Natural Pest Control Methods for the Garden - Keep Bugs From Ruining Your Harvest Without Pesticides
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- Опубліковано 4 чер 2023
- In this video I'm gonna show how I control pests in the garden - naturally. Insects can be a nuisance in the garden, but they play an important role in the ecosystem.They provide food for birds, they help pollinate our gardens, and they help break down organic matter into nutritious soil that our plants can use. So when you use a pesticide, no matter how organic it claims to be you are still affecting the ecosystem.
My first rule for pest free plants is to keep them happy and healthy. Compost is an excellent soil amendment that works overtime helping your plants thrive.
Stressed plants attract pests. Over fertilization is one source of such stress. Watering issues and mineral imbalances in the soil cause problems in the plants ability to carbon dioxide, water, and nitrogen. The result is a stressed plant with excess soluble nitrogen and excess sugar.
Excess nitrogen is a magnet for aphids. They feed off of it. Then have lots and lots of babies, and quickly create an infestation sucking the life out of your plants. The excess sugar stored in the roots is like free ice cream at an all you can eat buffet.
Plants have a natural immune system that makes them taste terrible to pests. Just like organic, whole foods help boost our own immune system, compost provides plants with nutrients they need. The difference between compost and synthetic fertilizer is like the difference between eating a variety of nutritious foods and a diet consisting of only multivitamins.
Compost rich in decomposed organic matter provides micronutrients needed to boost plants’ natural defenses. Healthy plants are rarely attacked by pests because their immune system makes them indigestible to insects.
Soil that contains compost is full of beneficial fungi. These fungi keep plants healthy by out competing disease causing organisms and by forming symbiotic relationships with plants. The fungus through its massive mycelium network helps plants uptake nutrients and water and in exchange the plants provide the mycelium with sugars.
Trap crops are another resource you can grow to keep pests from destroying your garden. A trap crop is a sacrificial crop that you grow with the intention of getting infested with bugs. You then remove the trap crop along with the pests. Think of it as a decoy, you got the broccoli you want to eat over here and the decoy plant of radishes over there. Plant the decoy trap crop about two weeks before you plant your desired crops, so when the pests arrive, they will go to whatever they find first. Also make sure to space the trap crops far enough apart, about 4 feet, because they will cross contaminate if planted too closely.
The type of trap crop depends on the type of pest you want to attract as well as the crop you want to protect.
Herbs such as dill, parsley, cilantro, and basil make delicious companion plants. They repel pests and attract beneficial insects! Dill is also a host plant for monarch butterflies and a decoy plant for tomato hornworms. Grow dill! It attracts a ton of beneficial insects!
Beneficial insects are insects that eat other bugs and they don't harm your plants.
Lacewings, dragonflies, spiders, and ladybugs are gardener’s friends.
Spiders - stop ants from taking over your garden to farm aphids. Just like humans farm cattle, ants farm aphids for the sweet sticky honey dew they secrete. If you stop ants, you’ll prevent aphids.
Ladybugs eat aphids. You can buy them online and release them in your garden, or you can get them for free by growing herbs that naturally attract them. Dill, parsley, calendula, and cilantro make great host plants for ladybugs.
For larger insects and caterpillars enlist the help of birds! Insects provide protein in a bird’s diet.
- So how do you attract birds to your garden?
- Grow berries they can eat
- Plant bushes where they can hide
- Provide them with a source of clean water
If you live in the southeast, you’re probably familiar with anoles, or these little lizards. They are insectivores and an important part of our ecosystem here in Florida. Besides being famous for our beaches and theme parks, we are also famous for our mosquitoes. And these little lizards are doing the lord's work keeping insect populations under control.
This is my 3rd year gardening without pesticides. It has been a challenge, but also a joy seeing the symbiotic ecosystem come together. Luckily in Florida we have a year round growing season, so we don’t have to wait until spring to try new techniques. I’d like to encourage you to create your own ecosystem and let me know what kind of birds end up visiting your garden!
