Encourage Beneficial Organisms

The use of beneficial organisms in the home garden is hardly new. If you think of Adam and Eve as the original garden pests, look at the effectiveness of one snake. Actually, snakes are wonderful, free rodenticides. They patrol for ground-level mice, shrews, bugs, and slugs. In return they need an accessible water source, maybe a nice, flat rock on which to sun themselves, and not to be run over by a lawn mower.

Bats are another fine addition to any garden. Bats consume many times their own weight of flying insects over the course of the gardening season. Persuade them to roost near your garden by putting in a little bat condo. Commercially made bat houses are available, or construct one yourself.

Birds are valuable bug-eaters. They will reward your thoughtfulness with years of dedicated service. Provide them with a bird bath, some cover in the form of bushes or trees, a small house or two, and perhaps a free meal every now and then.

Toads are underappreciated assets in the garden; they guzzle bugs daily. Encourage their presence with a damp, shady spot for them to hide in during hot, dry weather. A board propped up over a puddle is toad heaven.

Predatory and parasitic insects prey on other bugs for free, and unless you garden in a vacuum, they usually come with the garden. Be careful not to annihilate them with broad-spectrum chemical pesticides.

Beneficial organisms, from barely visible mites to 6-inch-tall praying mantises, are available to work in your garden. You can purchase them, but your money would be better spent encouraging existing, native populations. The trouble with many store-bought bugs is they are disloyal, and will probably leave.

Plant flowering herbs, such as thymes, mints, rosemary, sage, and dill for beneficial adult insects to eat. Or entice them by interplanting your crops with daisies, petunias, cosmos, nasturtiums, marigolds, and sunflowers. Provide a water source. The lingering dew on plant leaves is often sufficient; the constant moisture provided by drip irrigation is ideal. Most important, don't spray pesticides. Welcome the beneficials that occur naturally in your garden.

Disposing of Pesticides

Many states set up regular hazardous waste pick-up stations at designated times and places. Always dispose of unused pesticides, as well as paints, solvents, and other chemicals, at designated stations. Most disposal sites provide an exchange service on site. If you need a pesticide or other chemical, you can pick up someone else's castoff for free. Contact your local state department that handles hazardous waste disposal for details of procedures in your area.

Use Pesticides Conservatively

Sometimes a barrier isn't the answer. You wouldn't want to drape a cover over a rose bush or shimmy up an apple tree with a bolt of cheesecloth. There are situations when you need to spray a pesticide.

Many plants look or produce much better if kept on a regular spray schedule. Fruit trees in particular yield more fruit if maintained this way. This should be an important consideration in the decision to plant home fruit trees.

What you spray depends on several factors, one of which is your budget. Chemical pesticides are expensive in more ways than one. Research has determined toxins, once commonly used in the garden, can cause a range of ills from birth defects to cancers. Accidental ingestion by pets and children occurs every year, with tragic results. Toxins also wipe out beneficial insects, such as bees and ladybugs. And misapplication of chemical pesticides often results in plant damage.

As with the misuse of chemical fertilizers, the biggest problem home gardeners have with pesticides is over-application. Always follow label instructions to the letter. These are not mere recommendations, they are lawit is illegal to misuse pesticides.

Each product lists what insects it is effective against and on which plants it is safe to use. A general pesticide with a wide range of applications, such as Orthene or diazinon, will handle most problems of home gardeners.

Organic pesticides, such as botanically derived rotenone, pyre-thrum, ryania, and sabadilla are good substitutes for environmentally concerned gardeners. They pose less threat of environmental damage because they break down quickly, and will not leave any long-term residues. Other examples of non-toxic pesticides are horticultural oil sprays that coat and suffocate small bugs such as scale, and diatomaceous earth, which kills bugs at or beneath ground level when worked into the soil. Many organic pesticides, unfortunately, kill indiscriminately, wiping out pests and beneficial organisms alike.

Some of the most promising pest-control products are ones that cause diseasegenerating pest-specific disease organisms that spring to life like sea monkeys when mixed with water. They only harm the bug for which they are intended. Some examples include several forms of the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), marketed under various brand names and effective at battling caterpillars and Colorado potato beetles; Nosema locustae, sold as Grasshopper Attack, which is a grasshopper disease that prevents successive generations; and Bacillus popilliae, or milky spore disease, that wipes out Japanese beetles.

