Pesticides are harmful to the environment and your body if you’re growing any food in your garden this year.
While pesticides may make pest control easier, there are several natural ways you can get rid of unwanted insects.
Make a few tweaks in your gardening routine to keep your plants healthy and free of harmful organisms.
Organic Pest Control
1. Add Ladybugs
There are many insects that are beneficial to your garden and ladybugs happen to be one of them. You can easily buy a box of ladybugs in the garden department of your local home improvement store. Ladybugs eat aphids and other mites that chew at your leaves. Regularly set ladybugs free in your garden and they’ll reward you by eating fifty or more aphids a day. You can also plant sunflowers, cosmos, or marigolds to attract ladybugs to your garden without having to purchase them.
2. Don't Kill Spiders
Many people view spiders as creepy insects and your first instinct upon seeing one may be to smash it. But try to resist the urge to kill any spiders roaming around in your garden. Like ladybugs, spiders eat a lot of the insects that harm your plants. Spiders won’t bother your plants and will deter smaller pests. Of course, you cannot purchase spiders like you can ladybugs so you’ll have to attract them to your garden. Grow tall plants like sunflowers, fennel, or bell pepper that spiders will happily nestle into.
3. Shift Plant Rotations
Do not grow plants in the same place every year. There are a variety of pests that will remain in your soil and if you plant in the same place, they will attack the plant they’re attracted to year after year. Changing the position of your plants will mean certain pests do not thrive by attacking the plant they’re able to feed off of. When you change out plant positions, make sure you are growing something of a different plant family. Insects will be able to feed off similar plants so you must place something entirely different in the soil in order to starve pests.
4. Sprinkle Crushed Catnip
Catnip isn’t only beneficial to cats. Dried, crushed catnip will deter insects like stinkbugs. You can sprinkle catnip all over your soil in an effort to rid yourself of pests. Catnip isn’t particularly expensive so this is an affordable and safe alternative to pesticides.
No matter how frustrated you become with the creepy crawlies that eat at your plants, do not turn to pesticides.
5. Use Organic Insecticide
There are many insecticides that are not artificial and are safe to use on the food in your garden. There are garlic, chili, and soap-based insecticides that will not harm you, your soil, or your plants. You can even make some of these natural insecticides in your own home to insure they are safe. Search online for do-it-yourself insecticide recipes.
Grow food in your garden this year that is both safe for you and the environment. There are many organic options for pest control when caring for your garden.
