A garden with an abundance and diversity of flowers will attract beneficial insects to serve as natural pest predators.
If a plant of any kind shows signs of distress, there are usually effective remedies that don’t involve reaching for chemicals. Smart gardening reduces the chances that a plant will fall prey to an insect or disease infestation in the first place. Here are some tips for raising healthy plants without resorting to chemical fixes.
Diversify. Masses of the same plant together are targets for insects and disease. Make it harder for pests and pathogens to get a foothold by planting a wide variety of plants.
Match plants to the site. Select plants that are well suited to the site’s soil type, exposure, moisture level, and other idiosyncrasies. Don’t hesitate to replace plants that are struggling; stressed plants are more vulnerable to attacks, and there are always appropriate selections to be found.
Practice good culture. This means preparing the soil, planting, and mulching correctly. It means watering plants when they need it and—just as importantly—not watering them when they don’t. Proper fertilization practices are essential as well.
Use pruners and loppers. Sterilize these essential tools before cutting into healthy tissue with a solution of one part bleach to nine parts water. Enlist an ordinary garden hose. A garden hose and quality sprayer are important tools in the arsenal against pests. Purchase a quality sprayer and you are armed. Soft-bodied insects such as aphids may be destroyed with a forceful jet of water, or they will at least be knocked to the ground, where they will become prey for beetles and ground-feeding birds.
Encourage beneficial insects. Beetles, lacewings, and predatory wasps are just a few of the valuable pest predators that inhabit our gardens. Attract them with supplemental food sources—pollen (protein) and nectar (carbohydrates)—to augment their bug diet. Just about any flowering plant has benefits; grow a diverse and continuously blooming garden, and you will reap great rewards.
Consider doing nothing. Sometimes the best response to the appearance of a pest in the garden is to step back and let nature take its course. The pesticide industry is heavily predicated on the notion that gardening is full of problems that need to be solved, and manufacturers will happily sell you any kind of dangerous concoction to fling about your piece of Eden. Sometimes doing nothing is just as effective, and it’s a lot less harmful to the environment.
Paul Bonine is a garden writer, lecturer, and co-owner of the wholesale and retail specialty plant nursery Xera Plants, in Portland, Oregon. A lifelong plantsman, Paul has worked in the nursery industry for nearly twenty years and has consulted for NPR, the Sunset Western Garden Book, and The Oregonian.
Amy Campion is a freelance writer, editor, and photographer. She writes for an online tree retailer. She worked at a large wholesale/retail nursery for sixteen years before moving to Oregon, where she is active in the Hardy Plant Society. Campion blogs about gardening at amycampion.com.
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