Gardening Products

Eco-Friendly Gardening Products

The best eco-friendly gardening products are organic ones. Luckily, organic products are far and wide, mainly because as organic products are used, they keep producing more organic products. For instance, as organic seeds are sown, more seeds drop from the plants as they grow older. There are three important parts to eco-friendly gardening: eco-friendly seeds, eco-friendly fertilizer, and eco-friendly compost.

Eco- friendly seeds are bred to grow well under organic conditions or the carefully cultivated organic garden that you prepare for them. The resulting plants have high disease resistance and pest resistance, high nutritional content, higher yield, and grow vigorously. Buying organic seeds also supports organic farming. This is especially positive for those who are interested in bettering the environment. Organic seeds are grown on organic farms by farmers committed to the organic process. Organic farming is a large part of the development of healthier, solid, and stronger plant stock.

Organic and inorganic fertilizers are referred to as manure, which comes from the French expression manual (of or belonging to the hand). This term is now restricted to organic manure. It is believed that organic agriculture methods are more environmentally friendly and better maintain soil organic matter levels. Many studies support this position. Eco-friendly fertilizer is derived from animal and vegetable matter. Naturally occurring organic fertilizers also include manure, slurry, worm castings, peat, seaweed, sewage and guano. Green manure crops are also grown to add nutrients to soil. Natural minerals are also used as organic fertilizers. Manufactured organic fertilizers include compost, blood meal, bone meal, and seaweed extracts. Fish meal and feather meal are also used. Decomposing crop residue from previous crops is also used as a source of nutrients.

Eco-Friendly compost comes from the intentional biodegradation of organic matter. This includes yard and food waste. Biodegradable material is capable of being completely broken down with the action of microorganisms into carbon dioxide, water, and biomass. Some materials take a very long time to break down. Many contaminating materials not dealt with in common composting are still in fact biodegradable. Material for compost will degrade substantially under the right conditions. Instead of being broken down through macro-organisms (as in biodegrading), it is metabolized by microorganisms. This means that the organisms can be converted into humus. The size of the material is a large factor when deciding whether or not the material is capable of becoming compost. Mechanical particle size reduction can speed up the process. Large pieces of hardwood may not be compostable under a specific set of composting conditions, although sawdust of the same type of wood may be. Some biodegradable materials are only compostable under very specific conditions, usually with an industrial process.