Nifty Hacks to Make Your Garden Pest-Proof 2023
Gardening is a wonderful hobby, allowing you to spend a relaxing yet fruitful day outdoors. Many homeowners devote a great deal of time and energy to their yards and lawns, trying to make them picture-perfect. And it really hurts when you see that your much-cared-for garden is infested with pests that wreak havoc to your flowers, plants, and trees.
Driving unwelcome insects and vermin away can turn into a long-lasting nightmare, but, fortunately, there are plenty of effective and healthy DIY pest control solutions that present great alternatives to common household items. In this article, we outline five simple, yet working tricks that will help you with keeping destructive pests at bay from your home garden.
Fend Them Off With Essential Oil DIY Pest Deterrent
Many people eagerly use essential oils to improve their health and strengthen immunity, as well as for all sorts of mental and healing practices. Along with promoting wellbeing and happiness, essential oils are also good at daunting unwelcome garden pests.
- Cayenne Pepper & Citrus Oil Spray against ants. Mix one teaspoon of cayenne pepper with ten drops of citrus essential oil of your choice with a cup of warm water to make annoying ants forget the way to your house or garden. Just mix the ingredients in a glass spray bottle and distribute the fusion on the ants’ territory for immediate results.
- Eucalyptus essential oil is hated by stingers. Eucalyptus oil offers many health benefits and is a frequent ingredient in handmade antimicrobial and disinfectant remedies. In the garden, a few drops of that magical oil can scare away bees, wasps, flies, and other nerve-racking humming stuff, so you can bustle about your garden without being attacked by flying pests.
Invite Friendly Insects to Squeeze out Pests
While this may sound illogical, there are actually many insects that can help fight harmful pests in your garden, so you don’t have to waste your precious time and resources on doing that niggly job by yourself. These beneficial garden dwellers are easy to attract, and they can boost your garden’s resistance to pests and improve its yields.
- Praying Mantis. Along with being a sight to behold, a praying mantis can also do wonders to your garden. Having a healthy appetite for small garden pests, these insects represent a natural and sustainable homemade pest deterrent strategy for the caring gardener. Interested homeowners can purchase mantis eggs from a local garden store and put them in the garden, where they will naturally hatch and grow. And when the time comes, the praying mantis will diligently guard the confines of your garden from insect invaders.
- Ladybugs. You might be surprised to learn that tiny, seemingly harmless ladybugs ruthlessly devour many garden pests, including ticks, aphids, scales, and whitefly. This makes ladybugs one of the most favorite natural pest control solutions. To encourage these little creatures to your pest-occupied garden, you can plant pollen-rich blooms such as lavender or sunflowers. Flat-headed flowers such as yarrow, angelica, fennel, and dill are also attractive for ladybirds. Ladybugs can also often be found in shops for gardeners. What is the best aspect about ladybugs? Popular superstition has it if a ladybird lands on you, you’ll have good luck soon
Prepare Pest Repellants in Your Kitchen
Popular cooking ingredients such as baking soda and milk are effective ways to combat pesky pests. Here are some easy ways to deter unwelcome pests using common kitchen ingredients.
- Antifungal made from baking soda. If your garden plants suffer from fungal diseases, a simple baking soda solution can make a dramatic difference. Just take one gallon of water and two tablespoons of baking soda, mix everything, put the mixture in a spray bottle, and sprinkle it onto affected plants. You can use this solution every other day or until the problem goes away.
- Milky powdery mildew solution. Powdery mildew is a notorious fungal disease that can affect many plants, compromising the garden’s overall aesthetics and health. But a cheap and cheerful milk solution can fix this problem within minutes. Simply take water and milk in equal proportions, mix two liquids in a spray bottle, and gush over the affected plants once a week for one month.
Repel Them with Flowers
One of the great things about gardening is that, in a sense, your garden can take care of itself. Surely it doesn’t mean that you should completely give up your gardening chores, but there are a few things you can do to make your job easier. One of these things is to choose plants and flowers for your garden that will help fight insect pests.
If you want to put a happy smile on the face of your loved one, sending them a gorgeous, hand-crafted floral arrangement with flower delivery to San-Diego or any other spot in the world is a go-to variant. If you are looking to safeguard your garden territory against insect intruders, here are some flowers to stick here and there in your yard.
- Borage. This plant repels imported cabbage worms and tomato horned worms. It is also attractive for beneficial insects and pollinators such as native bumblebees. Let it self-seed, and it will always be in your garden protecting it against undesired creepy crawlies.
- Calendula. This bright pretty little flower has the power of repelling the asparagus beetle, nematodes, and tomato hornworm. It is also catching for beneficial insects, so this edible flower (calendula tea is as delicious as health-boosting) will come in handy in your garden.
- Catmint. Catnip is unbearable for a bevy of insect garden troublemakers, including aphids, cabbage parsley, Colorado potato beetle, and flea, to name a few. The only drawback of catmint is that some species can spread aggressively and can quickly take over large areas of the garden.
- Marigold. They are perhaps the most famous plant for turning bad insects off your yard. French marigolds repel whiteflies and kill harmful nematodes. The Mexican variety is known to control many harmful bugs and wild rabbits.
- Chrysanthemums. Fondly called mums, Chrysanthemums are loved by gardeners for the insane variety of shapes and colors they provide. There is another reason why you should place mums all over your garden: pest control! Chrysanthemums naturally produce a chemical called pyrethrin, and thanks to it, organic pest control in the yard can be as easy as scattering some mum plants.
- Tansy is also a reliable garden protector. It can effectively repel all sorts of nasty bugs such as ants, flies, fleas, moths, mosquitoes, ticks, and even mice. Heavily-scented flowers and leaves of that flowering plant can be dried and arranged in a bouquet or used as part of a potpourri mix to keep insects out of your home as well.
Prevention Is the Best Pest Repellant
The best strategy to keep pests out of your garden is to prevent infestation even before it starts. Here are some of the time-proven pest control recommendations.
- Keep soil rich. Using natural compost from kitchen food waste acts as a powerful fertilizer and basic material for the burgeoning milieu. Mulching and feeding your garden every spring is a great way to keep your plants healthy so they never fall victim to an infestation during insect season.
- Prevent pest multiplication. Like humans and animals, plants in your garden can be infested with pests and their eggs from your tools and inventory. Once you have worked with an infected plant, make sure you thoroughly clean and disinfect your instruments to avoid spreading the disease to the rest of your garden.
Nifty Hacks to Make Your Garden Pest-Proof
