Garden Medley

Many insects are just a pain in your garden. They damage your plants and don’t provide a benefit. But you don’t want to go spray a bunch of chemicals on foods you’re planning on eating.

All is not lost. There are natural ways to control the pests in your garden.

Garlic and onions can be quite effective. Liquify these and spray them onto soft body insects to kill them. It can also paralyze flies. A garlic or onion spray can work as a fungicide too.

You can include hot peppers with your garlic or onion spray to make it stronger if you like. Hot peppers can also be effective on it’s own, but the garlic really can help. Sprinkle it about to discourage rabbits and other small animals. (more…)

When you grow an herb garden, your cooking can reap the rewards. Dried herbs really can’t compare to fresh in most uses.

The challenge can be keeping your herb plants producing. If you don’t treat them right, they die.

It’s not too hard to keep herbs producing once you know how to treat the plants. This includes watering, pruning and harvesting.

Be aware of the amount of water your herbs need. If the leaves are drooping, the plants need water now! How often you water will depend on the time of year, whether you keep them indoors or out and the overall climate. (more…)

I was watching my local news the other day when the went into the garden segment. Many of the tips are more for my area, but this one should be pretty universal.

If you grow lettuce and other vegetables, rabbits and other such critters can be a major problem. I’ve gone over some tactics in the past on how to keep them out without poisons. This one I hadn’t heard yet.

Get some plastic snakes and put them in your garden around the plants you want to protect. Rabbits and other small animals are very afraid of snakes, and won’t realize these are fakes, especially if you move them around regularly. (more…)

Keeping the snails under control in your garden in some areas can be a lot of work. They appear by the dozens or even hundreds a day for many gardeners. Getting rid of them takes patience and persistence.

If you have children, this is one job they can be trained to help with. Snails are easy to pick up and many kids are fascinated by bugs of any sort anyhow. Have them collect the snails in a bucket or old coffee can.

My mother’s way of handling snails was to simply pour salt over them. It leaves a rather disgusting mess, and you may prefer to be more compassionate. If you prefer you can take the snails someplace far from your garden and release them. Some preschool classes may also occasionally keep a tank of snails for educational purposes. As I noted above, kids love bugs. (more…)

No matter how much you love it or loathe it, most yards have a lawn. It’s a lot of work, takes plenty of water and regular maintenance. It’s also a great place for the kids to play or to sit and enjoy your home and yard on a pleasant day.

The trouble with lawns is that it’s all too easy to fall into the trap of overwatering and using too many chemicals to keep it green. The job of watering is often relegated to automatic sprinklers rather than actual attention being paid to the needs of the lawn.

I’ve become more aware of how easy it is to overwater a lawn recently. My sprinkler system has a leak, which my landlord has been able to find a permanent solution to. As a result, that water is turned off except when we’re watering, rather than using the installed automatic system. (more…)

Not everyone has a yard in which to garden. Apartment dwellers and condominium owners in particular face this dilemma.

Fortunately, it’s not that hard to grow beautiful plants indoors. You may be somewhat limited in what you can grow – no tall trees or string beans, but you can easily beautify the inside of your home with plants.

An indoor garden helps to purify the air inside your home, so it’s quite beneficial in addition to being attractive. Plants also provide an atmosphere in which it is easier to relax.

There are many plants you can easily grow indoors. Just visit your local garden center and you’ll see plenty of plants suggested. They will include zebra plants, ferns, cacti, some varieties of roses, money plant and many others. (more…)

Organic gardening is one of the big catch phrases for gardeners right now. Many people truly love keeping their garden organic. But with all the challenges of gardening, why would you limit yourself to organic methods?

The decision relates quite a bit to the value we have learned to place on this planet. Many chemicals work well enough to help your garden grow or to kill pests, but they aren’t so good for the environment. They can also leave unhealthy residues on your foods.

An organic garden is friendlier to wildlife. This doesn’t mean you’re going to lose your entire garden to pests such as squirrels; it means you learn friendlier ways of scaring them off. It also means you won’t be killing the bugs that are good for your garden while you try to kill the ones that are damaging it. (more…)

Most people love butterflies. They’re brightly colored, beautiful and bring to mind pleasant childhood memories. And children love to chase butterflies.

However, many people have trouble attracting butterflies into their gardens. They may occasionally flutter by, but they won’t stay.

The trick to getting butterflies in your garden is to plant a garden that will attract them. You want plants that they will lay their eggs on and plants with nectar they love.

Which plants you use varies by the kind of butterfly you want. I’ve had success attracting Anise Swallowtails with my fennel bush. One year we had caterpillars all over it, which led to cocoons, and my daughter got to see the butterflies hatch from the cocoons. It was very exciting for her. (more…)

Squirrels are cute, fuzzy and look so sweet… at least until they start destroying your garden.

Gardens are almost irresistible to squirrels. Gardens offer an easy food source to them, and many popular garden plants taste great to squirrels.

A fence is not sufficient to keeping squirrels out of the garden. They’re great climbers and many of them jump quite well too. Especially if you have a tree overhanging your garden, don’t assume that a fence will do much of anything to keep squirrels out.

Repelling them humanely is quite challenging. Most sprays and such aren’t all that effective. You can use products such as Ropel to discourage them from chewing on furniture and such. You can also install a motion sensitive water sprinkler such as Scarecrow to scare them away gently. (more…)

No matter your determination to keep things organic in your garden, the time may come when you have to look at buying a fungicide. Even the healthiest of plants will sometimes succumb to a fungus, and you need to control it quickly.

The first thing you need to do is remain aware of the general condition of plants in your garden. If you do this, you can notice and remove problems before they become widespread. This will often keep you from needing to use a fungicide. (more…)