The Judge for June, Annie Bond
Prize: OXO’s fabulous Kitchen Essentials kit
The Contest: The best tip for controlling pests in the garden (the all-natural way, of course!)
Celebrity Judge: Annie B. Bond
It always happens, just as things start to get rolling in the garden, some unwanted party guests show up. This month we want you tell us about your garden’s worst enemies and the creative way you’ve developed to handle them without turning to pesticides.
We’ve asked green living expert, Annie Bond, to help us choose the best tip this month. Annie is the author of four books and THOUSANDS of articles and has been called “the foremost expert on green living” and we’ll be featuring some of her own tips in the Garden Gate blog this month.
The winner this month will receive a wonderful set of kitchen tools from our friends at OXO…just in time for the first harvests from this year’s garden!
Nobody does it better than OXO
To enter the contest enter your best tip in the comments section below (then keep your fingers crossed)
22 Comments
Hi!
The best tip for keeping pests out of the garden is garlic. As a chemist who has studied the effects of garlic, they contain a defense mechanism that when bitten into releases there pungent aroma that while pleasing to us is very offensive to pests. I suggest planting bulbs scattered around your garden to prevent underground diggers such as moles, chipmunks, et cetera. For above ground critters make a solution of olive oil and several crushed cloves of garlic and heat gently until the oil is aromatic. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Strain the oil and fill an empty spray bottle with the oil solution and spray liberally around your pants and beds. Also tobacco plants, believe it or not is a great defense (and they look really nice too) when planted around the garden. Nictoine is a poison to the pests (and us!). Have a great day!
Hi,
I work on a small farm and we use pigs to prepare our garden plot. The pigs usually live in a 5 acre pasture, but before we plant the garden, we fence it in and move the pigs into it for a few weeks. During those weeks they turn up all the soil, eat all the weeds and roots, and poop everywhere. We just moved them out the other day, and now the garden is plant-ready, without having to hoe or till the soil.
I’m having a groundhog problem in my garden, so I’d love to hear tips for dealing with them.
My biggest issue is rabbits. Cute as they may be, they tend to enjoy the plants I love most. Fencing is ugly, and I’m not about to do anything inhumane.. so I give them something else to munch on.. borders made of lettuce. Throughout the season, I plant a variety of lettuces at the borders edge of my flower garden. They seem to never get further than the border for their feast! They hop off well fed, and I’m happy that there are no destroyed plants.
I love this question’s title, since my tip does refer to an issue we all face when we have garden parties: FLIES!
What I do is, several minutes before setting out any food or drink for guests, I make several small plates for the flies and place them as far as possible AWAY from where anyone might sit to enjoy their own food and drink. It really works!
I have found that sowing a row of “trap” crops helps. These will attract bugs away from your favorite veggies – you can then paint sticks yellow and put on a sticky trap that the bugs will stick to if you want to kill the pests but this also attracts the “good” insects so I only use the sticky trap when the infestions is overwhelming. This year I put in a radish row to attract pests away from other crops – however it seems the flea beetles much prefer the taste of the arugula over the radishes so in the future I many surround the garden in arugula!
We’ve had a bunny problem too. Eating all the veggies and even the flowers as we are very close to a wooded area. I sprinkled black pepper around my plants & it helped alot. You just have to remember to reapply after the rain. I also planted garlic right next to my raspberries with hopes to deter the Japanese beetles. If that doesn’t work, I will have to hand pick them off as they ate everything off my raspberry bushes.
Slugs are a big problem for me. They will strip a Cosmo plant in a night. To deter slugs, set a saucer with a small amout of beer next to the plants out overnight. In the morning, remove the slugs.
Keep chilren and pets away from the beer saucers.
While in the garden a couple of days ago,digging out some nasty thistles that had decided to occupy the same space as the purple irises I planted last year I heard a rustle coming from the other side of the fence.Thinking it my cat Gilbert I began speaking in a gentle voice to her .Looking up from my work I realized that my cat didn’t have a black and white face like the one that was staring back at me. I froze as the cute little character stood alertly with her tail poised for a blast.
Keeping my cool I continued to talk in low key and politely asked my uninvited guest to move on. She promptly did an about face and waddled off through the tall grass.
My furry little friend hung out for a few days grubbing about for treats on the lawn despite Gilberts curiosity. So needless to say let nature take its course especially if you’re trying to maintain an unmanageable amount of space for one person.I welcome anyone who passes by to enjoy our green space and I also appreciate any help that comes our way.