Thanks for watching, glad you made it to the end! If you want to learn more about permaculture gardening make sure to hit that subscribe button! And if you have any questions or suggestions for a video, drop them in the comments below. Until next time! Bye bye! - Навчання та стиль
I learned a lot from this video. In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. The more I know the more I am at awe.
Yessss!! I'm trying to start up a garden for veterans to overcome government takeover of farming. This means soooo much to me. You are truly the best teacher ever!!!!
I've got calendula everywhere but I didn't know they were sticky for pests, the list of reasons to grow them just gets longer all the time!
I really enjoy your videos.
I want to share a recipe for a natural pesticide that you can even drink. I found this from the University of Ecuador.
Shave the stones from a couple of avocados, dry on a tray for a day or two. Boil in 6 cups water until the water becomes reddish brown. Cool, settle or strain, then spray on the plants.
Thanks for all the useful info. And that blooper reel was gold. 😂
A trap crop I use in NH is Okra. I moved to NH from GA where okra is a staple. I tried growing it in NH, and found that the Japanese beetles devoured okra and left my other vegetable alone. Love your videos.
Nice!
I just bought a 5 acres home in Clermont and your videos are helping us a lot! You are so knowledgeable and explain everything so well that you deserve a lot more subscribers!
Thank you and congratulations! Gardening in Florida is different than other parts of the country. Between the bugs, the heat and the soil that's (mostly) sand it takes some trial and error to get things going. I look forward to sharing more Florida-centric content.
This video was so thoughtfully made. So helpful.
Nice to find another Florida gardener in my zone and on the same wavelength on YT.
Great quality vids and editing.
Thank you! Gardening in Florida is great because of our year round growing season, but it does come with its own set of challenges! Looking forward to sharing more videos in the future.
@@foreverfoodforest- me too! Thanks.
Great job! Wonderful presentation! This is how I garden and have had great success! Everything has a niche and works together ❤️
t the Japanese beetles devoured okra and left my other vegetable alone. Love your videos.A trap crop I use in NH is Okra. I moved to NH from GA where okra is a staple. I tried growing it in NH, and found thaF
Just found your channel and im loving it and loving your realness!! Lol!
Another great trick here in north GA is keeping cardinals and yellow finches around year round with black oil sunflower seed and planting a few sunflowers around your yard in the growing season in addition to keeping seeds around year round, this has significantly helped with keeping down with tomato horn worms and other pest!
Cardinals love those horn worms!
Keep up the awesome content!!!
You are something else! Great job!
That was deep & informative.
Thanks
I really enjoy your videos, and hope this channel grows quickly, so that you can keep producing more videos.
Hello I just found your channel yesterday and subscribed immediately. I live in Miami and try to have a permaculture food forest in my backyard for several years now. The insects always get to my food first. It’s a never ending struggle but I’ll continue trying. Thanks for educating folks about permaculture. 🌴💚☮️
Happy growing! Keep building soil microbiome, it's a long but worthwhile process. You'll get there!
Love this informative video! Definitely interested in learning more about permaculture.
Helpful and useful information!!
Wonderful video thank you. ❤
Very informative 😊 Thank you very much..
WoW golden information...massive thank you!!! New subscriber from south Romania...
Thank's again, your incedible knowledge is very helpful Ontario Canada.
I have gone to no external inputs to my garden over the last few years. Finding out LAB is keeping the potato beetles at bay, so far.
Planted a bunch of yarrow to attract ladybird beetles and green lacewings this spring, I always do dill, fennel, cilantro and parsley.
Sounds like you garden the same way I do.
New subscriber, Stay Well!!!
Welcome!
