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Organic Pest-Free Gardens: Easy Steps For A Pest Free Yard

Posted on January 26, 2022
organic pest control

While there might be a blanket of snow on the ground right now, it's never too late to start thinking about your summer garden. One of people's biggest struggles with their gardens is keeping pests out of their hard-grown vegetables and flowers. Especially if you want to avoid using pesticides and other chemicals in your garden, it can be challenging to make sure your garden is pest-free.

Here are some of our top tips for keeping your garden organic and keeping those pests away from your plants!

Understanding Your Garden

If you want to create an organic garden, there are many different factors you need to understand. You'll need to pick the right types of plants for your geographical location, understand what nutrients your soil needs more of, and more to be able to keep your garden thriving and healthy.

Keep Your Soil Healthy

Having a healthy garden is the first defence against pests. If your plants are nice and strong, they are usually able to fight off pests, and you don't have to worry as much about infestations. The first step is to keep your soil full of the nutrients your plants need.

You can send your soil off for a soil analysis if you're keen to understand exactly what kind of nutrients you're missing in your garden, but you can also make sure to use natural fertilizer instead. We recommend natural composting methods, such as mulching or top-dressing your soil using your compost or other natural fertilizers.

Get Rid Of Your Dead Plants

This tip might seem obvious, but keeping your garden clean of dead foliage, leaves and plants will discourage pests from making a home in your garden. If you want to take this a step further, make sure to get rid of any plants that look sick or weak. These plants are usually the first to succumb to infestations and will host these pests that inevitably will destroy the rest of your garden. It's better to be preventative and pull these plants out sooner rather than later.

Water Your Plants Early

Keeping your foliage dry is an excellent way to discourage pests from your garden. Insects tend to like moist environments, so when you change your watering habits and water early in the day, your plant foliage will stay dry for longer. This makes your garden less of a hospitable home for most pests!

Be Careful Introducing New Plants

We've all been there, maybe you're grocery shopping and walk by the garden centre, or you're at the farmer's market and spot a tomato plant that you just have to take home. But did you know that these plants can bring pest infestations into your garden? When introducing new plants into your garden, be sure to buy from a trusted vendor so you know these plants are pest-free.

But if you're itching to bring home that plant from Home Depot, make sure to take the proper precautions before planting it in your garden. Inspect the plant carefully for signs of pest infestation. This includes looking under the leaves, stems and more. You can also be overly cautious and isolate this new plant when you first bring it home to observe and ensure it is healthy and pest-free.

Use Fencing To Your Advantage

While the idea of putting up a physical fence around your garden may seem unappealing, it can help keep larger critters out of your garden. Maybe you live in a community that's overrun with rabbits and deer. A fence can help to discourage them from eating all of your hard-grown vegetables.

pest-free garden
Already Dealing With A Pest Infestation?

When maintaining an organic garden, dealing with a pest infestation isn't as easy as hopping down to your nearest garden store and loading up on pesticides. So, what can you do to deal with a pest infestation that's already set in in your garden?

Use Clean Tools

Remember to clean and disinfect your tools when you've been working with infested plants. If your infestation is currently isolated to one bunch of plants, make sure you clean off your tools before moving on to your healthy plants. Pests can travel on your gardening tools and infect the rest of your garden. If possible, have a separate set of tools for your infected plants to make sure you limit the possibility of spread.

Utilize Natural Pest Repellents

There are many different natural options for pest control, and here are a few of our favourites. Neem oil is an excellent choice for a natural insecticide and can help you deal with aphids, mealybugs, scale and whiteflies. It can also help you fight some types of fungi and mildew.

Using seaweed mulch or spray can also help to repel certain pests, like slugs. However, the most significant advantage for seaweed mulch/spray is that it contains iron, barium, zinc, sulphur, calcium, and magnesium, promoting healthy growth in your plants. This will help them stay strong to fight off any potential pest infections.

We hope that with these tips, you're able to keep your garden pest-free, and we can't wait to see what you grow in your organic garden!

For pest control problems that you can't handle on your own, make sure to give us a call at Martin's Pest Control. We can help with preventative pest control and getting your home and garden back to their original pest-free state.