In this video I'm gonna show how I control pests in the garden - naturally. Insects can be a nuisance in the garden, but they play an important role in the ecosystem.They provide food for birds, they help pollinate our gardens, and they help break down organic matter into nutritious soil that our plants can use. So when you use a pesticide, no matter how organic it claims to be you are still affecting the ecosystem.
My first rule for pest free plants is to keep them happy and healthy. Compost is an excellent soil amendment that works overtime helping your plants thrive.
Stressed plants attract pests. Over fertilization is one source of such stress. Watering issues and mineral imbalances in the soil cause problems in the plants ability to carbon dioxide, water, and nitrogen. The result is a stressed plant with excess soluble nitrogen and excess sugar.
Excess nitrogen is a magnet for aphids. They feed off of it. Then have lots and lots of babies, and quickly create an infestation sucking the life out of your plants. The excess sugar stored in the roots is like free ice cream at an all you can eat buffet.
Plants have a natural immune system that makes them taste terrible to pests. Just like organic, whole foods help boost our own immune system, compost provides plants with nutrients they need. The difference between compost and synthetic fertilizer is like the difference between eating a variety of nutritious foods and a diet consisting of only multivitamins.
Compost rich in decomposed organic matter provides micronutrients needed to boost plants’ natural defenses. Healthy plants are rarely attacked by pests because their immune system makes them indigestible to insects.
Soil that contains compost is full of beneficial fungi. These fungi keep plants healthy by out competing disease causing organisms and by forming symbiotic relationships with plants. The fungus through its massive mycelium network helps plants uptake nutrients and water and in exchange the plants provide the mycelium with sugars.
Trap crops are another resource you can grow to keep pests from destroying your garden. A trap crop is a sacrificial crop that you grow with the intention of getting infested with bugs. You then remove the trap crop along with the pests. Think of it as a decoy, you got the broccoli you want to eat over here and the decoy plant of radishes over there. Plant the decoy trap crop about two weeks before you plant your desired crops, so when the pests arrive, they will go to whatever they find first. Also make sure to space the trap crops far enough apart, about 4 feet, because they will cross contaminate if planted too closely.
The type of trap crop depends on the type of pest you want to attract as well as the crop you want to protect.
Herbs such as dill, parsley, cilantro, and basil make delicious companion plants. They repel pests and attract beneficial insects! Dill is also a host plant for monarch butterflies and a decoy plant for tomato hornworms. Grow dill! It attracts a ton of beneficial insects!
Beneficial insects are insects that eat other bugs and they don't harm your plants.
Lacewings, dragonflies, spiders, and ladybugs are gardener’s friends.
Spiders - stop ants from taking over your garden to farm aphids. Just like humans farm cattle, ants farm aphids for the sweet sticky honey dew they secrete. If you stop ants, you’ll prevent aphids.
Ladybugs eat aphids. You can buy them online and release them in your garden, or you can get them for free by growing herbs that naturally attract them. Dill, parsley, calendula, and cilantro make great host plants for ladybugs.
For larger insects and caterpillars enlist the help of birds! Insects provide protein in a bird’s diet.
- So how do you attract birds to your garden?
- Grow berries they can eat
- Plant bushes where they can hide
- Provide them with a source of clean water
If you live in the southeast, you’re probably familiar with anoles, or these little lizards. They are insectivores and an important part of our ecosystem here in Florida. Besides being famous for our beaches and theme parks, we are also famous for our mosquitoes. And these little lizards are doing the lord's work keeping insect populations under control.
This is my 3rd year gardening without pesticides. It has been a challenge, but also a joy seeing the symbiotic ecosystem come together. Luckily in Florida we have a year round growing season, so we don’t have to wait until spring to try new techniques. I’d like to encourage you to create your own ecosystem and let me know what kind of birds end up visiting your garden!
Thanks for watching, glad you made it to the end! If you want to learn more about permaculture gardening make sure to hit that subscribe button! And if you have any questions or suggestions for a video, drop them in the comments below. Until next time! Bye bye!