10 Gardening Tips To Keep Pests Away

Gardening is a great hobby that a lot of people enjoy. But keeping the pests away is surely a struggle for most. Here are 10 gardening tips to keep pests away.

10 Gardening Tips To Keep Pests Away

Gardening is a great hobby that a lot of people enjoy. And even if you think you already know everything, as time goes by, you’ll realise how much there still is to learn. It’s a craft that requires a lot of patience, endurance and creativity that can be enjoyed by all ages, even seniors.

But doing organic gardening means pests will find you, so you need to have the knowledge to outsmart these pests or what you can plant to keep them away.

From keeping stink bugs out of your garden to crop rotation, these gardening tips to keep pests away will show you how you can keep bugs away from your garden and create a balance in supporting what you love and getting rid of what you don’t.

1. Try Crop Rotation Every Year

This method has been around for hundreds of years and is an old farming practice. The concept is that pests who find their way to a particular plant during this year won’t find it in the same location the next year by rotating your crops.

Diseases and soil pests like root-knot nematode roundworms stay in the soil unless predators wipe them out. If you plant the same crop within the same family, the pests can find it again. If nematodes are the problem, be sure to plant something different next year.

2. Attract Spiders to Your Garden
Spiders are known to eat all kinds of insects. Some of them catch their prey using their webs while others hunt them. Some plants can attract spiders and serve as a safe place for them.

A pile of mulch will be appealing for hunting spiders since they prefer closed-in, shadowy retreat. Petunias, asters, polygonum, sweet alyssum and St. John’s Worts are also appealing to them.

Orb spiders prefer any location that is high enough to reach sunlight to weave their webs and lay their eggs. Blackberries, tall irises, and bell peppers are perfect for them.

3. Grow Catnip for Stinkbugs

If stink bugs are causing you a problem, seal your home first so they can’t get in. Grow catnip in your garden and once it grows, you can cut it off and hang upside down to dry. Once it dries, crush it and sprinkle all over your garden.

 4. Introduce Ladybugs to Eat Aphids And Other Pests

Ladybugs are totally harmless for vegetable gardens but fierce warriors when eliminating pests. It’s been studied that they can eat as many as 5,000 insects in their lifetime! They eat up to 50-60 aphids a day and can also consume bugs, leafhoppers, mites and other soft-bodied insects.

You’ll need to plant sunflowers, cosmos, yarrow, goldenrod, fennel, marigold and angelica to attract them. Some nurseries also sell them live so you can just set them free in your garden.

5. Plant Extra Parsley, Dill and Cilantro for Pest Eaters

Parsley, dill and cilantro are three of the most beneficial herbs to plant in your organic garden. They also attract beneficial pests to combat unwanted pests than other herbs.

Butterflies lay their eggs on parsley and cilantro so the caterpillars love to eat them. Rather than getting rid of them, just plant extra herbs to support their life cycle.

6. Give Your Plants Room To Breathe

If you are trying to squeeze plants to fit in your garden, this will cause your problem in the long run. It’s crucial to give your garden some air circulation on a regular basis because they are very inviting to feeding insects because they enjoy the heat and protection from predators.

7. Water In The Morning

Watering in the morning has two advantages. First, they will keep your plants hydrated and make them less likely to become stressed and wilt. This makes them less appealing to pests who prey on stressed plants. Secondly, the leaves will dry off before the evening which will less likely become a hangout for slugs, snails and earwigs who love damp plants.

 8. Attract Toads, Frogs, and Birds to Your Garden

Frogs and toads should be welcomed in your garden because they feast on insects. All it takes is a bowl of water to inviting them over. You can also put up a toad house. Sometimes, they also carve out a depression in the soil where they wait for insects to eat.

Birds may eat some of your harvests but they also chow down some of the insects. You don’t need to attract birds to your garden, as long as they are already in the yard. But if you do, you’ll need to plant more food sources and provide trees and shrubs for shelter. They also appreciate a fresh source of water.

You can learn how to make a bug hotel for your garden here.

9. Court The Beneficial Insects

Not every insect chows down on your harvest. Some are carnivores that can help you quickly reduce the population of pests but you’ll have to educate yourself to what they look like.

The trick is to keep them around until all pests have been eaten. Beneficial insects also need pollen and nectar as much as they need protein from other insects so having plants that they eat will favour keep them longer

10. Stay on Top of Your Harvest

The last gardening tip to keep pests away is to harvest on time. Fruits that fall off the plants into the ground are an easy mark for a lot of pests. Overripe fruits and vegetables that still clings to plants can affect the entire plant, and weak plants are what pests target.

So be sure to harvest on time and clean up any fruits that fell. If you harvested some overripe fruits or vegetables, give the plant some extra water and light feeding to recover.