Spring has sprung, you can feel it, smell it, and even touch it! We love it, but unfortunately so do the unwanted visitors to our garden! With the amount of rain we've had this year and warming temperatures, the recipe for all kinds of growth has been laid down. So what do we do about the unwanted growth-expecially the creepy,crawly kind! |
| Common Sense Pest Control
The first order of business here is to evaluate that you even do have certain pests, and are they causing any damage? In order to do that you have to "be" the garden. What I'm saying is you must spend some time wandering about in and around the landscape looking,poking,and prodding. Not exactly a terrible task this time of year. The next step is does anything look abnormal or out of the ordinary? This time of year you should expect to see aphids,thrips,and perhaps powdery mildew. If you don't see any of these, the thrips will take very good eyesight,you're probably lucky! If you have them, are there enough of them or it to do damage to the plant? That is a hard thing to call and perhaps that is where you should bring a sample to the nursery.
Now what to do? Well the first step, and it may be too late for some, but eliminate unnecessary places for pests to grow and thrive-WEEDS! Unwanted growth in the area can be a great breeding grounds for insects and diseases. Next is to eliminate the pests with whatever method your comfort level is. Some folks would prefer to pick or wipe off the problem, and this is ok if there aren't too many. Fortunately these days, safe and non toxic remedies exist for almost any garden problem. Organic weed killers,post and pre emergent are available, organic fungicides,and pesticides abound. We've got a remedy for about any pest with a wide range of options from organic to conventional. A note about fungi. They are much easier to prevent than to clear up, with all the moisture this would be a good year to do preventative applications of fungicides! And finally a healthy plant will always be able to fend off any pest. Be sure you are fertilizing your plants regularly and keep them in the best possible state to fight the battle on their own! |
