Ways To Deter Weeds And Insects, Any Ideas?
I’m thinking of doing a no till bed veggie garden in Oklahoma with sandy/clay soil.
I’m going to be making a compost pile and doing everything organic. . . so if I cant use bug spray or weed killer how do I rid my garden of it’s unwanted guest?
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When bugs first appear in the garden as plants are growing, we typically resort to some chemical to evict the pests. With some advance planning of your garden, you may be able to prevent them from showing up in the first place. The answer? Flowers!
Certain flowers give off a fragrance that repels bad bugs, while other flowers emit a fragrance that lures the good bugs.
Annuals
Both marigolds and nasturtium can handle a slew of buggy challenges. They thwart bugs that can harm your tomatoes, potatoes and strawberries including tomato hornworms, squash bugs, and whiteflies.
The fragrance of marigolds (more like odor because it is not a pleasant smell) is so strong, that if you plant marigolds around the perimeter of your garden, the mature plants will help deter rabbits and squirrels.
Perennials
Lavender is a wonderfully fragrant flower that can be cost prohibitive to show its true value. Lavender has the potential of keeping mice and ticks away, but you’d need a lot of the plants to create a lavender-fence so to speak. One of the best things about growing lavender is that you can use the highly fragrant buds to create sachet packets.
To attract ladybugs and lacewings, plant yarrow. Golden Marguerite (think yellow daisy) also brings in ladybugs and lacewings.
I’ve found that Preen is very effective at preventing weeds and does not put chemicals into your soil. It is granular and you sprinkle it onto the soil and it does not kill plants, but prevents them from sprouting through the surface of the soil.
Therefore you can sprinkle it immediately around any plant that has already sprouted and it will not affect it at all.
Moreover, you can plant already vegetables, etc. that you have bought or started yourself in sprinkled soil and they do fine.
I find that it continues to prevent sprouting for virtually a full growing season for me.
Much easier than chemicals or hoeing.
There are many many ways to deter weeds and garden pests, please try organic methods first. A great weed deterrent is to lay wet newspapers several layers down unfolded and just cut or tear holes where you wish to plant, then just put in you seeds or plants and lay on soil. The paper will very slowly decompose and in the mean time few weeds will grow since they are not receiving sunlight. I have found this works better than any other type of plastic which tears…
As for insects it would depend on the type pest, praying mantis egg sacks and ladybugs are great for removing aphids and other common bugs. A mixture of mild dish soap and water sprayed on plants helps stop many other bugs. You can purchase a ready made mixture from several places.
One of the best catalog and on line sources for so many of the garden needs you have is “Garden Supply Company.” I have been using them for years and years. I have never been let down yet.
I hope this helps.
For weeds, you’re better off trying to prevent them in the first place. My advice here is mulch, mulch, mulch. Keep the soil dark and weed seeds won’t germinate. If any blow in, you can just twitch the little sprouts out and stick them under the mulch, where they will rot. Mulch also conserves water.
For bugs, look into making a spray with soap and garlic. Some people advocate running some bugs through the blender with some water and mixing that into the spray on the theory that bugs won’t go where they can smell dead bugs, but I’m none too sure about that. Pyrethrum and BT (bacillus thuringensis – a disease that infects caterpillars and some other insects) are acceptable organic insecticides. Use trap crops to lure bugs away from your gardens, and deterrent plants (like marigolds) interspersed with your food plants. You can also look into pheromone traps for things like Japanese beetles, beer traps for slugs, and I hope you’re not squeamish because one of the best ways to control bugs is to carefully check your plants and pick bugs and things right off them, dropping them into a pail of soapy water (which you then dump on your compost heap – you are going to have a compost heap, right?).
You are chock full of questions, I already answered the pest in my last post, well the good ole hoe is a good weed inhibitor, so is corn gluten meal, after your plants are up, and later it turns into plant food.