There’s nothing worse than putting in all that work to grow a beautiful garden and finding out that you have pests. In Pasadena Texas, this is a pretty common issue we see with homeowners who plant new gardens. It’s very common to get insects, rodents, rabbits, and all other kinds of pests that want to eat your fruits and vegetables.
Fortunately, below we will show you 6 beneficial ways to keep pests out of your Pasadena, TX garden. Let’s Jump Right In…
Plant beneficial plant species
One of the best and easiest things you can do is to leverage beneficial plant species. These can be species that discourage harmful insects or sacrificial plants that will attract the pests so that they don’t feed on the plants that you really want to grow.
Some of the best plants for discouraging insects are dill, cilantro, and parsley. These herbs attract lots of beneficial pests and work well as sacrificial plants. Insects like slugs and snails like to feed on the soft leaves and stems of these herbs and will automatically opt for them over other firmer plants like your tomatoes and cucumbers.
Bring in helpful insects
Helpful insects are almost like tiny little guards for your garden. They sometimes feed on the harmful insects and at other times simply make the living environment uncomfortable for the other harmful insects.
To encourage helpful insects, start by planting the three herbs mentioned above. Additionally, you can buy insects to add to your garden. One example would be hatching ladybugs in your garden to fight off an aphid problem. Ladybugs feed on aphids and can eat a huge amount of them so they’ll remove the problem pretty quickly for you.
There are other beneficial insects you can buy at your local garden center including praying mantis, spiders, green lace wigs, and even ground beetles. If you’re not sure what pests you’re dealing with and what beneficial insects would help, just consult your local garden center for tips.
Put up a barrier
If you’re dealing with larger pests like rabbits, deer, and other ground-dwelling creatures, consider putting up some form of barrier. You can put up a fence around the garden to keep deer out or you can put chicken wire around it to keep out smaller animals such as rabbits and rodents. It’s also a good idea to dig a trench around the garden so that you can bury the chicken wire about 6 in beneath the soil to discourage any digging under it. Raised plant beds can also help to keep some of those ground-dwelling creatures out.
Use eggshells and gravel for snails
If you’re suffering from a snail problem, there’s a pretty easy solution for that. If you cook eggs in the morning you can save the eggshells, dry them out, and blend them up to make a fine powder. You then sprinkle this powder in a circle around your plants and the snails won’t cross it. The tiny eggshell fragments act like glass on the snail’s body and they will not want to cross it.
Additionally, using a very dry gravel and spreading that in a circle around the plant will also discourage snails from Crossing it. Snails like a moist environment and do not like crossing the gravel.
And a final solution for snails is to use copper. You can buy copper in rolls you can also buy copper mesh, and if you’re really in a pickle, you can use pennies. Simply surround your garden with the copper barrier and snails won’t cross it. It’s almost like an electric fence for them.
Use oils and soaps
There are tons of garden sprays to keep pests out of your fruits and vegetables. One of the simplest things you can do is take about a cup of vegetable oil, mix in a few drops of dish soap, a little bit of peppermint essential oil, some cayenne pepper, and a bit of garlic. Then you shake that up, put it in a spray bottle, and spray all of your plants. This can work very well for keeping small pests like aphids and mites out of your garden.
Use nets for fruits and berries
If you’re growing fruits and berries, it’s pretty common to walk outside and find that the birds have pecked away at the ripest fruit. In these scenarios, the best thing to do is put a net over your fruits and vegetables. Make sure that the net is loosely wrapped and not right up against the fruit or berries. You can find netting pretty cheap on Amazon or at some of the nurseries throughout Pasadena, TX, and the surrounding areas. When you put the netting on, make sure that it is secured either at the bottom with wooden stakes or if you are putting it around fruits on a tree, tie it to the stem just above the fruit so that nothing can enter.
Summary
There are few things more enjoyable than growing and eating your own fresh food. And there are many things you can do to keep pests out of your garden naturally. Of course, if you have a Pasadena pest control problem around your house or in your garden in your unable to resolve the issue, give Big Dave’s a call and we can help to eliminate the pests in and around your house as well as give you tips and pointers to keep them out of your garden.