Your home garden has many predators. Insects, animals, fungi, and diseases are lurking, ready to destroy your crop.
Pests can eat your plants, spread disease, and prevent proper growth, The exact types of pests you need to worry about depends on where you live.
Protect your precious plants! There are simple and natural garden pest control methods that can help you get the most out of your crop.
Read on to see how you can avoid dangerous common garden pests from ruining your plants!
1. Soap Spray
A popular way to get rid of garden pests is to use an all-natural horticultural soap spray!
This organic insecticide spray will suffocate bugs on impact, but won’t harm animals, birds, or children!
Soap spray helps eliminate many tiny predators of plants such as mealybugs and aphids. It will even wash away and kill eggs and mites. Bonus, it will even wash away fungi.
The spray can be easily homemade or purchased ready to go.
To make it at home, mix one cup of oil with one tablespoon of pure dishwashing liquid. You should combine two teaspoons of this mix for every one cup of water. Put this in a spray bottle and give your flower or vegetable garden a good spray down every week.
2. Ash
If you have a fireplace or woodstove, that ash can actually be used in your garden. Ash contains nutrients like magnesium and potassium that support plant growth. The salt in the ash is able to kill soft-bodied bugs like slugs.
3. Smelly Deterrents
Strong smelling herbs and spices can help deter small animals from nibbling on your growing plants. It can also help ward away unwanted bugs.
Surround a new seedling with a potent plant like a lemon balm herb. This will give it a fighting chance to grow into an adult plant that can survive a few bites.
You can also sprinkle cayenne pepper around your garden. This has to be done often because of rain and wind. It can be a bit caustic to leaves and plants in high quantities, so be careful to not add too much.
Another approach is garlic water. Soak several garlic cloves in a gallon of water overnight and transfer the potent water into a spray bottle. Spray like you would the soap spray.
4. Physical Barrier
If possible, physical barriers should be used to help deter common flower and vegetable garden pests.
Fences are a cheap way to create an obstacle for pests. Look for a fence with smaller than 1/4 inch slots that’ll stop some of the tinier animals from infiltrating. If your pests are of the slithering variety, specialty products like a rattlesnake fence are your best bet.
Other physical organic garden pest control methods include flypaper, floating row covers, and collars.
5. Other Animals
It may seem a bit contradictory, but one way to remove pests is to introduce “good” animals and bugs.
These “good” creatures help fend off pests by eating them or creating an unideal environment for the garden pests.
Ducks and chickens are popular choices for bug control. You could also put a bird feeder nearby to entice birds to nibble on the bugs. Soldier beetles, lacewings, and ladybugs are three “good” bugs that you can attract to your garden by planting things like leafy greens and rosemary.
All Natural Garden Pest Control
If you want to grow beautiful and healthy plants, you must try these easy garden pest control techniques. Don’t stop at just one, give all of these methods a go.
Your home garden never looked so good!
Looking for some more inspiration? Check out the rest of our articles!
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