Organic Pest Control, Part 1: How to Prevent Pests in the Garden
So you have âbugsâ in your garden? Guess what? Youâre not alone. We have bugs in our garden too! And weâre perfectly okay with that. Some of them we even put there intentionally! An organic garden is more than a place to grow food, and it is certainly not a place for growing flawless, unblemished food. An organic garden is an ecosystem! It should be full of life, of all types. It is not a sterile place. Pests are an inherent part of organic gardening. However, there are may simple and organic pest prevention techniques you can use to reduce their presence and damage ~ naturally!
Letâs talk about pests, baby…
The subject of organic pest management is complex, and one that I am excited to discuss with you! But I think we need to break it down into digestible components. Just as I felt I couldnât dive in and tell you âhow to grow cannabisâ before providing some background information, disclaimers, and a holistic discussion on the subject firstâĶ pests control deserves the same! We need to lay a foundation, before covering the various organic methods you can use to manage pests. Plus, it would be impossible for me to solve all your potential pest problems in one article!
“Organic Pest Control: Part 1” will explore our philosophy and approach to pests. This includes defining exactly what a pest is, how you view their presence in the garden, the concepts of Integrated Pest Management, plus organic techniques for pest prevention.
If you’re thinking âget to the point and tell us how to get rid of pests already!â, let me tell you: this post IS the point. In our view, the best pest control comes from being proactive, rather than reactive. Pest prevention and mindfulness are key.
I will write a follow-up article on how to find and identify common pests in the garden soon. Additionally, articles are on the way about using beneficial insects, physical barriers, manual control methods, tricks and traps, and as a last resort, a few organic products we use to deal with pest infestations. Stay tuned! (Edit: See this post to learn how to ID the top 18 garden pests, and this article with over 25 ways to battle pests in the garden)
First things firstâĶ.
WHAT IS A PEST?
âA pest is any living organism, whether animal, plant or fungus, which is invasive or troublesome to plants or animals, human or human concerns, livestock, or human structures. It is a loose concept, as an organism can be a pest in one setting but beneficial, domesticated, or acceptable in another.â
Wikipedia
In this series of organic pest control articles, I am going to include examples of how we approach all sorts of pests, ranging from insects and wildlife to diseases and infections. Keep in mind that we may not struggle with the same types of pests that you do! Pests vary widely by location, but I will try my best to cover the key players. Here, we struggle most with aphids, cabbage moth worms, pillbugs, wild birds, gophers, leaf miners, and powdery mildew.
While there are many definitions of the word âpestâ out there, I like the one above best. It reminds us that every organism has a place in this world. While we may prefer that their âplaceâ not to be our gardens, we canât just go around killing things without consideration of that idea.
I would also like to point out that most definitions of pests mention âhuman concernâ, âbotherâ, or âannoyanceâ. Thus, your mindset and personal level of concern dictates just how troublesome the pest really is. Do yourself a favor: do not freak out or get angry over every little aphid, caterpillar, or hole munched! Chillax. It will all be okay!
We donât let holes in our greens bother us. A little caterpillar poop doesnât alarm us. It can be washed off! If there are a few aphids that need to be brushed away? Oh well. We are pretty laid back when it comes to that sort of thing.
Our Approach to Organic Pest Control
We are often asked âHow do you keep pests out of your garden?â Simply put: we donât. If youâre looking for a quick-and-dirty, âspray XYZ to kill themâ type of answer, Iâm afraid you wonât find it here. On this homestead, we utilize a wide variety of organic pest management strategies to prevent them from completely ruining our garden, but they are still present. Some of our solutions do take a bit more time and effort than spraying chemicals. But then again, some of them are as easy as âdo nothing!â
Are you familiar with the concept of Integrated Pest Management? It is a practice I learned about in college, and what we follow in our garden – for the most part!
âThe goal of Integrated Pest Management is not to eradicate pests, but to eliminate pest problems by strengthening and stabilizing the landscape so that conditions are more favorable for plants than for pests. By using scouting and monitoring practices for pests (insects, other arthropods, weeds, pathogens or vertebrates), actions to suppress population levels can be made in a timely manner, using a combination of the most environmentally-friendly and cost-effective tactics available.”
City of Santa Fe
Adding to that, a traditional IPM program may implement the use of pesticides, but only after all other preferable options have been exhausted. According to the University of California, âtreatments are made with the goal of removing only the targeted organism, and in a way that minimizes risk to human health, beneficial and non-target organisms, and the environmentâ. I donât necessarily love this part. Let me explain.
