How to Deal With Pests in Your Organic Garden

Author: Janet Ashby

Instead of automatically reaching for chemical pesticides when you see evidence of pests in your garden and on your plants think organic! Chemical pesticides will kill all the insects in your garden, even the beneficial ones and will contaminate the ground water. Find other ways to prevent pests from getting out of hand and reducing their number if they do.



Why should you use organic methods to combat pests rather than easily available pesticides? These chemical pesticides have been linked to many health problems and diseases including birth defects, cancer, infertility and many more. One of the problems is that pesticides sold for use at home are not tested as thoroughly as those used by commercial food growers as this is not a requirement of the law. As well as harming humans they also contaminate the soil in your garden and can be harmful to the beneficial visitors to your garden including honey bees, ladybugs, and butterflies which all eat pests.



One of the best defences against pests is to grow healthy plants in the first place. Weak and sickly plants are targeted by pests so make sure the conditions are right for the plants you are growing and keep them healthy by watering and fertilising adequately. Use natural composts and mulches rather than fertilisers high in nitrogen and do not let the plants sit in water or become too dry. Go into the garden regularly and remove weeds with a spade, hoe or your hands. Get close to the plants so you can spot any that are diseased early and can remove the infected parts before the disease spreads. Prune away the infected parts right to the main stem to prevent leaving a stub for the pests to re-enter.



Keep pests from having an easy time finding the plants they prefer by mixing different varieties of flowers, vegetables and other plants together. It is a good idea to plants some flowers among your vegetables to attract beneficial insects which feed on nectar. The larvae of insects such as lacewings and ladybugs feed on pests so it is a good idea to encourage them. Another good idea is to encourage wild birds that eat insects into your garden with a birdbath. A pond can lure toads and lizards to your garden where they may feast on any pests around.



If preventative measures have failed it is time to identify the pest and choose the best natural method to eradicate it. Find out which methods is best and use pepper sprays, soap sprays or Bacillus thuringiensis, which is a bacteria that can deal with leaf eaters such as caterpillars by interfering with their digestion. If possible remove any weak plants as these are the ones that pests will target.



As you can see it is not necessary to resort to chemical means to deal with pests in the garden although it is a little more work! Aim for a healthy garden with visiting wild life that will be able to resist pests and deal with any outbreaks quickly with methods that are safe for your garden, wildlife and your family.

About the Author:
For more information on all aspects of gardening visit Lawns and Gardens or read Planting a Vegetable Garden

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/gardening-articles/how-to-deal-with-pests-in-your-organic-garden-857362.html

So Many Gnomes So Little Time

Author: James1984 Thompson

A popular saying for garden gnome enthusiasts is that so many gnomes so little time. The phrase mainly refers to the large collection of garden gnomes available on the market today. The gnome statues that you may view on gift shops, garden accessory shops and designing outlets have a wide variety. You may find different types that would surely suit your preferences such as funny garden gnomes, collectible gnomes, vintage garden gnomes and even gnomes which represent your local sports or festivities.




So many gnomes so little time. A garden ornament collector can experience something like this when it comes to collecting every possible design of garden gnomes available on the market. There are several garden gnome designs that are related to fictional stories written by popular authors such as The Secret Book of Gnomes and The Gnomes. Most garden gnome manufacturers get some ideas from these fiction novels in order to get suitable designs for garden gnomes. Some notable designs for garden gnomes include those which are adopted from the storybooks such as Randell gnome, Morty gnome, George gnome, Mervin gnome and many more gnome characters from Rien Poortvliet's children's book.



There are several gnome designers that insert humor on the gnomes that they create. You may find some funny garden gnomes that stick their bare buttocks to the garden visitors. You may even find some which show their personal body parts as a part of the humor that the designer wants to implement. Some innovative garden gnome designs are incorporated with sensors for additional entertainment purposes. These garden gnomes automatically fart when a person passes near the statue. Some even have recorded speeches to delight the passersby. Thus when collecting garden gnomes you even want to say that there are so many gnomes so little time.



There are even more types of gnomes based on their postures. You may find some garden gnomes that look like they are resting on the shade of the trees. Some creative designs even resemble that they are working on the plants. Other postures of garden gnomes are based on the day to day activities such as mowing the lawn, harvesting fruits, hammering stones and even those which resemble traveling with a lantern on one hand. These types of garden gnomes create a livelier look on your garden. You may notice that so many gnomes so little time thus you may want to consider doing the collection as early as possible. You may want to have a unique theme for you to have a guide on which garden gnomes you are to collect.




As with those people who already collected several types of garden gnomes, they may still say the there are so many gnomes so little time. This is because there are also other types of garden gnomes which are based on their sizes. You may find large sized gnomes which may reach up to 3 feet in height. If you are into collecting miniature gnome models, there are 1 foot high garden gnomes available on the market today. These small types of garden gnomes are much suitable for collection purposes.

About the Author:
We have Antique Gnomes, Baseball Gnomes, Ceramic Gnomes and many more more gnomes available. For a deeper look into the history of garden gnomes please visit.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/gardening-articles/so-many-gnomes-so-little-time-857372.html