Having To Deal With Garden Pests

June 15, 2009 by Michael Wilson  
Filed under Garden Pests

There is nothing more frustrating to the gardener than to walk through their garden to find holes in all of their plants that looked fine only hours before. The explanations for some of these plant-destroying holes are of course garden pests. Some of the main garden pests are slugs, worms, caterpillars, birds, snails, and the occasional gopher. Although you can never wipe out these pests entirely, after all your hard work in the garden you have to do something.

Insects are one of the worst things to have in your garden; they can live under the soil, in old weeds or piles of leaves, or in a number of other places. In order to help keep insects away, always try and eliminate places in your garden and near your garden that these insects and other plant diseases could be living. Remove old leaves, weeds, or any other decaying matter that insects and diseases could be living in from your yard. Also, regularly turn over your garden soil and break apart any clumps of dirt so that you can eliminate the living spaces any insects that might be hiding underground.

Another way to rid your garden of the pests is to use dormant spray, which is used to keep destructive insects and diseases under control. It is best that you use dormant spray when your plants are dormant, usually around February or early March. Dormant spray is only effective if you follow the correct instructions. Be careful you follow the instructions correctly as some insects can be beneficial to your garden, so be sure to find out which insects help your garden - before you accidentally kill them.

Another pest problem besides insects is birds. Instead of chasing them away, why not put a bird feeder in your yard. Instead of costing you time and money with the birds eating your garden, the birds eat at
the bird feeder. In the long run it’ll save you money. Not only can a bird feeder help keep birds away from your garden, but they can also be a new part of your yard decoration.

If you start seeing mounds of dirt around your yard, and your plants keep dying, you can assume that you have a gopher problem. Gophers are rodents that are five to fourteen inches long. Their fur can be black, light brown, or white, and they have small tails. One method of getting rid of these root-eating pests is to
set traps. The key to successfully capturing a gopher using a trap is to successfully locate the gopher’s tunnels and set the trap correctly. Another way to get rid of them is to use smoke bombs, which you place into the tunnel and the smoke spreads through out it and hopefully reaches the gopher.

If you suspect that your gardens are being pillaged by any of the pests mentioned, try your hardest to eliminate the problem as soon as possible. The longer you let the species stay, the more established it will become.

Your Home Garden Design Is The Greatest Challenge

May 30, 2009 by Michael Wilson  
Filed under Gardens


 
After you have spent so many hours on your own home garden design, it would be wise to get cracking before the seasons change, as you may have to change most plants that you originally wanted in it. It would help sketching out your home garden design and plotting and planning what you want where.

A good thing to remember when you are busy with your home garden design is what actually goes where, due to soil and sunshine or shade availability. If you find you have by chance planted a plant in a spot and it doesn’t seem to grow so well, relocate it into a different area of the garden. If again the plant doesn’t do well check with the nursery what type of soil the plant requires of if it likes to share space with others or not.

Doing a bit of research while creating your home garden design would help in time, money and effort put into it before the hard work begins. Play with ideas and check with the local nursery if your choices of plants are also indigenous or evasive. Just because you like the look of a plant doesn’t mean you can just have it, some plants actually need licenses while others are not allowed to be planted at all.
 
Now that you have some basic knowledge, the next step would to make sure you got the right tools for the job coming up. There is nothing more frustrating than working in a garden and finding out the home and garden product actually doesn’t work as well as it should due to design or size. If you have a smallish home garden design and there is not much digging to be done it would be pointless to get the biggest spade possible thinking you could save time, it wouldn’t work well in other small spaces or pots that you may have, same with the garden forks.
 
The fulfillment comes once you have completed your own home garden design and you can actually enjoy it instead of slaving away in it for a change. The rest of the time it would be just general maintenance. You can maybe finally sit on the lavish green lawn that you have planted or finally pick the roses that you so carefully nurtured, smell the scent in the evenings of the Star Jasmine you planted, working their way into your home. These are just simple pleasures that so many of society take for granted.
 
Whatever your design, be it jungle, stone and cacti, tropical or just plain lawn care, enjoy it.

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