While well-intentioned, some IPM programs may resort to using pesticides that are not certified for organic gardening. Many certified organic farmers use IPM methods, but IPM is not necessarily synonymous with certified organic. That is where we differ. We try to be as close to certified organic as possible.
As a last resort, we may use neem oil sprays, soap sprays, and a few other mild products that are OMRI-listed for organic gardening, but we never use chemical pesticides. Additionally, because IPM is often applied in larger-scale, for-profit farming operations, their threshold for acceptable damage is likely much lower than ours. Unfortunately, the average customer expects blemish-free produce, which leads them to escalate their pest control measures more rapidly than we would.
Many organic home gardeners, ourselves included, have a higher tolerance for a little pest damage than farmers.
Which leads us to…
ACCEPTANCE
Insects, wildlife, and “pests” are part of nature. If you are attracting these guys to your garden, take that as a compliment! This means you have created a place that is hospitable for living things, which sure beats pavement and manicured, chemically-fertilized lawns. In an organic garden, you should expect to see some pests. Furthermore, try to learn to accept them, and get used to working with them. Healthy, organic gardens and farms shouldn’t be aseptic and devoid of life! Letâs leave that to Monstano, monoculture, and conventional farming please. Yuck, and no thank you.
Our garden is not âperfect”
I am here to say, loud and proud, that we have PLENTY of little nibble holes in our greens. Our soil is writhing with lifeforms of all sorts! When weâre not on top of things, birds and gophers will sometimes destroy entire plants. Sure… it can be annoying, but such is life. Perfection is not the goal.
While preparing this article, I wandered around the garden to snap photos of examples of pests that are currently on our plants. In only 10 minutes, I was able to find and document aphid issues, leaf miners, pillbugs, bird damage, powdery mildew, cabbage moth caterpillars, and gopher mounds! See? Not perfect.
We do NOT let food go to waste just because it has blemishes or bugs. I hope you wonât either! We regularly eat caterpillar-munched greens. If a radish, apple, tomato, or other produce item has a burrowing insect inside, we simply cut away that part eat the rest.
Personally, I would rather consume holey, healthy, organic greens than ones laced with toxic chemicals. Hell, I would rather eat aphids and tiny caterpillars on occasion (which totally happens!) than use harsh pesticides in our garden.
Insects wonât give you cancer. Pesticides on the other handâĶ
Within a human or animal body, pesticides may be metabolized, excreted, stored, or bioaccumulated in body fat. The numerous negative health effects that have been associated with chemical pesticides include damaging dermatological, gastrointestinal, neurological, carcinogenic, respiratory, reproductive, and endocrine-disrupting effects. Residues of pesticides can be found in a great variety of everyday foods and beverages, including cooked meals, water, wine, fruit juices, refreshments, and animal feeds. Furthermore, it should be noted that washing and peeling cannot completely remove the residues.
Nicolopoulou-Stamati, Maipas, Kotampasi, Stamatis and Hens, 2016: Front Public Health
Get to Know Your Bugs
It is important to remember that not all insects are harmful to your plants. Many are playing an important symbiotic role in your garden. For example, many insects mostly eat detritus and decaying things rather than fresh healthy plants. Theyâre helping to break down organic matter that in turn feeds your garden. Other insects work within the soil to fertilize and aerate it for you. Worms are a prime example! Some of the best beneficial insects will do you a solid and eat other pesky insects.
As an organic gardener, youâll want to learn to distinguish between the good guys and the bad guys, so you donât accidentally take action against a beneficial insect. See the examples below, and learn more about identifying pests versus beneficial insects here.
If you arenât already, youâll also need to try to get comfortable with touching bugs. No, I donât mean willingly picking up a huge spider! But, some of the quickest and easiest manual methods for organic pest control include touching insects. For example, smushing aphids or small pest caterpillars with your fingers when you spot them.
When I talk about âacceptanceâ, I do not necessarily mean to let pests run a muck and destroy your garden, with no care or attempt to stop them. If theyâre causing mass destruction, you most certainly should step in! Weâll talk about control methods in another post. However, when an organic garden is healthy and in harmony, pests are often times kept in check through natural balance. The need for intervention can be minimal, which is ideal. Next, weâll talk about ways to achieve that harmony and balance.
