Organic Debugging

How, then, do you protect your garden from pests? There are ways.

1. Plant crops that are pest resistant. Some plants are very susceptible to pests, while others are not. Here are some suggestions for bug-resistant planting.

   Flowers	Vegetables	Fruits	Herbs	Ground Cover
   Roses Daffodils Paperwhites Iris California Poppy Valeriana Sage Penstamon Hardenbergia vine Viola Impatiens Begonia	Lemon Cucumber Small Tomato Sweet Pepper Corn Radish Chard Pumpkin	Any fruit	Any herb Rosemary	Vinca

   Here are some plants to avoid: daisies (use fever few or coreopsis instead), tulips (use daffodils and iris instead), Mexican primrose (use ordinary primrose instead), lettuce (or use methods below), pansies (use violas instead),

2. Improve your soil. Healthy plants are more resistant to insects, just as healthy jungle animals are less likely to be eaten by predators. Healthy plants come from terrific soil. You can make your soil terrific by adding lots of compost and mulch. Mulch is a layer of natural material such as leaves that you add to the top of your soil. For example, every fall I put a six inch layer of oak leaves on top of my rose bed; the leaves gradually break down and become fluffy soil. The soil is so fluffy now that I can dig in it with my fingers. For more information on compost, see our Compost Simplified and Compost F.A.Q..

3. Kill! Kill! Kill! Organic gardening has nothing against killing pests. Joseph Campbell, author of Hero With a Thousand Faces, once told me that death is a natural part of life. Campbell said that civilized humans need to find a safe outlet for their natural urge to kill. I enjoy killing snails. If I see a snail, I smash it into oblivion. At night with a flashlight, or very early in the morning, you can go on snail patrol and wipe out a whole army. Wear latex gloves. Pick up each snail and return it to the earth: drop it and smash it into the ground with your shoe. If you are squeamish about killing, just toss the snails as far away as you can, instead of killing them.

4. Bait. No, no, not "Snail Bait." Use beer. Put out small containers such as empty tuna cans or pretty little Chinese cups, and fill them with beer. A few snails or small slugs, and many earwigs will crawl into the cup, attracted by the beer, and drown. Awww. Leg Up and Gardeners Supply (see side bar) both sell trap for this, but you can use whatever you have. I suppose there may be advantages to the commercial traps, but I have not tried them.

5. Squish. Some insect such as aphids like to congregate on unopened flower buds, especially on roses. Cup your gloved hand over the bud, bring your fingers and thumb together under/around the bud, and gently swipe upward, killing all the aphids. Also, if you see an earwig, pinch it dead.

6. Wash. Overhead watering will eliminate a mild infestation of aphids or spittle bugs. If you use drip irrigation, occasionally turn a strong water spray on your plants. Wash houseplants by putting them in the shower.

7. Protect you babies. If you are growing plants from seed, start the seeds indoors. When the seedlings have four leaves each, transplant them into deeper containers, outdoors but up on a table. Plant them in the ground only when they are big and strong, like plants that come in 4-inch pots.

8. Deter. Leg Up (see side bar) sells urine from predators such as mountain lions, to deter deer. I don't know if it works or not. A friend swears that the sound of a cougar broadcast periodically in the yard does scare away the deer. pam@wildhorses.com

9. Fence. For deer, my friends suggest building a tall wire mesh fence around your garden, and covering it with vines.

10. Build a fort. If you are trying to grow something like lettuce that is susceptible to bug damage, build a raised bed with sides made out of 1 x 6 inch wooden planks, with a 1 x 3 strip of wood around the top, providing a little ledge around the top. Under the ledge, smear some sticky stuff, like tree barrier. The snails and earwigs cannot cross the sticky barrier. The lip of the ledge makes it less likely for you to get stuck in the sticky stuff. Underneath the fort, attach half-inch wire mesh to the bottom of the planks, to keep out gophers. I built a fort like this; it works, especially in combination with beer bait to get the pets that were already there.

11. Plant more. This is the classic organic gardening way. Because organic gardeners take better care of the soil by adding compost and natural soil amendments, organic gardens and farms can sustain more crops per given area. If you plant more, the pests can eat some and still leave enough for you. I have a neighbor who grows organic lettuce commercially; he just plants a ton of it, very thickly.

Copyright © 2010 Pam Walatka