Pests can harm your garden, but there are natural solutions available. A new piece of property, fertile soil, and lots of sun and water is all you should need for a successful vegetable garden. However, there are the invasions that you probably didn’t consider.
例如,蓝鸟会毫不留情地啄你的西红柿,花栗鼠会在花园下面挖洞,啃掉你的西葫芦。
Likewise, there are the deer and rabbits that always find a way to enjoy your luscious green lettuce. If that’s not enough, the soil you have laboriously cultured and toiled may suddenly become the enemy and strangle your plants roots.
Along with the bigger animals, there’s also bugs, slugs, and whatever other nuisance you can imagine. Bugs can be sprayed, but home remedies are typically best for a veggie garden.
Home Remedies For A Healthy Veggie Patch
Gardeners around the globe have their own special concoction for their home remedies. Essentially, a combination of dish detergent, cooking oil, and water is the best and safest option, especially when you consider that what you’re spraying is what you’ll be eating.
Alternatively, you can take a page from my grandmother’s book of sage advice: recycle dishwater after hand washing the dishes and spray it over the plants at night.
How To Get Rid Of Slugs
Are you dealing with slugs? Over the winter, wash your used (uncooked) egg shells, crumble them, and save them for your summer garden.
After tilling the garden and planting the seeds, sprinkle the crushed eggshells around the plants. Not only will slugs avoid crawling over these sharp objects, but the nutrients left in the eggshells will soak into the soil and enrich the garden produce.
How To Get Rid Of Squirrels And Chipmunks
至于松鼠和花栗鼠:有志者事竟成。尽管如此,请记住,让这些啮齿动物远离你的素食区是一场持续的战斗。一种可行的方法是用塑料叉子种植,叉子竖起来,围绕在新幼苗周围,并在整个生长季节将它们留在那里。
This usually generates an interesting conversation during garden etiquette. Recently, a friend commented, “I noticed your plastic forks have reseeded themselves and are doing well.” To which I replied, “Yes, I have a healthy crop of plastic forks every year.”
It’s a simple solution, given that the prickly prongs of the forks poke the invasive rodents, something they don’t particularly like.
How To Get Rid Of Blue Jays
As the plants mature, birds, particularly Blue Jays, will take aim at certain produce like tomatoes. Since birds can be easily spooked, a scarecrow may help somewhat.
另一个巧妙的方法是在你的植物周围串一些铝挞皮。这些晃来晃去、闪闪发光的物体肯定会吓到鸟儿,因为它们的蛋挞壳会反射光线。它们还会在微风中叮当作响,增加了“幽灵元素”。”
The Basics
Doing all of the above will certainly help, but there are no guarantees. Lots of water, sufficient but not scorching sunlight, and good soil should be the key ingredients to a good veggie patch. Do keep in mind that there are other elements that come into play as well.
Gardening Isn’t Always Perfect
After several years of tilling, regular watering, and adding compost, manure, and soil, I thought my veggie garden would grow. Though as the summer progressed and friends started bragging about the produce from their garden, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed.
All I had were very small lettuce leaves, tomato plants still growing with no sign of fruit, zucchini plants half the size they should be, and the list goes on.
I couldn’t help but ask myself what I was doing wrong. I had tilled the earth andfertilized the plants with healthy compostand manure. Additionally, I weeded, watered regularly when the rain clouds wouldn’t assist, and sweat profusely over my labors. I did everything by the book!
Related Post:How To Make the Most of Garden Failure
The Source Of The Veggie Patch Problems
By late fall, I harvested my meek gifts from the garden only to be more dissatisfied with the flavor – or should I say, lack thereof. The frost eventually came and ended the growing season. I then dug the garden over as I did every spring and fall.
This time, however, I noticed a distinct problem: the soil had turned into a tightly knit mesh. This was definitely the cause of my plants struggle to survive. The next step was investigating what strangled my roots and why.
I did some research and asked around. What I discovered both amazed and worried me. After a lengthy drought, trees can send root-feelers throughout the rich garden soil and take nourishment from a veggie patch that is watered daily. After all, the trees need water too.
My well-watered veggie patch may well have become the source of nourishment the trees so desperately needed. Trees are important, as they provide shade from the blazing sun, but a balance is necessary. I had to weigh and consider the options.
The Solution: A Raised Garden
我思考了一下我的潜在解决方案,最后我自己想:“为什么不建一个抬高的花园呢?”在冬天,像往常一样,我花时间规划我的花园。然而,这一次,我研究和计划了一个增加的花园垫花园床衬垫,以防止树根的入侵。
I filled the raised garden bed with rich earth, given that most veggies and herbs do not require deep soil. On the other hand, my tomatoes required deep soil, so I decided to place them in very deep pots full of rich soil. Placing a single tomato plant per pot.
For root crops, such as potatoes, carrots, and onions, I dug deeper into the soil and bordered the space with logs or treated wood boards. Next, I laid out the garden bed liner, making sure that it covered the complete base and sides of the area. Finally, I piled it deep with rich soil so that the root veggies had room to root without being strangled.