Love your video, well done girl!!
love your videos - keep them coming! i'm in eastern NC and my gardening neighbors and i are overrun with pill bugs/rollypolys what ever you want to call em. they do NOT just munch decaying materiels (sob sob), they gnoshed my bean seedlings that were 4" tall when transplanted, they decapitate my carrot seedlings and fell pepper seedlings (the ones my dog does not eat first!). they LAUGHED at neem oil drenches (cold pressed, stored in the house). we're holding steady with diatomaceous earth for now, must reapply after the top of the soil dries after a rain, but I'm all ears for additional help. my neighbor uses beer traps, which are helpful, but i don't think there's enough beer in NC to keep these at bay. what eats pill bugs? got lots of birds around, and 4" lizards hanging around the garden. this weekend I will work on a set up to suspend seedlings a few feet off the ground as an extreme measure to escape the pill bugs. any advice will be savored. THANK YOU
Well, I guess I'm planting radish seeds today. Interesting about the broccoli. I hope that mine look as good as yours do. I have a small, worm farm in California. We use similar methods but, I've never really embraced companion planting. You're right, it's important. Thanks.
Worm farm! How cool! You're so lucky to grow in California. It has some of the best soil in the country! Plant more radishes than you need. The ones that don't get eaten by bugs can be pickled and the greens are tasty when sauteed. Happy growing!
Excellent video
This is a very good video
Watch nature and learn. I think you’re doing a good job 👌
great video!
Wow, what an informative video! Thank you. Not the biggest fan of the profane outtakes but oh well.
Thank you for watching to the end!
Wow!
Thank you for this very informative video 😊
I'm doing this in Florida as well. It's nice to see someone else doing the same. Most of the neighbors don't and I'm guessing that's why it seemed to take ...a growing season or two I believe, so a year here...for the ladybugs to show up in noticable numbers to really get ahold of the aphids. Purple hyacinth bean turned out to be great at attracting aphids and is perennial here in NE FL, but ours passed during a prolonged (due to poor health) raised bed rebuild. The seeds come up great and we have our own from that plant, so I'm looking for a better trellis situation for them where I can still reach them to jet off the aphids when they become overzealous and do damage.
NICE!
Great Video and Very informative..
Interesting video Christina, thanks very much. I believe in using compost everywhere in my garden. I live in Argentina and in my particular area we have Summer temps reaching well over 120 degrees and do not get too much of an annual rainfall so I am constantly making compost for my veggies and indoor plants, and yes you are correct, this also helps keep the insects at bay for the most part.
The high temperatures make gardening such a challenge, thank goodness for compost!
Haha I loved the blooper part! 😅😂😁 I am battling army worms and cucumber beetles , so far I think the neem oil solution is helping so far but I’m afraid my bell pepper plants aren’t gna make it this year . I’m in Texas and zone 8 b and we had a rly cold dip late April right after I transplanted them and I believe they are jus not gna recover argh . Gtta love the challenges of gardening! This is my first year ever trying to grow my own veggies, pesticide free as well . I enjoy your videos greatly and hope to learn more from you ❤️🙏🏻 we are all one
Thank you for the kind words! Army worms are my nemesis and I’ve lost many seedlings to them. They feed at night and hide in the soil during the day. I find it satisfying to pick them off by hand… or with chopsticks, then feed them to birds in the morning. Bell peppers are one of the more challenging crops to grow, I hope yours recover! Happy growing adventures!
Ugh! The blooper reel is so true to me this year! We built 3 bat boxes today to help with our insect problem. Bats can eat 2-5 thousand insects a night and a bat box can house up to 200 bats ( according to the internet) My main pest is the mosquito, but also new to my plants this year they got hit with leek moths in my garlic and bean beetles in my bush beans . Never had these pest before and it's definitely left my plants looking like Swiss cheese. Next year I will start many more flowers early so spring will have more blooms and have the beneficial insects in the garden.
We have had bird feeders but they attract other critters such as raccoons and skunks and I have chickens so I want to keep them as safe as I can. Finding that balance is key. 😁🌱
Balance is key for sure! Mosquitoes are really bad here too. We have tons of bats flying around at dusk and a camphor tree which is supposed to repel mosquitoes and I still get bitten up ( it probably would be worse if we didn't have it). Rubbing catnip all over exposed skin areas helps until the smell wears off.
New subscriber, lots of good information!! Appreciate your knowledge and sharing it with us !
