, food monitoring programs have consistently shown that a third of non-organic foods contain the residues of numerous pesticides whereas organic foods have significantly lower levels in comparison.  This is, of course, to be expected as there are almost no commercially-produced pesticides used with Composting Bins!  Natural means like horticultural oils are used instead.

Preliminary researches in pesticide residues have pointed to symptoms like headaches, tremor, and lack of energy, depression, anxiety, poor memory, convulsions, dermatitis, nausea, indigestion and diarrhea with the dietary consumption of pesticides.  These symptoms are especially disturbing in small children and in pregnant women and their fetuses.

It must be emphasized that the jury is still out on the effect of pesticides despite the preliminary studies about it.  However, it is always best to use caution, to give the benefit of the doubt where pesticide ingestion is concerned.  Avoid consuming non-organic foods as much as possible lest you become the poster case for the dangers of pesticide consumption.

The bottom line is that the benefits of compost gardening where its organic produce is concerned must be taken advantage of.  As we say, simple is better in agriculture and so it is with the foods we present to our families and friends.