A New-Found Determination
Spring arrived along with my fortified determination. I had planted a veggie garden, one that I was proud of and hoped to reap the full rewards of my hard work from. In my experience, for every problem there is a solution. Sometimes, the solution just requires a bit of ingenuity and creative thinking.
I have found you don’t have to pollute your garden and the environment to keep the bugs under control, nor do you have to kill every rodent or intruder to protect your produce. You don’t even have to clear cut trees for miles around in order to prevent the trees from strangling your veggie roots.
There is always a way, always a solution. It may take some time to sort out the problem and remedy the issue, but it can be done and the rewards will be worth the effort!
Today’s post is brought to you by award-winning author and artist,Emily-Jane山奥福特。When this author isn’t writing, creating collage paintings, working on her needlework or composing, you’ll find her in the garden. Even in the winter, gardening is not far from her thoughts as she plans and prepares for the next season and the next growing adventure. Using pressed flowers from her garden, this author/artist/composer is gardening indoors with multi-faceted garden ideas re-created on canvas.
William Watkinssays
good read
Kathe Deessays
I, personally, wouldn’t use treated lumber for a raised garden. It has chemicals in it, and I wouldn’t want those chemicals in my veggies! The last raised garden I had, I used cement blocks. I even filled the voids with dirt and planted herbs or flowers for an attractive look.
Stevesays
When Bluejays are around your tomatoes they are there for the worms IIRC so why chase em away????
stormysays
这篇文章与其说是关于害虫,不如说是关于基本知识;土壤、排水、水、光和肥料。我不知道肥料是怎么和农药混在一起的,但它不是农药。“肥沃”的土壤不包含光合作用所需的重要化学物质(营养物质)。肥沃的土壤有机质丰富,但有机质/堆肥不能替代平衡的肥料。每个人都应该至少做一次土壤测试与他们的合作推广服务!腐熟的堆肥和生肥不能替代肥料。写这篇文章的人在不知不觉中添加了太多的氮。氮高于磷和钾会导致营养生长(过多会吸引害虫,削弱植物,导致畸形),肯定不会有生殖生长。即使是古代生态系统中的土壤,尽管有很多有机物质,但对我们人类生长所需的东西(如农作物)来说,也没有化学必要。 These chemicals and I say chemicals instead of nutrients because by golly ‘nutrients’ mean ‘food’ to us humans and more the better will kill plants…these chemicals have to be added judiciously with lots of knowledge for any type of harvest or healthy plants. Including potted plants.
养高的床不需要任何的边。他们需要一个6″X6″沟在床的底部。我不管一个人有什么土壤,至少翻挖一英尺,耙下去,用一块大胶合板把翻挖的土壤“压实”,然后挖沟是准备一个床的最好方法。我一边工作,一边把分解的有机物扔到土壤里。平整,紧凑,然后播种我的开始或种子(永远不要成行,浪费太多的床)。种植后,我在床上铺上更多腐烂的有机物。我经常轮作。我有一个陷阱作物的跳蚤甲虫,我覆盖了我的芸苔种植一个月后,取下行布。忘记“同伴”种植。没找到任何证据支持这一点。 And my gardens are lush and fruitful. I use an organic fertilizer where NPK is 5-.7-9…the N is the lowest number unless I am fertilizing my salad bowl bed, kale, cabbage, Rhubarb…then I go with even numbers. Soil is soil is soil…there is no bad soil. I’ve had gardens made from Caliche clay…stuff that turns to snot after a rain. Raised beds, trenches to drain water where you want it to go…decomposed organic matter. Fertilizer as per crop. I also know how to see what and when plants are lacking or in excess with chemistry. That takes awhile to learn. I would love to post pictures of raised beds that are far better than raised beds constructed with lumber, blocks…how to do that, Kane?
stormysays
需要补充的是,在稳定的生态系统中,所有的化学物质都与生物量密切相关。你听说过,当热带雨林被移除后,土壤变得毫无价值。也许一种作物就够了。我们需要了解害虫。没有办法消灭害虫。我需要克服一点破坏。我发现,当我喂鹿、兔子,为昆虫提供陷阱作物(同样的事情),有猫在身边控制啮齿动物,并叹息,限制兔子时,生活变得简单了……和谐是园艺的全部。彼此相处,了解你的其他家庭成员使和谐容易。对一点点伤害感到放松。我和麋鹿、鹿、野猪、浣熊、松鸦、渡鸦、兔子、老鼠和花栗鼠生活在一起,我的温室用3英尺高的铁丝围起来,但因为我喂兔子,它们不会试图挖到温室里去。 I’d love to send pictures of my raised beds. I will never ever plant plants into unprepared beds with the exception of trees. Last 5 years I’ve had to grow in almost pure pumice and with the constant addition of decomposed organic matter that soil is just yummy. Still, I always add fertilizer. Not too much, just enough. Pesticide includes milk water 1:9 ratio for powdery mildew. That is it. Rotation of crops, pH testing the soil to get the proper pH for the crop and growing green cover crops…and FANS. Blowing hard 24/7!