Thumbs up 👍🏻
Thanks for the sub! Looking forward to sharing more tips with you!
Now I know why my radish leaves disappeared so fast! Flea beetles got to mine . I also put a cover crop in one of my large spaces to allow rest and it also had radish in the cover crop and I was wondering why these beetles ate only the radish leaves and left everything else alone! We did however get some good radishes to eat before they were completely destroyed! I am going to plant radish again next year for the distraction crop for sure now that I know this about the radishes. Thanks for the good information!
Flea beetles also love bok choy, collards & arugula 😕They leave beet green & Swiss Chard alone👍
Watched couple of your videos, i am thinking of getting started and I understood everything! Nice one and yep I've subscribed, thanks👍
Welcome aboard!
Very nice 👍
Thank you. That was so beautifully explained. Subscribed ~
Welcome! Looking forward to sharing more videos with you!
😁 Thank you for sharing
Been doing this method for years and it always works a treat, especially using your own compost to feed the plants and marigolds to attract beneficial insects along with companion planting to keep most insects at bay. The only times I encounter when plants don't respond well, is when mother nature takes a turn for the worse or when plants are weak so get attacked by insects. Only insecticide I regularly use are snail bait (bird and child friendly) and straw mulch to reduce slugs and snails crawling all over my garden.
❤❤❤
Thanks for sharing helpful information. A new subscriber here.
Thanks for the sub! Looking forward to sharing more tips in the future!
❤
Plz make more videos on take care flower garden for beginner gardener as me 🙏😍
How would I go about protecting the garden from Grub beetles? this is the first year I see them in my garden.
Brussle sprouts also make great trap crops
What variety of calendula do you like to grow?
Love your reaction to the bugs- it’s like I was watching a video of myself! 😂😂😂
Thanks so much for the helpful info!!!
Hi and tank you! I like Calendula Snow Princess, it seems to do better in our warmer climate than other varieties.
Man, I have lettuce growing aquaponically and it's working out great, aside from the aphids. Going to grow some calendula and hope it helps.
Thanks.
Would love to hear how this works out! Haven't ventured into aquaponics yet, but I'm intrigued.
@@foreverfoodforest As it turns out, I overstocked my fish by volume which is having the same effect of surplus nitrogen as fertilizer would have.
My calendula seeds have just started sprouting but I was able to reduce the amount of aphids I was dealing with by harvesting a few fish.
Just found your channel and love your content!! Would love to hear how you handle slugs. Here in Sweden we have lots of problems with a slug called Arion Vulgaris.
Thank you! Slugs destroyed my first crop of strawberries. I've tried many natural things to get rid of them, but what worked is attracting their natural predators to the garden. I have a couple opossums that regularly visit my garden. In Sweden you might have good results with attracting hedgehogs or foxes.
I’m in 8b/9a up in the Panhandle of Florida. Leaf footed bugs are my #1 nemesis. I’m spraying Spinosad and pyrethrum every few days but can’t get rid of them.
Ah the joys of growing in Florida! Growing sunflowers as a trap crop will keep them off your other plants. For some reason they love sunflowers. If possible use row covers.
😍
Great video Christian,
My name is Ben. I'm living and working on my food forest in Lee, FL on 6 acres. What town are you at?
Due to the forest fires in Canada, there is a abundance of afids in my area I was thinking about Carolina Praying Mantis to try and combat bad insects naturally
If you can find them locally I think that would be a good solution!
If you're reading this, you're probably s really cool gardener so I'll tell ya a secret! Cedarwood Essential Oil makes the best natural mosquito repellent when working in the garden. Happy organic gardening fam! XOXO
You are fantastic!!! Like a pretty version of migardener! Lol
Lol! Thank you! I love his videos!
So I'm definitely trying to go the permaculture route. I'm also trying to create my own soil and compost. How many months does it take before the soil and compose that's homemade is ready? Thank you so much!
Glad to hear it! Depends on your climate. Heat and moisture help speed things up, as does chopping up your organic matter in small pieces. Here in the tropics I can have compost ready in 3 months.
