Let’s talk about pests, baby 🐌🎶

Hi Bloomers! 🪻

Hope you’re all having a great summer, soaking up the sun and some of the tiny rain showers we’ve had in HRM.

Just like the title says, let’s talk about pests, baby! Included with pests comes all of the good things and the bad things (😉🎵) that are out there.

Of course we have our beneficial insects for our gardens:

• Ladybugs 🐞
• Mantis 🦗
• Bumblebees 🐝
• Butterflies 🦋

And then we have those ever so troublesome insects, better known to us as pests:

• Slugs 🐌
• Ants 🐜
• Aphids 🪳
• Earwigs 🦂

Of course those are just some of the insects and pests that I could name, but the list goes on. We’re also lucky enough to have a fence at our home to help keep out some of the other problems gardeners could face with their plants (deer, neighbourhood cats, birds, etc.). With a plethora of pests and as many options to try to get rid of them out there, I always attempt first to prevent instead of remove by planting any of the natural deterants.

Every year I add Marigolds to my food beds (they’re the gift that keeps on giving with their seeds), also known as the stinky flowers. Along with lavender, nastursims, onions and dill, that all work to prevent some of those pests listed above.

While these preventative plants are lovely to look at, and have helped out, they are certainly not a cure all for everything. The soil here has been a very big attractor of ants and slugs.

I had a friend recommend I try copper tape for my slugs, since they were feasting on my lettuce and pepper plants! Which worked for a bit but I ordered very narrow tape and it seems you need a wider copper strip to keep the slugs out (her wider version worked for her garden). Another thing that helps with the slugs is ensuring you’re only watering the base of the plants and not leaving the leaves all covered in water as well.

With the slugs somewhat under control we were moving onto dealing with the ants, who seemed to be hosting daily team meetings in all of my garden beds, no matter what the weather brought.

I read online that a good way to prevent and deter ants from your garden is to sprinkle cinnamon or black pepper around, since they don’t like the smell. Luckily for me, my husband has been extremely helpful in doing my cinnamon-ing to deter the ants. Though they were leaky, and required a couple sprays of safers 3-in-1 spray for good measure.

Some say the best defense is a good offense, so I also started doing a fairly strict fertilizer plan to make my plants healthy and strong, in the event one of my barriers fell short, a pest or two wouldn’t collapse the system.

One odd and unplanned thing that I stumbled upon one day while out weeding, was this one peculiar weed that was covered in aphids and ants.

Now, I hadn’t planted this, nor had I even paid any attention to it, until I was about to rip it from the ground and realized that this random weed might be doing me a favour.

I contemplated pulling it, spraying it with my safers and ultimately decided that seeing as I hadn’t had any aphids elsewhere in my plants I didn’t want to upset the natural ecosystem that had clearly created itself!

It’s so interesting to think about all of the ways we can prevent pests, boost our plants health and spend money on to do so, all while nature sprouts one weed and it does half of the job in its own, and for free.

While I know pests are part of gardening it can become taxing and defeating to fight with the same pests and feel like you’re making no headway at all. Then one day, you’ve worked on the “offense” and realize that what you’re doing, is working and despite pests, your garden is thriving!

I wish all of you a pest free weekend, and hope these tips on pests have been both informative and make you feel not so alone in your own battles!

Catch yah’ later buds!