PEST PREVENTION
The first step of implementing organic pest control strategies in your garden is pest prevention. By building a healthy soil, nourishing your plants well, choosing and arranging plants with purpose and thought, and providing routine care and maintenance, pests can often be kept at a minimum ~ naturally!
Letâs go over all the ways you can help prevent disease and pests in your garden, by keeping it as happy and healthy as possible.
Pest Prevention through Plant Health
Just like human health and our immune systems, the same principles apply to plants. The best way to fight disease is to take care of yourself and prevent it from occurring in the first place, as well as you can. Eat well. Exercise. Find balance between work and rest. Avoid toxic products, processed food, and junk. Go organic. While it may take a little more effort upfront, the long-term reward is worth it!
Furthermore, think of chemical pesticides like prescription drugs in our society. The quick easy fix. Overused and abused. Both are often used to temporarily mask unpleasant symptoms, but are not effective at fixing the deeper issues. Exactly like prescription drugs, the negative side effects usually outweigh the benefit they are supposedly providing!
The healthier our plants are, the more resilient they’ll be to disease and pests. Pests are known to be drawn to weak, sickly plants. Weak, sickly plants will also be more easily affected and overcome by pests. It is a vicious cycle.
There are many ways to boost your plants health and immune systems! First and foremost, they need to be happy in their home. And by home, I mean soil.
Pest Prevention by Improving your Soil
Create and maintain the healthiest soil possible by using plenty of rich aged compost, mild organic amendments or fertilizers, and no harsh chemicals. This will help your plants flourish, and also keep the natural biology and soil food web in natural balance. To learn more about building the perfect organic soil, please see this post all about it!
If your soil is already established and youâre worried that it isnât ideal, donât fret. Continue to nourish it with compost, add worms and worm castings, and try using actively aerated compost tea! Worm castings are known as âblack goldâ, and rightly so. When added to your garden soil, they inoculate your soil with beneficial microbes. Worm castings increase soil aeration, drainage, and water retention. They also increase nutrient uptake by plants, aid in seed germination, increase overall vigor, and last but not least, improve the plants resistance to stress and disease.
Basically, worm castings or compost are like the probiotics and multivitamins of the plant medicine cabinet!
If you donât have a worm compost bin already, this article will show you how to set up and maintain a super simple one! And here is a post to show you how to make actively aerated compost tea. Our worm bin plays a central role in our plant health and pest prevention practices.
Pest Prevention through Diversity & Polyculture
Plant a wide variety of things to create biodiversity in your garden. This is a way to create balance, and also attract more beneficial insects. Additionally, variety and polyculture – the term for mixing many types of plants in one space – reduces the chances of widespread devastation by pests that are all attracted to the same crop. We try to spread out our crops through many beds in the garden.
For example, instead of putting all our tomatoes in one bed and all our peppers in another, we usually plant a few tomatoes in one bed, and a few in another, with peppers, flowers, and basil intermixed. The same goes for greens, squash, root veggies, and others. We rarely have one bed with only one type of veggie in it. That way, pests are less intensely drawn to one area or another. Also, if one area becomes infested with a pest insect, it makes it less easy for them to hop on over to the next plant.
Polyculture also reduces the spread and damage from disease that afflicts certain crops. Fungal diseases like powdery mildew or garlic rust can easily spread from plant to plant by leaves touching. Try your best to follow the prescribed spacing recommendation for plants. This is particularly important for ones you find prone to pests! Crowded plants with less airflow are more susceptible to disease, especially mildews and fungus
Keeping things mixed up and spaced out throughout the garden can help prevent your entire lot from being taken out. On the other end of the spectrum, planting a large amount of the same thing together (monoculture) leaves your plants vulnerable and âasking for itâ.
Pest Prevention through Plant Selection
If you come to find that your area is prone to certain diseases or pest, see if you can find plant varieties that are naturally resistant to that issue! For example, we are able to find squash varieties that are resistant to powdery mildew – a huge problem here. Thanks Johnnyâs Seeds! Additionally, we often times choose determinate varieties of tomato, ones that set fruit early and all at once. The plants can come and go more quickly – before the powdery mildew takes hold. This way, we donât even bother trying to treat for it.
