Your garden should be able to add beauty to your home and provide you a good view of nature. It should be something that can give you peace and tranquility when you want to relax and have some peace of mind. However, your garden won’t give you all these if it’s dirty and pest-ridden, nor will it be pleasing to the eye if it’s full of weeds and weak and dying plants.
If you want to have a beautiful and healthy garden, then here are some tips worth following.
Buying Plants
Let’s say you’ve gotten rid of all weak, sickly, and dying plants and you want to replenish your garden with new ones, what should you do first?
At the nursery, you need to check the plants you’re going to purchase. You need to make sure that they’re healthy and that they’re not carrying any pests or diseases that can infect healthy plants.
You also need to check the roots and the leaves. Make sure that the roots look and feel firm, and see to it that its color is white. If you notice that the roots look dark and mushy, avoid it. It’s not going to be a good buy. The stems and leaves may look healthy, but its roots are saying otherwise. In a few days, its rotted root system is going to kill it.
As for the leaves, see to it that its color is vibrant. Avoid plants that have dead spots on its leaves, and avoid those, too, that have holes.
Insect Damage
Pestiferous insects can do a lot of damage to plants. They feed on the leaves, stems, and even the roots. They even feed on the flowers. Not only can they cause extensive damage to plants, but they can also spread infection and diseases. In the end, these pestiferous insects are going to leave you with weak and dying plants, plus an unsightly garden as well.
If you want to keep pestiferous insects away, then you have to allow beneficial insects to stay. These beneficial insects are the natural predators of the pestiferous ones, some examples of which include green lacewing, damsel bug, minute pirate bug, ladybug, bees, spiders, beetles, etc.
Having beneficial insects in your garden can help keep plants healthy and beautiful since they prey on pests. Unfortunately though, if you’re using chemical products and pesticides for your garden, these beneficial bugs are oftentimes killed together with the pestiferous ones. Their numbers dwindle drastically that, when the population of the pestiferous insects climbs back up, there are a few left of the beneficial ones to control them.
For this reason, choose natural and organic pest control methods first to spare the population of the beneficial insects.
Organic Insect Repellents
As mentioned earlier, if you’re going to use pest control methods, it’s wiser to use organic and natural ones. You can even make your own homemade insect sprays. They work wonders to control pest population; plus, they’re safer for humans, pets, and the environment as well.
For garden pests though that can’t be controlled through these means, you can get in touch with a pest control company to get rid of them for you. Just see to it though that the company’s offering green solutions for pest problems.
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Jennifer Daggett, a blogger and freelance content provider, writes for http://Admiralpest.com. She usually gives tips for controlling pests the natural and organic way.