Very nice video. Thanks a lot ... In fact, you are introducing a very nice example for a very impressive verse from Quran below:
Indeed, We have created everything, perfectly preordained ( Al Qamar, verse 49)...
As people, we always try to destroy this magnificient equilibrium in the nature.
Great video The only thing I would add, is a bat House
Yes! There is one near by!
I leave the roots in plants in the ground after harvest here in the north...just to keep my small plot aeriated and to keep the good bacteria and fungi in the soil. I heard it helps and just adds texture and nutrients. However, I am not 100% seems to make sense- leave the root sin the ground chop and compost the plant.
But what if I want to eat the radishes?
Thank you Dear for your tips. I gave you a thumbs up 👍. Then I saw your bug bloopers. F word, you did stop it from completion though. Back in my day it was unbecoming, unlady like to have potty mouth. If men slipped in a curse he'd say pardon my french. You're a nice young lady, perhaps a grandma 👵 or another older gal can tell you stories of gentlemen opening a door for us or tipping his hat . Those respectful gestures went away when women joined men in a bath of dirty language. So we older gals miss the yes ma'am respectful days. Test it out with the fellas around you 😊. Smiles are contagious 😊 thanks again for your advice.i I'm planting more radishes for sure. Agape love
Covered in what at the end there? Catnip drives bugs off?
Catnip repels mosquitoes!
How did you attract and keep the owls around? I'd rather not put an owl box high up on a pole.
How did you cover yourself in catnip and does it repel mosquitos? Do you just take some leaves and rub them all over your exposed body parts?
Break up the leaves and rub the fresh catnip oils all over exposed areas. It will keep mosquitoes away as long as the smell of catnip lingers. Side effects may include lots of new cat friends.
Any ideas about keeping bigger pests away? Deer, pigs & hares
Hard to say, but dogs are your best option, breeds like sheep dogs and hound dogs are going to be the easiest breeds to train for different purposes and get along well with kids and people if they are gotten from a respectable breeder, except blue healers they can be more temperamental than most other heard dogs.
Other than that it gets kinda technical for each type of animal that you are trying to keep out of your garden, a pup is kind of a fix all, a bigger commitment, but a fix all.
Hope this helps
@@brookeshepherd2313 I've been looking out for a puppy, but nothing suitable as yet 👍
Starts at 0:50
well I was attacked by some Honey Bees ( I didn't know I disturbed their home), I sprayed them all, they were too close for comfort and shouldn't make their home to close to mine.
Never had a snake eat my crop
Subbed for the permaculture approach described in the intro.
Turned the bell on for the "f!#* off bugs" in the outtakes ;)
F ing cicadas... Exactly what i say.
Everybody talks about 'Aphids' and 'Japennese Beetles' and 'Hornworms'... WHAT ABOUT *FIRE ANTS?* Not non-biting 'Sugar Ants', I'm talking about biting stinging FIRE ANTS. What is their purpose in the garden other than to make it so I can't touch anything?!
Diatomaceous earth works great when dusted onto a ant hill. Borax mixed with sugar will kill ants in the garden.
Research the difference between Ladybugs and Japanese Ladybeetles. The bugs in this video are not Ladybugs and can cause harm in large numbers. They also have endangered the Ladybugs.
You can still use ladybeetles but Ladybugs are native to the USA and better for your gardens.
Fn cicadas 😂
They're out in swarms and it's not even June!
talking talking doang. dimana pestisidanya?.....
Snakes are good. Rodents are bad.
말을 적게 하세요...그래야 쉽게 지치지 않아요...
increase your followers by subtitles from other nations we want to understand you without taking an english language course ok kiss may fruends 👍🇧🇷
구독자를 늘리려면 말을 줄이고 행동으로 해야 합니다...
말이 많으면 다른 나라사람들이 못들어와요...
Yessss!! I'm trying to start up a garden for veterans to overcome government takeover of farming. This means soooo much to me. You are truly the best teacher ever!!!!