Organic Gardening Tips to Reduce Pests
Every time you plant, rearrange the garden so that the same plants don't end up in the same places season after season. When a plant is in the same place all the time, the predators to that plant, including diseases, fungi, and pests, know where to be and will be there waiting for the plant come planting season. If you rotate the location of your plants, or which types of plants you plant each year, you can help reduce the amount of these dangerous elements and give your plants a better chance at avoiding them.
Lay out your garden to take advantage of natural pest aversion. Bugs usually have a favorite plant to feast on, and other plants that they find repulsive. If you lay out your garden so that the natural predators to your plants will want to stay away, you can save your plants from being eaten. Bug-repelling plants are often perfectly tasty to humans, so you'll also be getting some interesting edibles out of the deal. There are lists of plants that repel each type of common pests, so figure out which plants can best help your garden. If your pests include the larger, four-legged variety, there are also plants that repel these mammalian critters.
Let your livestock help keep pests to a minimum. Chickens love to eat the bugs that feast on your garden plants. Adding a couple of chickens to your household not only helps reduce plant-eating pests, their droppings are also rich in minerals and make great fertilizer and compost additive. Well-tended chickens also produce high quality eggs, which you can enjoy as well. Not all neighborhoods allow you to keep chickens, though many cities are relaxing restrictions on these birds in residential areas. Check the city codes to see if you're allowed to keep chickens before you buy some, of course.
Pests and disease are big problems for organic gardeners. While these things are easy to kill with chemicals, they are harder to prevent with only organic solutions. An organic gardener must come to terms with the fact that some of their garden will succumb to pests before it can be harvested. That said, the percentage should be small and manageable. Here are some ways to help you cut down on the pests while still keeping your garden chemical free.
Introducing natural predators to your garden's biggest insect problems is a good way to combat this. You can get these good bugs into your garden in several ways. You can purchase lady bugs, for example, at gardening stores and introduce them into the garden yourself. You can also attempt to lure these good bugs in by planting flowers that they like. The right plant depends on the type of bug you want so check to see which plants are your desired predator's favorites.
Every time you plant, rearrange the garden so that the same plants don't end up in the same places season after season. When a plant is in the same place all the time, the predators to that plant, including diseases, fungi, and pests, know where to be and will be there waiting for the plant come planting season. If you rotate the location of your plants, or which types of plants you plant each year, you can help reduce the amount of these dangerous elements and give your plants a better chance at avoiding them.
Lay out your garden to take advantage of natural pest aversion. Bugs usually have a favorite plant to feast on, and other plants that they find repulsive. If you lay out your garden so that the natural predators to your plants will want to stay away, you can save your plants from being eaten. Bug-repelling plants are often perfectly tasty to humans, so you'll also be getting some interesting edibles out of the deal. There are lists of plants that repel each type of common pests, so figure out which plants can best help your garden. If your pests include the larger, four-legged variety, there are also plants that repel these mammalian critters.
Let your livestock help keep pests to a minimum. Chickens love to eat the bugs that feast on your garden plants. Adding a couple of chickens to your household not only helps reduce plant-eating pests, their droppings are also rich in minerals and make great fertilizer and compost additive. Well-tended chickens also produce high quality eggs, which you can enjoy as well. Not all neighborhoods allow you to keep chickens, though many cities are relaxing restrictions on these birds in residential areas. Check the city codes to see if you're allowed to keep chickens before you buy some, of course.
Pests and disease are big problems for organic gardeners. While these things are easy to kill with chemicals, they are harder to prevent with only organic solutions. An organic gardener must come to terms with the fact that some of their garden will succumb to pests before it can be harvested. That said, the percentage should be small and manageable. Here are some ways to help you cut down on the pests while still keeping your garden chemical free.
Introducing natural predators to your garden's biggest insect problems is a good way to combat this. You can get these good bugs into your garden in several ways. You can purchase lady bugs, for example, at gardening stores and introduce them into the garden yourself. You can also attempt to lure these good bugs in by planting flowers that they like. The right plant depends on the type of bug you want so check to see which plants are your desired predator's favorites.
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