Garden Pest Control

Four easy and effective garden pest control tips.

Here are some quick, effective tips for Garden Pest Control:

1. Remove over-ripe vegetables quickly and carry them far from the vegetable garden. They're a magnet for pests.

2. Keep the vegetable garden weed free. The trusty hoe is the best method for getting out weeds. Dig them up by the roots and then remove the roots from the vegetable garden plot (you might put them all in a compost bin or a big pile to compost naturally.) Weeds rob your vegetable plants of sunlight, nutrients and water that could be going to make your vegetable plants healthier and more productive. Putting down organic mulch (bark, leaves, newspaper, compost, or straw) helps retain moisture for your plants and helps keep weeds at bay.

3. It's much easier to remove weeds when they are small.

4. Seven Dust is an effective powdery poison, but see The Honey bee crisis (you might change your mind about commercial pesticides.) If you do plan to use pesticide, then make pesticide applications to your vegetable gardens and any plants when bees are not present in the garden, usually at dusk or after dark.