Physically preventing bugs from touching your plants

One of the best methods to prevent insect damage is physically preventing bugs from touching plants. Several methods work well depending on the plant and the insect. All methods mentioned are very effective and reasonably inexpensive when done properly.
Row covers are sheets of spun-bonded polypropylene that can be draped over food crops to eliminate insect problems. They are lightweight enough to drop directly onto most crops, or you can create a frame for the covering by bending PVC pipe or bamboo sticks. (Cheap tip: You can even grow useful bamboo stakes yourself.) The fabric stands between the bug and its meal. It allows most available sunlight and water to pass through freely and protects from wind, hail, slight frost, and windborne weed seeds, as well as bugs, birds, and small animals.

It is critical to cover the crops early, before bugs get to them, which is when planting or transplanting them. A sprinkling of inexpensive diazinon or diatomaceous earth raked into the soil will kill any current soil-dwelling inhabitants. This is important for direct seeded melons, a special favorite of cutworms. Leave enough slack in the fabric to allow for the eventual growth of the plants, and anchor the fabric along the edges with dirt or planks. This is very important, because not only might it blow away but also the idea is to prevent bugs from getting to the plant, and they crawl through the smallest spaces. Lift the cover occasionally to monitor a plant's progress.

Covers are most convenient for plants that will not flower for harvest, such as carrots or broccoli. Covers will work for plants that flower, such as cucumbers, as long as you remove the covers in time for pollination to occur.

Treat these fabric covers with respect to get your money's worth. Work cautiously around them, a careless swing of the hoe will tear the fabric. Never walk on them, always go around. Don't drive stakes through them as anchors. Fabric anchored by stakes will not always keep out bugs anyway, and the stakes will cause rips. Cut the fabric down to a size you can handle easily. You will run less risk of damaging the fabric while you are working with it. Above all else, fold or roll up fabric covers at the end of the season and store them. Don't just drop them in a pile on the floor of the garden shed, since mice find them irresistible for winter housing.
and organic protection, use a stem collar. Stiff paper or cardboard are often recommended, but one of the best and cheapest substitutes I have found is a plastic drinking straw. Salvage used straws, and cut them into 1 1/2-inch long pieces. Slit the pieces up one side, pull the plastic apart and fit around the stem of each transplant. Push the plastic down into the soil, and you have a plastic barrier no cutworm can chomp or climb.

Stem collars protect tender transplants from cutworm damage. Cutworms are underground caterpillar-like bugs. They will devastate beans, broccoli, cantaloupe, and a vast array of other plants with equal zeal. They are especially prevalent in new gardens freshly dug from sod or areas filled with weeds. A dash of diazinon or diatomaceous earth will eliminate those present at application. But for continuing

Rotate Crops

Many diseases and soilborne insects that attack plants remain in the soil even after you harvest the crop. They wait there to reinfest susceptible plants. If you plant the same crop or a closely related one in that site a disease or insect will probably attack the new planting. Prevent this needless loss by rotating your crops each year. The practice costs nothing and could save a lot.

Crop rotation requires only a little planning. If you plant tomatoes in one bed this year, then don't plant tomatoes or a related crop in the same bed for the next two years. If possible, it is best to let at least three years pass before planting where the same or related crop grew before.

Integrate and Interplant

It is the nature of disease organisms and pests to take the easiest route. What could be easier than moving down a row of your favorite host plants and attacking one after the other of them? Organic gardeners have known for generations a way to confound many pests, especially those that prefer one particular crop over others, and it doesn't cost a cent.

Interplanting mixing and mingling different species of plants in a garden bordereffectively confounds many types of pests. It slows the progression of diseases when the plant next to an infected one is not susceptible to the disease-causing organism. For pests, the turbulent scene of mixed textures, colors, and odors, jams their plant-seeking radar.

Weed out the Competition

The first line of defense is to kick the competition when it's down. Don't allow weeds to get a foothold. Not only are they unsightly, weeds are real enemies of any gardener. They rob the soil of water and nutrients meant for cultivated plants. Many harbor diseases or serve as alternate hosts for pests. If allowed to grow, they may shade plants from sunlight, block air circulation around foliage, or crowd out crops entirely.

Rather than battle established weeds and the problems they create, get them before they get you. One tactic is to spray a pre-emergent herbicide, which kills weeds before they emerge. Another weed combatant is a heavy, water-permeable fabric that acts as a weed mat, laid out between landscape plants. It physically blocks weeds from sprouting. It's not cheap, but the time and money you save over other forms of fighting weeds may make it a good choice for your garden. A similar tactic is to put down a thick layer of mulch.

Young weeds are easy to scrape away with a hoe. Cultivate carefully around tender, young plants to avoid damaging roots. Use a scuffle hoe or toothed-wheeled weeder to tear out weeds while they are still small. When all else fails, get down on your knees and yank up weeds by their roots. It's good exercise and a well-weeded patch leaves any gardener with a real sense of accomplishment.