Organic Gardening Made Easy: How to start and grow your own organic garden by Lori McDonald

Author:Lori McDonald [McDonald, Lori]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-05-19T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 8

CONTROLLING PESTS

For the natural gardener, pest control might seem like a difficult task to take on. After all, you have sworn off chemicals in your garden despite the fact that these chemicals have the ability to get rid of these pests easily. But actually, controlling of pests the natural way is quite easy.

It is certainly understandable that a lot of gardeners get worried when they see pests on their plants and might want to react in a definite manner when they see their plants damaged. However, at this point, let me remind you of the main principle of organic gardening: growing plants in harmony with Nature. And insects, even those that eat your plants, are a crucial part of that system.

When you see insects in your garden, first thing to do is try and observe what they are doing. Are they actually destroying the plant or just nibbling it a bit? Many plants can outgrow minor damage.

Also, in a lot of cases, insects focus their attack on plants that are stressed. The questions you can ask yourself at this point that will determine your next action are: Do you have enough healthy plants to replace the ones that are sick? Can you restore the sick plants to good health so they can resist insect attack?

The best defenses against insect attack are preventive measures. For starters, to prevent having stressed out plants, cultivate plants that are best suited to that environment. Don't let them be too wet, too dry or too shaded. Design a garden with a great level of diversity as this will make it difficult for pests to destroy the garden as you would have ‘mixed things up’. Healthy soil will naturally produce plants that are resistant to insects and disease, but pests are a part of gardening. There are different ways you can control pests naturally.

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