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Entry bubble Protecting Your Garden from Pests

By: Joanne | June 02, 2009 | Category: Home and Family

flowers, potatoes, carrots

Back in March I was so excited to get my garden started. I had the highest of ambitions. But let’s just say that my garden got a little later start than I had hoped, ok? Over the last few weeks I’ve been working like crazy in the garden. I planted tomatoes, beets, kale, peas, cucumbers, spinach, chard, lettuce, and 3 different kinds of happy sunflowers. I have yet to plant the pumpkins and decorative gourds, but I’ll get there.

I always have some plants, like marigolds, in the garden just because they’re beneficial companions to my veggies and help keep the insects away. I don’t use chemical fertilizers, herbicides or insecticides in my garden, and it’s been my experience that everything grows very well without all that stuff. Even the time I found that very large, very hungry caterpillar lunching on my tomato plants was no big deal. I just picked him up with a stick and took him for a little walk to the woods where there are plenty of delicious leaves for him to enjoy.

The Department of Agriculture has some tips on plants that deter harmful insects, and there are a number of excellent books on the topic – many of which I’m sure are available at your local library. The National Arboretum has advice on chemical and non-chemical garden pest management tips and let’s not forget that the National Agricultural Library isn’t just for big farms, but they have information and advice for backyard gardeners, like us.

| View Comments [4] | envelope E-mail This Entry | Tags: garden   insect   joanne   pest   vegetable  

Comments (4):

blue comment bubble Posted by Peppermint on June 02, 2009 at 11:58 AM EDT

I too was excited about this year's garden and so far its turned out well. We have lettuce, radishes, beets, tomatoes, beans, peas, cucumbers, corn and a few other things. I've been trying to find my favorite tomato plants called "sugar snackers" but they haven't been out yet. These are the best and can be eaten like candy! We've got our chicken wire fence up, our marigolds (from the boy scouts) in and we've been weeding like crazy! Also, we got a nice truck load of cow-stuff from a local farm (for free) and mixed it in a few weeks before planting. That really helped things pop up- we had radishes sprouting in about four days. I can't wait for harvest time!! Yum! Oh yeah, we've also got competition sized pumpkins growing so we'll have awesome jac-o-lanterns this year too!!!

Anybody know what a beetle-borg is? I was told that was what got out plants last year.

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blue comment bubble Posted by Joanne on June 03, 2009 at 09:01 AM EDT

Peppermint, it sounds like you're off to a great start. I did a quick search for Beetle Borgs and it looks like they're cartoon characters.
http://blog.usa.gov:80/roller/govgab/entry/protecting_your_garden_from_pests?comment=edit#Comment_bookmark

But there are quite a few nasty beetles that can be damaging your garden - your local USDA Extension Agent should be able to help you identify your pest and give you advice about what to do about them. Here's where you can find contact information for Extension offices around the country: http://www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension/index.html

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blue comment bubble Posted by Mikhail on June 04, 2009 at 07:41 AM EDT

Thx! It's userful for me, bacause I am vegetarian

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blue comment bubble Posted by rose queen on June 10, 2009 at 01:27 PM EDT

Well done, however there is no information about location and size of garden plots. Growing vegetables in Germany is a worthwhile and pleasant acitvity requiring a truly green thumb.
Mother and brother are growing lots of lettuce, various tomatoes, cabbage, round and long red adishes, parsley and other kitchen herbs. It rains a lot and slugs are the problem as they do eat anything green. After a heavy rain we go out into the garden with a flashlight to collect red, black and huge tiger striped slugs. We cultivate kitchen herbs for daily use instgead of freeze dried spices. But I concentrate on roses in all shapes, ground huggers, bushes and shrubs, large and small tree roses, as well as red, white and yellow climbing roses. Lots of work but so wonderful to view. In our community members of the gardener association inspect flower gardens and judge their overall impact on the overall alppearance of the community. In the past four years I pride myself for having been among the top three winners. My husband is my best gardener and he is all smiles when I am recognized for my beautiful multißcolored rose garden. So there is more to gardening than raising vegetables. The eyes need to view flowers as well. And by the planting garlic in the garden keeps all kinds of garden pests away.

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