Organic Pest Control
We had a great morning in the garden today as the rain has held off for the first time this week. So we mixed in manure to our beds where we will be planting corn and potatoes in a couple of days. I also added 2 bags of manure to each compost pile which helps in the decompostion of the materials.
Then we gave the chicken coop a deep clean and replaced the straw in their tyres.
We also dug up the last of the winter potatoes and have enough for two meals.
All the beans and corn I planted 14 days ago have sprouted nicely. I like to protect my seedlings from pests in a natural way.
Around the corn I sprinkle crushed eggshells. This stops snails getting to them. We don't have any snails anymore, thanks to the chickens, so I don't have a photo of that for you.
For my beans and squash (and any other stemmed veggie) I cut an empty toilet roll in half and gently push it into the soil around the stem. This stops cutworm from munching through the baby plant. If I find any cutworms in my compost they go to the chickens who see them as fine dining.
My cauliflowers are coming on beautifully, I wish I had planted more! A couple of days ago I saw the caterpillars of the White Cabbage Moth on the leaves so I sprayed them with an eco-friendly solution. No more caterpillars!
The spray is:
5 liters of water
250 ml vinegar
1 tablespoon of dishwashing liquid
Spray it on the leaves. This spray is useful for any caterpillars and any plant. You can also use it on mildew infected leaves.
Then while this is a bit of a distasteful topic I thought I would mention it. In Dec 2008 a family/ies of rats moved in somewhere in our garden. We have slowly been eliminating them with traps...we think we have the last one...it came scuttling out of the compost heap 2 weeks ago when we cleared the compost into bags.
People have asked, why don't you just leave RATEX out for them...well simply, we have owls in our area and Ratex moves down the foodchain and even the decomposing body of the rat will leech the poison into the soil.
So we got some eco-friendly bait and 3 traps and set them for the blighters. Last year they ate all our broccoli and I had become rather scared for my chickens as the rat would burrow into their coop at night.
But it's now been a week since we set the last trap and there are no new tunnels, so let's hope that is the end of the family!
Then we gave the chicken coop a deep clean and replaced the straw in their tyres.
We also dug up the last of the winter potatoes and have enough for two meals.
All the beans and corn I planted 14 days ago have sprouted nicely. I like to protect my seedlings from pests in a natural way.
Around the corn I sprinkle crushed eggshells. This stops snails getting to them. We don't have any snails anymore, thanks to the chickens, so I don't have a photo of that for you.
For my beans and squash (and any other stemmed veggie) I cut an empty toilet roll in half and gently push it into the soil around the stem. This stops cutworm from munching through the baby plant. If I find any cutworms in my compost they go to the chickens who see them as fine dining.
My cauliflowers are coming on beautifully, I wish I had planted more! A couple of days ago I saw the caterpillars of the White Cabbage Moth on the leaves so I sprayed them with an eco-friendly solution. No more caterpillars!
The spray is:
5 liters of water
250 ml vinegar
1 tablespoon of dishwashing liquid
Spray it on the leaves. This spray is useful for any caterpillars and any plant. You can also use it on mildew infected leaves.
Then while this is a bit of a distasteful topic I thought I would mention it. In Dec 2008 a family/ies of rats moved in somewhere in our garden. We have slowly been eliminating them with traps...we think we have the last one...it came scuttling out of the compost heap 2 weeks ago when we cleared the compost into bags.
People have asked, why don't you just leave RATEX out for them...well simply, we have owls in our area and Ratex moves down the foodchain and even the decomposing body of the rat will leech the poison into the soil.
So we got some eco-friendly bait and 3 traps and set them for the blighters. Last year they ate all our broccoli and I had become rather scared for my chickens as the rat would burrow into their coop at night.
But it's now been a week since we set the last trap and there are no new tunnels, so let's hope that is the end of the family!
0 Response to "Organic Pest Control"
Post a Comment