People are paying a lot more attention to their food these days, and many are getting into growing their own food. People who have even a small garden at their disposal can easily grow enough food for their families. Even apartment dwellers can make use of modern growing techniques like vertical farming and grow a very respectable amount of food.
The problem is that, while it is easy to start growing your own food, it can be challenging to actually get to a usable final product. The main hindrance in the process is the numerous pests that love a good vegetable garden, or even just a garden with healthy flowers. After all, plants and vegetables are food not only for humans but also for insects, birds, microorganisms, and even several animals. Here are a few effective strategies to help you deal with garden pests.
Scarecrow
Scarecrows have been used for centuries by both subsistence and commercial farmers. They are still used today, and this stands testament to their effectiveness. The great thing is that they are very easy to make and quite cost-effective. You can easily make a few of these and place them throughout the garden to scare away all kinds of pests. If you want to take it a step further, you could even attack a few low-wattage lights with some motion sensors on the scarecrows to make them effective at night as well.
Barriers
If you are dealing with slightly larger and slightly smarter animals like rodents or even ducks and deer, then you will need a more robust solution. To protect against these larger pests, it would be a good idea to create some kind of fencing to encapsulate the garden and keep the pests out. Many UK experts in pest removal recommend learning about what kind of barriers will work best in your situation or even hiring professionals to create a quality barrier for you. There are many kinds of fences that you can create that vary in cost and effectiveness.
It would also be useful to pair the fence with some kind of repellant. You can find repellents designed for bears, deer, ducks, and all kinds of animals that you can apply to the fence or in the garden itself. This will add another layer of protection and help make your garden seem like an unappealing option to an attacker.
Natural Guards
Not all kinds of pests in your garden are bad. Some kinds of insects can actually help you keep the other harmful insects at bay. Ladybirds, wasps, and some species of spiders can be great assets to have in your garden since they prey on other harmful insects or eat their eggs. To invite these beneficial insects into your garden, you should focus on growing plants that will generate good amounts of pollen and also grow plants that are natural habitats for these kinds of insects. These beneficial insects won’t harm your crops; they are just there to feed off the other insects that do harm your crops.
Soil Health
In some cases, you might not have such a major insect infestation, but you still see that you are losing plants or the plants are not producing as much as they should be. This is a sign of poor plant health, and the most common cause is undernourished soil. By regularly tilling the soiling and nourishing it with vital nutrients along with insect repellents you provide a better growing medium for the plants you grow. Not only will you get better plant growth, but the plants will be able to withstand insect attacks better as well.
Cleanliness
A lot of pests that you find in the garden are there because there is something of their interest available there. For instance, if you have a mulch pit if you have natural fertilizers laying around exposed, if there is waste material in the area or even just an open dustbin, it will attract pests like cats, birds, and all kinds of insects. If you can remove the thing that is attracting the animals and insects, it will save your garden from being trampled on and being compromised; this is another reason to maintain the upkeep of your garden and keep it clean. In other situations, the fruit or vegetable on the plant itself can be an attraction, so getting some light fencing to cover the plants yet still allowing light and air to reach the plant can help.
Certain plants are going to be more prone to being targeted or have a lower capacity to withstand attacks. For instance, if you are growing strawberries, and you already have other plants in the area, you can be sure that the small strawberry plants will attract a lot of insects, and these will, in turn, impact the other plants near the strawberries. Similarly, if you are growing very young plants, you want to provide them with a safer environment. Having a small greenhouse or even an indoor area will help reduce this problem.
