As the Garden Grows

What's blooming today?


You are here: Home / Archives for pests

Organic gardening

by

Whether you are already an organic gardener or perhaps you are looking to get started I’m sure you’d find it helpful to find out what other organic gardeners are doing and perhaps incorporate some of their tips into your own gardening routine.

I practice organic gardening and my big secret is that I use Alfalfa tea (or compost tea) on all of my plants at least twice during the growing season. It’s like organic miracle grow. Honest. My roses absolutely love it and you guys have seen pictures of my plants, don’t they look happy?

Here’s what a few other Organic Gardeners are talking about this week:

Five Cheats For The Lazy Gardener: How To Hack A Garden

The crunch of carrots, snap of snow peas and ripe juicy tomatoes are all appetizing images. However, unlike many gardeners you may not have the time or energy to devote to growing. Don’t worry! If you have just one day to […]

Pests in Organic Gardening? No need to worry

If you’re into organic gardening, there are a number of things that you need to consider and one of them is a very interesting one: if you see a bug, it’s not the end of the world, or in this case your garden, as you know it. …

Partial Shade: Its Vital Role in Organic Vegetable Gardening

For gardeners, they know that shade plays an important role in what they are doing as much as the sun. This is especially true if one is into organic gardening of vegetables. The exposure to sun and its need to be in shade still depends …

The Truth About Organic Gardening

I just finished a great book about organic vs. conventional gardening. It is called “The Truth About Organic Gardening” by Jeff Gillman. Why did I like it? Well, for one it was an easy read. I’m a plant geek, not a bookworm. …

I hope that you get a chance to read one or all of these posts as there’s some good information there about organic gardening! Enjoy.






Dog fur in the garden to deter pests?

by

Ever since we created our garden six years ago we noticed that we occasionally have nocturnal visitors. These visitors come in the form of very large raccoons and a variety of house or stray cats!

We have a security light at the back porch and it’s regularly triggered at least once each evening and I often notice the light going on in the night as well if I’m up late. Most often when I peer outside the culprit turns out to be a cat.

Now, I tend to water my garden late in the evening. I developed that habit since I had an elderly neighbor who loved to watch everything I did both outside and even inside my home. She’d come outside whenever I was out, stare at me from her porch or watch me inside my home from windows in her home that faced my own. Creepy and stalker like!

She’s a nice old lady, but that watching behavior really got to me. Unfortunately she had a mild stroke in January and she’s now gone to live with her family. I suspect we’ll have new neighbors sometime in the summer.

So, as I was saying, since my neighbor was keen on watching me I was reluctant to go outside for long periods of time while being watch. Not only would she watch every move I’d make but she’d also try to talk to me from her porch. Of course I couldn’t hear her well so I’d have to stop what I was doing each time, walk up to her and find out what she’d said, reply and then go back to my gardening. This made getting anything done outside take sometimes four times longer than it should have!

Hence the late night watering! Oh, I also discovered that at the height of summer when it’s extremely hot and humid here that sometimes the only time it’s reasonable to go out and water is late at night when it’s a bit cooler.

I don’t mind the occasional cat coming through the yard as long as they don’t disturb anything, but late at night any animal making a sudden appearance can be scary. Especially if it turns out to be a HUGE raccoon or a raccoon family, which it has on many occasions.

Now that we have a dog I suspect nocturnal visits from these creatures will occur less frequently. Particularly if I bring the dog outside with me! However, I’d like to get a step ahead of my visiting creatures and do something to keep them away now.

So here’s my idea.

Our puppy just went through a big shed. She’s still shedding a bit, but a few weeks ago it seemed like her fur was coming out by the handful! One day as I was grooming her I thought about my garden visitors and thought I’d keep her fur and then, when the weather got better try distributing it through the garden in order to see if the doggy smell would deter the cats and raccoons.

About 80% of the snow has melted from our yard now. (thank you!) and crocus’ and other plants are beginning to make an appearance. I suspect I’ll be out in the garden this weekend doing a little cleaning. While I’m out there I think I’ll strategically place the dog fur in areas where I’ve seen cats and raccoons in my yard.