Even the color of fruits and vegetables can make them more pest resistant! Did you know that pest insects and birds are less drawn to purple or red veggies than their green counterparts? Meaning, if you plant purple kale and red cabbage, youâre less likely to find cabbage worm damage on them than green kale and green cabbage. With fruit on the other hand, we have found that wild birds completely ignore our Desert King Fig because of its green color. The birds will peck at our other types of figs once theyâre ripe – the ones that turn purple and red as they mature. The Desert King is a green-ripening fig, meaning its outer skin stays green even when the inside is red and juicy. The lack of color change makes the birds not attracted to it!
Another disease and pest prevention best practice is to start your own seedlings from seed at home, with fresh seedling start mix. In doing this, you can select specific varieties with appealing attributes like I just mentioned above. When seed-shopping, keep an eye out for disease or pest resistant properties that would specifically help with something you struggle with in your garden. There are seed varieties naturally bred to resist mosaic virus, blight, nematodes, fusarium wilt, root rot, leaf curl virus, various mildews ,and more! Just make sure theyâre certified non-GMO!
When you buy and bring home already-started seedlings from the garden center, there is a slight risk of introducing new pests or problems to your garden. Make sure to look them over carefully! Check out these posts for more info: all about how to start seeds, where to buy organic and non-gmo seeds, or how to choose the best seedlings at the nursery.
Last but not least, try to choose plants that are known to do well in your growing zone and area. This will help reduce stress. Furthermore, ensure you are growing them during the right season! Letâs set our babies up for success, shall we? If you aren’t sure when to grow what, talk to other local gardeners, the staff at your local nursery, or reference your garden planning toolkit (described below) to get a better idea!
Pest Prevention through Companion Plants
The practice of companion planting can have a favorable impact on preventing disease and pests. There are many plants that you can grow along side veggies and fruits that help mitigate them! Companion plants can both deter pests, and attract beneficial insects and pollinators to your garden.
For example, french marigolds are said to prevent root-knot nematodes when planted with tomatoes, melon, and squash. Put dill alongside cabbage and other brassicas to attract beneficial parasitic wasps that can reduce the presence and damage of cabbage moth worms. Nasturtiums deter cucumber beetles, while also serving as “trap plant” to attract aphids and cabbage moths to them – and away from your crops.
We always try to mix calendula, marigolds, zinnia, and basil among all our summer vegetables. I recently planted onions intermixed with our aphid-prone swiss chard, because onions repel aphids. Garlic does the same. Guess what? It has been working! We currently have some aphids on the swiss chard planted without onion companions, but none on those by the onions! Natural pest prevention for the win.
The list of applications for companion planting goes on and on. The subject of companion planting deserves a dedicated post of its own, which you can find here. You can also get a full list of companion plant relationships – who likes to be planted with who, and who doesnât – in an easy-to-reference chart within the Homestead and Chill free Garden Planning Toolkit. It also includes planting calendars to help you determine the best time of year to grow things, for every USDA hardiness zone!
Pest Prevention Through Garden Maintenance & Crop Rotation
Maintenance doesn’t equal meticulous. Do not be overly tidy in your garden! Meaning, do not remove every bit of detritus (debris, miscellaneous plant bits) from your soil and garden beds. Sure… you donât want a bunch of stuff piling up, because that can attract pests. But leave behind a little something that you donât care about for the insects to chew on if they want.
For example, to promote growth in young green seedlings (plants like kale, bok choy, mustards, collards, etc), we routinely pluck off the oldest, smallest, outermost leaves of the plants. The leaves that aren’t worth eating, much to the chickens dismay, we leave lying on the soil around the base of the plants. This gives the pillbugs and millipedes something to munch on, rather than our crops. Many insects are detritus eaters – they prefer decaying matter. If everything is too tidy and there is no detritus available, those insects will be drawn to our plants instead!
Rotate your crops. This means, as much as possible, avoid growing the same plants in the same exact location year after year. Trust me, I realize this can be difficult! Especially if you are working with limited growing space or just a few garden beds. Just do the best you can. Experts suggest to not grow the same thing in the same spot for at least one year between crops, but two or more years is even better. Crop rotation helps to reduce pests and disease, and especially helps prevent recurrence if your crops had issues in that spot!
One last garden maintenance recommendation is about water. Your plants will feel less stressed if you develop a consistent watering routine, and prove regular and even moisture. Avoid letting them fully dry out between watering, but also do not drown them.
Pest Prevention through Diligence
A very important step in preventing the presence of a few bugs from becoming a full-blown infestation is by checking on your garden often. Examine the plants and leaves closely, including the undersides of leaves – that is where many pests like to hang out! I try to look things over well about once per week. For example, if you can find a little cluster of aphids early on, just smush em’, wash them off, and keep a close eye on them to ensure they don’t come right back. No spraying or “treatment” needed!
