WORK WITH MOTHER NATURE Enjoy an easy green spring with these organic gardening tips

1 Keep your soil healthy

Healthy soil creates healthy plants. Healthy plants resist pests and diseases. As you spend less time treating pests and diseases, you spend more time enjoying your garden.

Plant ground covers such as colorful sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritima) in sunny gardens or Lamium in shady gardens, or hostas under trees to keep weeds from sprouting. Ground covers also cool the roots of surrounding plants, acting as a living mulch.

2 Choose the right plant for the right place

If a plant grows well in full sun, plant it in full sun. If a plant grows well in full shade, plant it in full shade. A plant that grows in the right place is more likely to resist pests and diseases. Besides light requirements, consider moisture conditions and soil type such as clay.

Native plants are good choices because they thrive in their native climate and resist pests and diseases. Pretty purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) blooms from June through the end of the summer. The purple poppy mallow (Callirhoe involucrata) is a drought-tolerant native that produces dozens of majestic magenta flowers from June until frost. It spreads nicely as a ground cover.

3 Use organic fertilizer

Organic fertilizers such as bone meal and composted manures are safe for people, pets and water, and better for the environment. They build healthy soil and healthy plants. Both local nurseries and online companies carry organic fertilizers.

4 Mulch

Use mulch to cover your soil around plants to control weeds, conserve soil moisture, moderate soil temperature and reduce soil compaction. Organic mulches such as pine bark, wood chips, cedar and pine needles are available.

5 Recycle

Reuse and recycle garden products, such as containers and saucers. Rogue Hoe is a company that makes garden tools out of recycled high-grade tempered steel agricultural disk blades.

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More green tips

MAGAZINES

Organic Gardening (www.organicgardening.com/) is packed with ideas.

BOOKS

Rodale Press (www.rodale.com) publishes many organic gardening books, such as "Annuals for Every Purpose" and "Perennials for Every Purpose," that will help you choose the right plants for your conditions, your garden and your taste. Other books include "Rodale's All-New Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening" and "Rodale Book of Composting."