IN THIS POST
– Pull Out Weak Plants
– Keep Your Soil Healthy
– Install Physical Barriers
– Remove Weed and Debris
– Crop Rotation
– Companion Planting
– Diversify Your Garden
– Water in the Morning
– Attract Birds to Your Garden
– Use Organic Pesticides
In most cases, tending a garden can be more difficult than starting one. Imagine spending hours every day sowing seeds, watering the plants, pulling out weeds and making sure your plants are receiving the required amount of sunlight only for them to be damaged by insects. Though getting rid of these pesky bugs may seem impossible, there are quite a few low-effort ways to stop them from ruining your trees, plants and flowerbeds. To help you keep your fruit shrubs and vegetable patches fresh and healthy, we’ve put together some simple yet efficient tips for pest control in your garden.
Since prevention is better than cure, we will start off with how to prevent pests in the vegetable garden before discussing homemade pesticides that will remove all of the unwanted insects that are eating the leaves and attacking the roots of your precious plants.
Pull Out Weak Plants
As you may have already heard, a healthy garden is the best defence against common pests. Since both new and seasoned gardeners face this problem every once in a while, the best way to prevent garden pests is to get rid of unhealthy plants.
Unhealthy plants with wilting leaves and discoloured stems can be an ideal target for their predators and attract all sorts of common pests, including caterpillars, snails, slugs, beetles, locusts, whiteflies, mealybugs and more.
There is also a good chance that such plants may already be infected. If you want to nip the problem in the bud, you should don a pair of gloves and pull out any and all weak plants for pest control in your garden.
Keep Your Soil Healthy
Want to grow plants that are strong, vigorous and less likely to get infested? If so, you need to pay special attention to the soil in your garden. You can try natural composting methods or top-dress the soil with natural fertilizer to ensure your vegetable patches, fruit trees and flowerbeds remain healthy.
There are different types of mulches you can spread over the soil to retain its moisture, improve composition and protect it against the harsh sunlight. Some of the most popular options include compost, shredded leaves, tea barks, grass clipping and wood shavings. You can even use shredded newspaper to mulch your garden.
Healthy soil can play a huge part in preventing and controlling garden pests.
Install Physical Barriers
Putting up physical barriers is one of the best ways to ensure pest control in your garden.
Although this may not work for full-grown trees, you can still protect the smaller plants by employing barriers that would stop the pests from destroying them without compromising their exposure to the sun. The easiest way to go about this is to purchase fine net and position it over your plants using wooden sticks. Just make sure you leave enough space for them to grow.
Next, take a piece of cardboard and cut into long, three-inch-wide strips. Encircle these strips around the stem of the plants and press them about two-inch deep into the soil to stop burrowing insects from reaching your plants.
Remove Weed and Debris
Pulling out weeds and getting rid of debris is among the basic rules of gardening as well as one of the most organic ways to control garden pest.
If you want to set up an organic garden of your own, start by getting rid of all the things that can serve as the breeding ground for ants, mosquitoes, different types of bugs and other pests. Since hygiene is the most requirement of organic gardening, you must ensure the area around your vegetable patches, fruit trees and fruit vines is free of fallen leaves, decaying fruits, old twigs and rotting mulch. To put it simply, the area around your plants should be free of all kinds of debris that might provide pests with a place to hide and multiply.
Similarly, if there are no weeds in your garden for pests to hide in, there is a high chance of hungry birds attacking and gobbling them up before they can make their way to your plants. All you need to do is buy some basic weeding tools and you’ll be good to go.
For more information, take a look at our guide on the best tools for home gardening.
Crop Rotation
Perhaps the most popular (and effective) way to ensure pest control in your garden is to rotate the crops every year to improve the health of the soil, increase its fertility, increase the nutrients, reduce erosion, and most importantly, get rid of plant-specific pests.
Since a lot of pests only attack certain plants, rotating your crops is one of the best ways to get rid of pests in your garden and avoid re-infestation. If you plant different types of vegetables or fruit shrubs in different parts of your garden, the chances of pests reappearing in the spring after spending their winter burrowed underground would be fairly low.
Companion Planting
After crop rotation, companion planting is probably one of the most widely-used ways to control pests. It is a practice of sowing plants that acts as a natural insect repellent for gardens next to a crop that attracts pests. This way, insects keep away from your plants, leaving them to grow green and healthy. For example, basil and tomato plants grow up well next to each other.
Some of the most popular plants for pest control in the garden include garlic, lavender, marigold, and rosemary. Meanwhile, basil and lemongrass are the excellent mosquito repellents for gardens. In fact, citronella oil found in lemongrass plants is used to produce commercial as well as homemade bug sprays for gardens.
Diversify Your Garden
For natural pest control in your garden, consider mixing up the plants to prevent the insects from spreading throughout the crop.
When it comes to controlling garden pests, diversifying your fruit shrubs and the vegetable patch can be a great idea. Also known as inter-planting, this practice is slightly different from companion planting, since different plants are not planted next to each other based on their insect-repellent properties.
The main benefit of planting different types of plants next to each other is that it confuses the pests. For example, instead of planting tomatoes in a single row, mix up your vegetable garden by planting basil, peppers and other plants together. As mentioned above, most pests are plant-specific. Therefore, planting different types of vegetables and fruits besides each other will make it difficult for such insects in the garden to hone on their food source.
Water Plants in the Morning
For natural pest control, the best time to water your plants is in the morning. This is because wet soil and plants attract pests as well as fungal infections. Ultimately, these two things can weaken your plants beyond repair.
Watering the plants early in the morning will ensure the foliage would be dry before noon, keeping pesky insects and other bugs from damaging your crops.
This is one of the easiest ways to control pests in your garden.
Attract Birds to Your Garden
Did you know that birds can be a gardener’s best friends? While these winged creatures can make it difficult for you to maintain your fruit trees, they are extremely good at finding and eating insects and bugs hiding in your garden.
Some of the most effective ways to attract birds to your garden include installing bird feeders, putting out small bowls of water, and providing them with shelter. Apart from taking care of your pest problem, colourful birds can also be a great addition to the aesthetics of your garden.
Use Organic Pesticides
Whether you are struggling with the onslaught of white ants in the garden or want to get rid of the mosquitoes that have made it their home, here are some budget-friendly ways to prepare homemade bug sprays for the garden.
- Spraying a mixture of vegetable oil mixed and mild soap on your plants can help save your garden
- Mix mild liquid soap with water and use the solution as the natural insect repellent for garden
- A mixture of neem oil and mild soap can also serve as organic pest control for garden vegetables
To conclude, if you want to get rid of pests in your garden, you will have to be vigilant and take all the possible measures to prevent an infestation.
Meanwhile, if you are interested in gardening, our guides on colourful outdoor plants and the best trees to grow at home might help you out.
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