Every gardener is plagued by something at some point. Weeds, pests, or animals can make even a calm gardener into a frantic worry wart. So far this year I've lost beans, cucumber, and cantaloupe to spider mites, because Pyola, a natural pest control oil, just can't coat everywhere. White flies have covered the irises, but they seem to be weathering this tiny annoying pest pretty well. However, it’s very tempting to grab a can of “kill all” bug spray and go to town on those darn pests. Don’t!
My advice when you have a similar problem is to not give in!! Your health and the health of our world are not worth buying some pesticide spray that ends up in your skin and body and in the wastewater facility and back into our drinking water even if in minute traces. We have enough cancer and disease in our lives without adding the possibility of more through chemicals that were unnecessary to begin with.
I'm not an environmental activist, but I do love our earth and gardening. I do believe we need to do our part to be greener and more self-sufficient without making it a political thing. Organic gardening is a good place to start. I believe in chemical free gardening for health reasons not because we are all going to die a horrendous death due to global warming at some point in a few hundred thousand years…maybe. We are all going to die…period. How, is irrelevant. I do believe in climate change, but to me it’s just one more natural occurrence that happens in cycles over the ages and that it will occur whether we pollute or not because our sun is in control of weather and climate fluctuations. Not having us here didn’t stop the Ice Age from occurring. But for now, we can do our part in chemical free gardening for healthier living while we are here.
If you are looking for ideas on pest control that's organic and less harmful to the environment, I have a few ideas for you to try.
I use a neem oil, a plant de-rived oil product, but that doesn’t always do the trick. It does kill pest eggs as well as all the other stages of pest growth, where other products tend to only kill the adults.
I love diatomaceaous earth (DE) as a natural pesticide but it's hard to use and has to be reapplied after watering. Works great indoors for baseboards, cabinets, under appliances to keep out pests. Iron-based pellets for slugs, i.e. Sluggo, but not all slug baits are safe so be careful choosing.
House plants have issues with gnats mostly but can sometimes get aphids too. Usually
little gnats are the sure sign of a problem with fungus, but a sprinkling of just
plain sand onto the soil in containers stops fungus gnats at all levels. Babies cannot hatch and adults cannot lay eggs. For aphids in containers, a recipe for a soap spray is one tablespoon of peppermint castille soap (Dr. Bronner's is a good one) per gallon
of water makes for good houseplant care. For outdoors, a
soap mix is best used early morning or just before dark in the evening when using outdoors because the hot sun
sometimes causes the mix to burn the leaves of the plant. Never use Dawn soap on plants as it is full of other chemicals that are harmful to leaves. Castille soap is the best and very gentle on plant leaves.
A pair of scissors works nice on caterpillars if you find them.Toss the dead worms into the bird feeder. Bacillus thuringiensis is also a good way of controlling caterpillars but there are no instant results for this product since the Bt hatches and eats them to death over a period of a few days.
Aphids
are controlled outdoors with just plain water sprayed daily to knock them off, but in a drought that can be a challenge. I also use oil based products containing spinosad or neem to make sure aphid eggs are killed. And who doesn't love lady bugs! Ok, people who get an infestation of those in their house don't, but in drier climates they tend to stay outdoors. Those have been the best control for aphids but they disappear in the hot summer so I still struggle with summer control on beans and peas.
Bacillus subtillis is
good for control of diseases such as bacterial spot, powdery mildew, rust,
mold, blight, and scab. Other controls for fungus include sprinkling cinnamon powder on the soil. This is especially good for seedling trays prone to damping off disease. You can buy it in bulk pretty cheap on amazon. It
probably would work in the yard as well if you see signs of fungus but a baking soda spray works better outdoors and is easy to apply with a pressure sprayer.
I have this stuff called Surround which is a clay-like powder that when
mixed in water and sprayed on plants coats the plants to where bugs aren't attracted to plants and are not able to lay eggs on the leaves. It also deters pests from taking a bite
as well as helps prevent sunscald and heat stress. It is
specified for aphids, caterpillars, moths, and other flying insects. Of course
this stuff can make plants ugly with white coating so I don’t recommend it in
the front yard or where beauty is the focus.But it has helped my nectarine trees with a thrip insect infestation.
Be aware however, that these controls can also kill beneficial insects such as lady bugs, lacewings and praying mantis which are always welcome
additions. So be careful when spraying if you see these around. It may be
better to wait a week or two to see if they can take care of the pests for you.
If not, then you may not have any alternative but to spray with your safe
oils/soaps or use DE powder.
Most of these methods have precautions even though they are considered
environmentally safe. Diatomaceous earth requires a face mask so as not to
breathe it in. It can irritate lungs. Plant
based oil sprays can’t coat everything and can irritate skin. Please read the safety manual before using anything in your house or garden.
Some good information about organic gardening and natural pest control can be found in Mother Earth News and Organic Gardening Magazine, two of my favorite magazines. Try them out sometime if you have the money for it. They are still well worth the money spent. If you are into permaculture there are so many webpages and social media pages on this topic. The Eden style garden includes wood chips as a permanent mulch. My goal is to mix the two styles in my back yard.
I have both sunken beds and raised beds. The sunken beds supposedly don't dry out as fast as raised beds. But I've found that the under soil is so hard that I end up with flooded beds that stagnate over winter. Now I have to put covers over these beds to prevent this issue. Raised beds with galvanized walls don't have the same issue but it's harder to keep soil moist in those in summer. They dry out so fast and require more irrigation. Each style has it's pros and cons. I also plant in 5 gallon buckets. Holds water better in summer and works for shallow rooted veggies.
We can all do something to help keep ourselves healthier. A good start is organic gardening which comes with its own set of challenges but I believe it's worth the extra effort to have healthier food on the table.
