mdolla: Organic Solutions To Control Pests in the Garden

Controlling pests in the garden with organic solutions is a safer option than opting to purchase those chemically laced products that are sold in supermarkets. Of course, there will always be some pests in the garden with either option you opt to utilize, but that’s fine because at the end of the day you need the good guys to have something to eat.

Keep in mind, though, there are those pests that are very lethal to human health, thus they need to be dealt with immediately. They carry out adverse effects to humans such as skin irritations and blisters. Some other insect pests, such as blacklegged ticks, carry Lyme disease that can take months or years to completely recover from, just like one blogger who went to Sierra Integrative Medical Center last 2014.

What Types of Plants Should You Opt For?

To control pests, the first step to undertake takes place in the winter when you are planning your garden for the approaching year. Which plants are you planning to grow to keep your garden healthy? Plants fall into two categories:

Plants that repel the pests
Plants that attract beneficial insects

Any plant with blue flowers will attract wasps and bees. Contrary to popular belief, wasps are not that bad. Most kinds of wasps are predatory. The things that they end up eating will eat your crops. Growing marigolds and calendula around your vegetable plot can be useful, too. The orange flowers of these plants attract bees almost as well as the lavender which has the benefit of repelling snails and slugs away from your garden. Your vegetable plot doesn’t have to be ugly. Yes, you can plant colorful flowers near your vegetables.

Near your precious crops, you can opt to grow catch crops. If you plant something that pests prefer more than vegetables, they will more than likely be persuaded to go there.

Garlic is hated by aphids, snails, slugs, and carrot flies; therefore, it is often suggested that you grow it amongst your roses and outside of the vegetable garden. The big plus of garlic is that you can attain a crop from it. Nothing seems to eat chard (silver beet). Plants like this one are resistant to infestation.

Mulching

Mulching has a handful of benefits. It conserves water, adds organic material to the soil, and keeps the weeds down. There are some mulches that can keep the pests away.

When it comes to strawberries, pine needles are a great fertilizer, as snails and slugs hate walking on it just as much as they hate eggshells. There are some gardeners who opt to cover the paths between their plots with a couple of pine needles. This seems to stop the snails sprinting on patches.

For citrus, coffee grounds make an ideal fertilizer. They are very good for your leafy plants, as they are very high in nitrogen. Coffee grounds are toxic to snails and slugs.

Homemade Sprays to Control Garden Pests

1. Garlic

Place a whole clove of garlic into a pot that contains hot water. After performing that step, leave it overnight or longer if you can. The final step is to place the liquid into a sprayer so that you can begin spraying it over your plants. You can also opt to mix a bit of washing detergent in the mixture in order to improve this spray’s sticking power.

2. Milk

When your milk bottle has a little bit of milk left in it, don’t throw it out. Mix it with five times the volume of water and then spray it over the plants in your garden that are infested with aphids. You can also opt to mix a bit of washing detergent in the mixture in order to improve this spray’s sticking power.

3. Seaweed

Seaweed is a great way to control pets. Get some seaweed from the beach, and soak it in a bucket of water for a week. Pour the water out and dilute to about the color of weak tea. Utilize it as spray for your plants to witness less infestation on them.

It is important to not let pests have somewhere to hide in your garden. Hence, it is important to keep your garden as tidy as possible. When you find bugs in your garden, place them in salt water or crush them. If you are squeamish, wear gloves and then integrate their remains to the compost pile. It is only fair, since they have taken something from your garden.

The post Organic Solutions To Control Pests in the Garden appeared first on Lifehack.