Companion planting is an easy-to-use method that can help plants grow larger and healthier. It's extremely popular in organic gardening, since you don't need to buy or use any chemicals on your plants to reap the benefits. But even if you don't practice organic gardening, you can still use the same methods to get happier plants and larger crops.
The idea of companion planting is extremely simple. Certain combinations of plants, when planted next to each other, will improve the growth of one or both of the plants. This can be due to the effect one of the plants has on the soil, by attracting beneficial insects to the area (for example, attracting pollinators like bees), or even by repelling pests.
There are many plant combinations that work well together. One combination that dates back many centuries (it was originally used by Native Americans) is known by the nickname of "The Three Sisters". This involves planting corn, beans and squash together in the same area. The corn provides a structure for the beans to grow up. The beans fix nitrogen in the soil, which helps the corn and squash grow. The squash performs triple duty – it provides a ground cover that restricts the growth of weeds, it helps keep moisture in the soil by acting as a living mulch, and the prickly hairs of it's vines deter pests.
But just as some plants benefit from being planted next to each other, others hate being next to each other. Planting them together can make one or both of the plants grow much slower, and potentially reduce their yield. For example tomatoes hate growing near potatoes or corn. Strangely enough, this hatred doesn't always go both ways. While corn also hates growing next to tomatoes, potatoes don't care if they are planted next to either vegetable (and in fact like being near corn).
Companion planting is an extremely simple idea that improves growth in your plants, but requires no extra work after planting your crops. Why don't you try it the next time you plant out your garden?
We all know how stress wreaks havoc to our overall health. Aside from the more obvious fact that stress takes out joy and serenity in our lives, it is also the root of many illnesses known to man. The negative effects of stress in our lives can and will bring several problems such as: heart diseases, depression, migraine, eating disorders and many others. Having your own garden in the backyard is an easy and highly accessible method of stress relief. Since a vegetable garden is fairly easier to look after than one with ornamental plants, you know that working on your garden does not simply create additional stresses.
The weekends are perfect to unwind and make up for stressful hours during a week-long of taxing hours spent at the workplace. Different people have different ways of getting rid of stress. Imagine if you have a vegetable garden in your backyard; just don your gardening attire, step out and you can immediately get in touch with nature and put behind you the stresses of life. Now compare that to a weekend at the beach. Just the long hours of travel, heavy traffic, and the additional expenses for gas and accommodation will only add to your already stressful life.
Relishing the sunlight
Getting enough sunlight while tending your vegetable garden alone will already significantly improve your mood. It's also a great and productive way to have enough vitamin D, which is necessary for proper absorption of calcium in your body. Try to picture some of the happiest moments of your childhood; it is without a doubt that most of them were spent under the nourishing radiance of the sun.
Hours spent at the office means exposure to unnatural light. Not that it is bad to be exposed to light coming from incandescent bulbs, but the lack of being exposed to natural light of the sun is. For sure those skyscrapers are blocking out the sunlight from directly hitting your skin even as you walk to work in the morning.
Attending to the needs of your vegetable garden in the backyard is a great opportunity to get enough sunlight. However, it is best if you forego gardening from 11 am to 3 pm as the sun within this timeframe is most likely to cause you irreversible skin damage and cancer.
Surrounded with life
Being surrounded with plants alone is both invigorating and encouraging. Days and days spent indoors and at the workplace prevent us from getting in touch with nature, thus we tend to have limited means to appreciate everything that's grand and beautiful in life. Picture yourself being surrounded with plants that teem with life and growth, and their edible parts improve the appetite and nourish the body with essential vitamins and minerals.
Having your on little piece of nature can help you get rid of stress. The sight of your vegetable garden alone gets rid of stress by giving you that rewarding feeling, knowing you raised those healthy plants with your own hands. Raking, digging, weeding, pruning and harvesting ? all these activities done while planting vegetable gardens provide a constructive outlet for all the tensions that the body amassed during a week of stressful work.
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