I guess we’re lucky that the cats and raccoons don’t really damage our yard. They use it more as a short cut to get to other areas. They come down the driveway, jump over the short gate and then head directly to the back of the garden and go over the fence into our neighbors driveway – or vise versa. Occasionally they’ll stop to search the ground and grass for worms and other delicacies, but luckily it’s not often.

So I know exactly which areas to target with my dogs fur.

Have you tried using dog fur or perhaps another animals fur in your garden to deter pests? Did it work?

I’ll keep you updated on my experiment. Wish me luck!

Spring tasks to get your garden growing

by

It’s been a long winter

Many of us in the North experienced one of the snowiest winters that we’ve had in years. Cool temperatures are continuing even though it’s already officially spring. I’d say that this year we’re probably going to be two or three weeks behind on our normal Spring gardening tasks.

Normally the snow is gone, or just about gone, by this time in March. In fact I usually have crocus’ and snowdrops blooming by now. However, if you experienced the same winter I did your garden is likely still buried under snow!

Still … it’s time to think about Spring gardening tasks.

I’m sure some of you have already started cleaning up your garden and preparing for the season ahead. Those of us that are still unable to get out into the garden, well … we can at least make sure that our gardening tools are in order, oil and sharpen our pruners and purchase any supplies that we need so that we’ll be able to catch up once the snow finally melts!

Spring Tasks

  • As I stated above, this is a great time of year to maintain your gardening tools by cleaning, sharpening and oil pruners, having your lawnmower blades sharpened, buying new gardening gloves and any other items that you might need throughout the coming months.

  • Once the grass is no longer wet and the soil in your garden beds dries out begin your outdoor tasks by raking the lawn to get rid of leaves, twigs and other debris that has accumulated in your yard thanks to winter winds.

  • Rake the dead growth from your lawn.

  • If you have damaged or bare patches on your lawn purchase some grass seed and re-seed those areas. Be sure to scratch the soil with a rake first and then apply grass seed to the area. Lightly cover the seed with a thin layer of soil and be sure to keep the area well watered until the seeds germinate and new grass begins to appear.

  • If you protected your shrubs, trees or any garden plants over winter it’s time to remove the winter protect. As the air warms it’s very important that your shrubs and trees have good air circulation around them. Leaving burlap or other forms of winter protect on too long can lead to bark rot.

  • This is also a great time of year to plant new trees, shrub, roses and other hardy dormant plants. Also if you have any trees or shrubs that you’d like to transplant elsewhere in your yard do it before they begin to leaf out.

  • Many trees and shrubs benefit from a spray of dormant oil as this helps to control scale insects and other overwintering pests. Euonymus, magnolias, crabapples and other fruit trees should be sprayed when their buds are in swell.

  • Take a good look at your garden beds and if you notice that any of your plants have come up out of the earth to the freeze and thaw cycles at this time of year. Replant any heave-ho victims as soon as possible. Most will recover nicely if you find them and replant while it’s still cool.

  • Wait until temperatures are reliably warm before you begin to remove mulch and cut back plants such as roses, evergreen plants and shrubs. You can cut off obviously dead branches but don’t cut into live branches until there’s no chance of frost or a return of cold weather. If you aren’t sure what to cut then just wait until it’s a little warmer and your plant is showing obvious signs of growth. Once you do feel it’s time to prune it’s best to prune plants such as roses before they leaf out.

  • Clear your garden of the previous seasons dead plant material such as dead leaves and other debris as they can harbor molds and overwintering pests.

  • Ornamental grasses can be cut back at this time as well.

  • Don’t overwork your garden beds by digging too early. The soil structure is delicate and if you dig in it while it’s still wet you can damage it’s composition. Soil should fall apart when you pick up a handful. If it sticks together in a clump wait until it dries out a bit more.

  • Once the soil has dried out you can begin to dig garden beds, add manure, compost and prepare for the planting of new perennials, annuals and vegetables.

  • Weeds will likely be some of the first green growth you see in your garden. Pluck them out now while they are still young and their roots are shallow. It will mean less work for you later on!

  • Don’t forget to care for your houseplants. The winter months can be hard on house plants as the air is often dry inside the house due to forced air heating. The light levels have also been lower too. Perhaps take a few moments to pick off any dead leaves, top up their soil and lightly fertilize your houseplants so they too will have a great spring start.

Happy Gardening!

Meta