Gardening is one of the best ways to eat fresh and save money while you’re at it! The healthiest approach can be easily found out if you do some quality research.

Proper spacing, companion planting and natural methods of pest control are the best way to produce healthy plants without using harsh chemicals. The more you discover about synthetic pesticides and insecticides the more you will realize how unhealthy it is for you as well as the environment. All these chemicals can create more problems.

Check out this infographic about how you can run your own pest control solutions with minimal intervention!

Diy garden pest control infographic

Spraying chemicals to get rid of pests has a lot of health risks and in some cases might not be effective. At first, these chemicals will be helpful to kill many pests. But, after some time they might build resistance and these pests will be hard to control and might come back again. This is why most people do not prefer exterminators who use chemicals because they use strong chemicals which eventually the pests build resistance to.

So avoid using chemicals in the first place and start using healthy fertile soil that suits your plants and soil type and usage of appropriate organic fertilizers when required. If you feel like they are not effective there are many alternatives to chemical pesticides that can reduce pests and make your garden look healthy.

First off, there are three groups of pests that affect your garden –mammals (like deer and rabbits), insects (like tomato worms), and gastropods (like garden snails and slugs). Before you use the chemical methods of dealing with them, at least, try the non-toxic ways to keep your garden free of these pests.

Using chemicals to exterminate slugs and insects will keep them away, but also attract other insects and birds to your garden. Finally, this will become a cycle where you have to keep relying upon these chemicals because you have killed the natural elements that actually would have helped you.

There are also exterminators in the New York area like NYCpestcontrol who can help you with maintenance of your garden and removal of pests and other undesirables using natural methods.

Coffee grounds
are a great addition to your garden. They add nitrogen to the soil and increase the acidity for plants which need them. Slugs and cats hate coffee and might even repeal deer’s off. Apart from coffee grounds, another effective alternative is copper.

To keep slugs away from your potted plants, you can wrap it with copper tape. You can also buy copper rolls and make rings around the plants you want to protect which will give your plants a copper fortress look. If your attempts to prevent slugs have failed, you have to set traps for them.

To repel insects from your gardens, there are numerous organic recipe sprays available online. These organic sprays mostly comprise of garlic, cloves, hot pepper and oil extracts. These will help you to get rid of pests and other rodents.

Beneficial insects
like lady beetles, green lacewings, and praying mantis will help to keep away harmful pests from affecting your plants. These good pests can be either attracted (food, shelter, water) or purchased and released in the garden. In the long run, these insects are safer and effective than chemicals. Before that, you have to do some research on what types of insects will be beneficial to your gardens.

Everyone is familiar with mouse traps. Similarly, there are other varieties of traps which are helpful to catch rodents and insects that can harm your garden. Traps use visual lures or food to attract and capture them. It can also be used to control their population and can help you to determine where the insects emerge from. In some cases, traps alone can be helpful in managing and controlling your pest problems.

Natural pesticides
are botanical, meaning it was derived from plants that have insecticidal properties. Compared to chemical ones they have few chemicals and toxins that are friendly to the environment. Some of them are neem, pyrethrum, rotenone and sabadilla. Always make sure that you do some research before using any form of pesticides.

You can also apply Blood meal which is a byproduct of meat packing plants. It’s basically a dry, inert powder made from the blood of any animal after being processed in those plants. The blood is collected after the animal is dead and then dried to make the powder. It is abundant in nitrogen which will help plants to grow more lush and green. If they are not used in the right quantity, it can burn the leaves of the plants. Herbivores like rabbits, squirrels and deer strongly dislike the smell of it.

You can also use scarecrow sprinklers to scare off migratory birds, deer, raccoons and cats. It looks like a regular sprinkler but has a battery-powered motion sensor, and it sprays water the second an animal is anywhere near it.

Whether you are doing it for yourself or for the safety of your garden, always reduce the usage of harsh chemicals and toxins when you’re trying to get rid of pests or control their growth. This way, you can be your own natural pest exterminator without using any of the harmful chemicals that are usually harmful to the plants and yourself.

Do share with us about what natural remedies you follow for your garden, below in the comments. Thanks!

Secret Tips To Maintain A Completely Pest Free Garden
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Secret Tips To Maintain A Completely Pest Free Garden
Gardening is great you can relax while gardening and even make money. Controlling pests in the garden can be complicated, however we have a great info graphic to help you get started.