Ecological Gardening

Table Of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction


1: SOIL: The Real Dirt
Earthworms
Know your soil
Feed the soil
Soil amending
Solving soil problems
Buying topsoil
Soil testing

2: COMPOSTING: Garden Gold
Location
How to get started
Stuff for the compost pile
Layering the compost pile
How to layer
Hot rot
Compost and chemicals
Earthworm tea
Cold weather composting
Composting pet waste
Compost problems

3: MULCHING AND FERTILIZING: To Feed and Protect
Why mulch?
How to mulch
What to use as mulch
Fertilizing
The organics

4: BUGS: The Good, the Bad and the Merely Ugly
Ecological pesticides
Politically correct supplies
Non-commercial alternatives
A garden for beneficials
Good bugs
Bad bugs
Mammal pests

5: DISEASES AND DEFICIENCIES
Preventative gardening
Deficiencies
Specific diseases

6: WEEDS: Friends or Foes?
Beneficial weeds
Nasty weeds
Weed indicators

7: PLANTING: Companions for Life
Companion planting
Protective botanicals
Planting strategies
Chart your companions

8: WATER AND THE GARDEN
Watering and your soil
How to water
Planting
Grey water
Lawns
Ground cover alternatives to the lawn
Xeriscaping: twenty-first century gardening
Frost chart

9: OLD WIVES’ LORE: THE GETTING OF WISDOM
Planting cycles
Weather

10: STYLES OF GARDENING
The natural garden
Gardening where it’s dry
Gardening where it’s wet
Gardening where it’s cold
Self-sowing gardens
Endangered bulbs
Planting by indicators
Native plants for the garden

11: FINALE


APPENDIX

Organic amending
Bibliography
Index