Kelly Beaulieu
Davana Farm
Welland, ON
I spread coffee grounds liberally under and around my hostas to deter slugs, and my small flock of chickens help with the bugs.
For quite a while I have known that if you get a flea infestation in your home, you can strategically station small lamps on the floor and put a bowl of water with dish detergent in it under the lamp. The light draws the fleas to it. They jump up and end in the bowl of detergent water coating themselves and are unable to get out. If you have a bad infestation, you’ll catch hundreds! I have also been told small bowls of Liquid Joy in water placed around the yard will accomplish the same thing with mosquitos. They end up in the bowl and can’t get out. Also spray some Listerene around your door facings to keep the mosquitos away. Hope this helps someone!
Plant basil with your tomatoes and you will have a natural pest control and the best tasting tomatoes you will ever have and a wonderful herb for your kitchen to accompany all your tomatoes dishes. Have a fantastic garden attended with Love and Blessings Nicole.
The best trick is to put out a little dish of beer to attract the slugs so that they don’t eat up all of your basil! They’ll be more drawn to the beer than your leaves.
Happy gardening everyone!
- Bryn
Another trick for soft body critters is clean finely crushed egg shells – similar to diatamacious earth – it will deter slugs as it can tear their bodies and they attempt to crawl over them. This also helps put calcium into the soil as the egg shells break down.
This Alcohol Oil Spray mix from household natural ingrediants is lethal to many insects.
1 cup alcohol
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 quart water
Mix ingredients together and place in spray bottle. Spray on infested plants as necessary.
Tara, what kind of alcohol do you use? Rubbing alcohol or beverage alcohol (vodka)?
Hi, Jeffrey
While both would probably work, rubbing alcohol will be a much more cost-effective option
Rather than spray anything (even “safe” or organic) on my plants, I either hand pick or use row cover. It’s a woven product that looks like interfacing (for you seamstresses out there…)Water and air pass through, but no pests! I planted broccoli seedlings and draped the row cover over them, leaving folds of the material at the edges before placing 2×4′s around the edge. The plants are able to push the fabric up since it’s very lightweight and we had the best, “no-aphid” broccoli ever! Also works for cabbage (keeps cabbage moths off) and squash (just open the ends for part of the day to allow bees and other pollinators in, or use a small paintbrush to pollinate blossoms yourself) Keep the edges sealed with the 2×4′s and no bugs can crawl or fly in!
When watering your plants, use any amount of water and put in some liquid dertergent( make it sudsy)and a little cooking oil, mix well and water your plants
“If chocolate covered ants are a delicacy, why not honey ants?”
Have an ANT issue? Find the entry site for the ants and place a small plastic lid from a yogurt container, etc. filled with honey. The ants are naturally drawn to the honey–they crawl in and can’t crawl out! How you serve them from there is up to you.
Thanks for sharing the tip, Deile! Hmm, honey-covered ants…maybe that will be the next product from Beekman 1802
It is always amusing to hear all the great many ways folks have developed in controlling pests and diseases in the home and garden. Many of which I am sure will work. I started developing many ways to control pests and diseases in the 5th grade and by the 9th grade had over 150 customers. Thru out the years I have been teaching the basics of natural pest and disease control and always tell folks that there are many things that you can use which are available in your grocery store (organic of course) but I also tell folks that even if you just walked into any store and use the products off the shelf, you would still be reducing the use of dangerous chemicals.
So here is a a simple rule that will go a long way..
Learn the law of cause and effect. The bugs/diseases are actually the effect and not the true cause. Eliminate the cause and you eliminate its effects.
what does that mean? Concentrate of the health of the plant/soil and you will go a long way in controlling pests/diseases.
BTW natural ant control is really not hard once you understand the law of cause and effect. Ant problems are just the effect, ants are not a problem nor are they evil. They have a right to be here too.
Japanese beetles anyone? They were absolutely vicious on my raspberries and roses last year. This year when my boys and I (slave labour is always a blessing when it comes to unruly boys) first noticed the beetles, I sent them on a mission to spray the bushes with soapy water. They left the soapy water buckets in they raspberry patch and placed the beetles they removed from the plants in the buckets. It sent a very strong warning sign to future beetles adn kept them away. You MUST catch the infestation early or there is no hope of defeating them.