Sure, this takes a little bit of time and effort. But inspecting frequently will help you catch a pest problem before they do too much irreversible damage. It is much more difficult to manage once a large population of insects has been established! I personally love being out there, fussing over the plants and getting to know them…
Detecting disease like mildew and fungus early on is important too. Often times, it can be easily treated with organic or natural homemade sprays if caught soon enough. In contrast, if the plant is heavily infected and starting to spread to other plants, it may be too late. That plant might need to be removed instead of treated.
Pest Prevention through Special or Targeted Treatments
One last way to prevent the impact of pests is to boost both soil and plant health with special treats for them. Look into amendments that might help prevent pest issues. For example, both crustacean or shrimp meal are fertilizers that can be added to garden soil, and are said to help ward off root-knot nematodes. Neem seed meal is a great natural fertilizer that can also deter harmful nematodes, parasitic fungus, aphids, and ants.
Our plants are spoiled. They get a very special treatment with aloe vera on occasion! Aloe vera also helps boost plant immune systems, increases nutrient uptake, and improves their resistance to drought, stress, and disease. We use fresh aloe vera to create a soil drench to water plants with – especially newly transplanted ones, as it helps reduce transplant shock! You can also use aloe vera to make foliar sprays, which we do for cannabis. To read more about how to grow and use aloe in the garden, check out this post.
Compost tea is another wonderful treat for your plant babes. Post coming soon!
Pest Prevention through Physical Barriers
Fencing. Bird netting. Wire cages. Floating row covers. Gopher baskets. Weed cloth. These are just a few examples of physical barriers that you can use in your garden to reduce pest damage. As part of Integrated Pest Management, we use them extensively in ours! However, I am not going to delve into these options in detail quite yet.
While physical barriers can definitely prevent pests from accessing your garden and harming your plants, I consider them a âcontrolâ method, and not in line with the rest of this post.
Think about it this way: Not everyone will have issues with rabbits, deer, or squirrels. Some lucky people may not need to use physical barriers in their garden at all! Physical barriers are implemented in response to the presence of a âpestâ or member of our local wildlife community visiting our individual gardens. Therefore, theyâre more of a control method. We will cover various methods of pest control in a follow-up post!
On the other hand, all of the other concepts we have discussed today could (and should!) be applied to any garden.
When Pest Prevention Lets You Down…
All of the preventative measures we have talked about today, from building soil and plant health to choosing disease-resistant varieties, are excellent steps to take! They will certainly, most definitely help. But truth be told, these steps probably will not 100% protect and prevent your garden from an occasional pest problem. Even the healthiest gardens are susceptible to disease and pests. We have our fair share!
When we are experiencing a pest problem, the severity of the situation or infestation dictates what type of reaction we have. We always try to start with simple, manual and physical means of control first. If things start to get out of hand, we may step up our response to another level. But we always choose organic methods!
As with any good Integrated Pest Management approach, the type of pests we are dealing with also dictates our response.
Prevent, identify, then act!
The next post in this series is all about finding and identifying pests, before moving into actionable steps. Check it out here: “Organic Pest Control Part 2: How to Identify the Top 18 Pests & Beneficial Insects”. This article includes some tips and tricks for how to control those top 18 pests, but we’ll go into even more detail about that in Part 3!
In closing, dealing with pests can be frustrating. Trying to control nature is challenging. So instead, let’s work with nature and hopefully make it easier on everyone involved!
I hope you found these pest prevention and garden health tips useful! I also hope you found our philosophy and approach to organic pest control insightful and thought-provoking. Please let me know if you have any questions, and spread the love for organic gardening by sharing this post!
19 Comments
Barry Richards
Hi DEANNACAT,
Let me tell you you have really done great research around pest control, I have tried some of your tips on my back yard, particularly plant rotation and aloe vera worked great for me. But still We are facing the problem, But thanks for showing some other methods, I will try to follow them.
Karen
It has taken me a long time to work up the courage to plant an edible garden, and I am starting with educating myself through your blog. I chose to learn about pest control first because I truly belief that organic is best especially now when our environment is so contaminated. I really want to start it right! Love all the images which make it very clear for a newbie like me.
