How to Handle Weeds & Pest Control Problems

HANDLING WEEDS

Weed control is something that every organic gardener has to face. Whether you like it or not, you will have to deal with weeds at some point. Weeds are plants that grow in places that you don’t want them to grow. Any plant, whether it’s a grass, native plant or wild flower can be considered a weed if it grows in unwanted places.

Weed management starts with an assessment. Once you’ve determined which plants in your garden are considered to be weeds, it’s time to come up with a plan of action. Getting rid of weeds can be done in a number of ways. Some of the most common means of removing them include burning, smothering, applying mulch on them, planting ground covers, removing them by hand, and applying organic weed control spray.

Burning

If you are dealing a large area to weed, it would be better to start removing the weed with the process called solarization. It’s a way of killing weeds through burning them. Although it isn’t the fastest way to get rid of weeds, it’s an effective method to get rid of these unwanted plants. Depending on where you live and the current climate that you have, this effect can last from 3 weeks to 2 months.

How to do it:

Water the area first. Once you’re done watering the area, place a large plastic tarp over it. You may use bricks or rocks to hold the tarp down. The sun will heat the soil, cook the weeds, and eventually, kill the seeds. This process is best done in hot weather.

Smothering

Smothering is another method of getting rid of weeds. It refers to the process of cutting off the supply of sunlight to the plants.

How to do it:

You can use different materials including newspaper, cardboard, landscaping cloth, plastic or even recycled carpet. You may also lay mulch, tree bark, shells, and other things you think can serve the purpose.

Mulching

Another way of removing weeds is mulching. With mulching, you can use any organic matter available to you including compost and garden clippings.

Weeding by Hand

This is one of the more traditional means of weed removal. Weeding by hand, which often involves pulling them out of the soil, doesn’t really kill the weed. Removing weeds by hand will only leave to more of the same seeds. If you want to resort in this method, make sure that you soak them with water to soften the dirt around the roots.

PEST CONTROL

Garden pests can take different forms. They can be animals, birds, or insects that threaten the healthy growth and development of your plants. While healthy plants tend to be more resilient from the damages brought by these pests, you should still do something.

Slugs and Snails

Slugs and snails are probably one of the most common garden pests. They can chew away your plants if left untreated. Getting rid of these pests can be as simple as manually picking them off your plants, to more aggressive approaches like the use of slug pellets.

Slug pellets may be effective in getting rid of slugs and snails, but they can be toxic to wildlife and kids who love to play in your garden. Another option that you have is to use grapefruit skin and beer traps. These materials tend to attract slugs and snails. Then, you can manually remove them from your garden.

Insects

There’s an extensive list of insects that can damage your garden. These include wasps, aphids, caterpillars, and whitefly. These insects can be removed easily by working with nature. You can trap wasps with the use of sugary bait, attract birds to get rid of caterpillars, and introduce ladybirds, lace wings, and hoverflies to reduce the aphid population.

Animals

Just like with garden insects, there’s also a long list of animals that can be a real nuisance in your garden, like your neighbor’s dog, cat or wild deer. You can try to shoo them away without resorting to solutions that can harm them. Other things you can do to keep these animals away from your garden is by using citrus peels to drive away cats or using mesh fencing of at least 2.5 m (8 feet) high to protect it from deer. You might also try sonic repellant, which emits a high pitched sound that will drive these animals away.

As you go along the process of organic gardening, you will find that the journey towards maintaining it requires hard work and patience. There will be times where you will be tested with the presence of pesky pests but remember, there will always be methods to solve such problems, ones where you don’t have to immediately resort to the most aggressive approach. By working with nature and not against it, you will realize that most garden problems can be solved with simplest solutions.