Thanks Deanna! : )
DeannaCat
Aw, thank you for that feedback. And yes, I agree! Nothing beats homegrown food, though the joy of gardening extends far beyond the benefit of having safe, fresh food to eat. It is therapy, exercise, entertainment, and a constant learning environment. I am glad to help.
Gail Connor
So glad to have stumbled upon your fabulously entertaining and surprisingly calming article. Youâve talked me down! Five decades in and Iâm finally trying to grow a few veggies – made many mistakes mainly due to lack of prepping – but for some reason my 4 tomato plants have thrived. Theyâre chock full of huge, green tomatoesââ- and just as theyâre about to turn red, bingo, black holes. I have been very annoyed and have been searching online for an immediate cure, and most definitely not chilling out.
However, one extremely informative read later and Iâve now stopped fretting. So thank you, lesson learned, got it. Iâll take what comes this year, if anything, with gratitude, and will start again next year â- Iâll make a mindful plan, prep the soil, make some beds, think about worms and bugs differently (ie, not wanting to take a flame thrower to their wriggly behinds) and will stop blaming my garden for not being pintrest perfect after * ehem * not enough effort.
This is my very first time leaving a comment online â sorry if itâs too long â- but wanted to say thanks, and to let you know it has made a big difference, and that it makes perfect sense to me.
Iâll keep reading.
DeannaCat
Hi Gail! Thank you for taking the time to say hi and leave a comment! Your story made me laugh! And I know it is likely very similar to so many newer gardeners. I know I used to feel the same about bugs! I hope you found the other couple of articles we have on pest control too, to learn how to manage them (but not try to obliterate them! Lol). Have a great weekend
Doug
Other than buying ladybugs, how can I increase the likely hood of having ladybugs in my garden?
And if I buy them how do I get them to stick around? We bought some once and then never saw them again after we released them.
DeannaCat
It is best to release them in the evening, and dampen the plants you are going to put them on first. Keep them refrigerated right before release, as they’ll move more slowly and be less likely to fly. Put them right around where there are a lot of aphids, so they don’t have to search far for food and will want to stick around. If you don’t have a lot of aphids, they may not love your garden as much as an infested one – but that isn’t the worst thing in the world either! Ha!
Stevie
Thank you so much! This was incredibly helpful. I’ve done a bit of companion planting in the past, but I used your guide when planning out my beds this spring. The biggest “pests in my area are the slugs and snails. They looooooove those leafy greens! I sprinkle eggshells around the crops that seem especially attractive to the slugs, but I’ll definitely do more of letting the slugs have some of the smaller leaves.
Something has been munching on my broccoli leaves but I don’t see any slug slime anywhere near the broccoli, or signs of any other kind of bug, so I’m not sure what’s eating it. The plants as a whole seem to still be pretty strong so I’ll just keep an eye on it.
Last year I grew corn for the first time and a neighbor kept walking by asking “have the squirrels found your corn yet?” The corn kept growing and we harvested several good sized cobs, until one day I came home and found a squirrel sitting on my fence munching on a big ol’ cob. Ha! After that it was impossible to keep them away ð
Angel
Hi! Thanks for making this! I work at a garden store, and the hardest part of work for me is customers wanting various pesticides to use in their garden when a hole appears in any leaf! Your wording is so lovely and I’ll be directing lots of folks to this particular post over the course of the summer as pest problems roll in. Appreciate all the work that went into it, and the organization, and looking forward to parts 2 and 3. ð
DeannaCat
Oh my, that would be very frustrating for me too! Thank you for the feedback and for spreading the word! It is much appreciated. Have a great summer season!
Marni
Love this!! I feel so chuffed… I have been intuitively doing all of these things without realising. Going to give the worm farm a go.. I feel as if that is my missing link. A great read… you speak my gardening language!!
Tara
So excited for the pest series of posts! After a ton of research I realized the black junk that took over my crepe myrtle leaves was black sooty mold. Working on fixing it now and Iâm sure your posts will help!
melly
Iâll say it again, youâre doing wonderful, IMPORTANT work here!
I found leafhopper instars in my cannabis one year and promptly bought 1,000 ladybugs. Days later, no more leaf hoppers.
I couldnât agree more with everything you said here, Deanna. Keep it up!
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Karen
Thank you so much! This is such great information!
KristaGoddess
This was more helpful than I was expecting! Companion plants and the pic of the natural white thatâs not mildew! Iâm like oh! Lol thank you for inspiring me with every post and helping foster a healthier planet!