Question: What is the best recipe for pests in the garden? I heard about mixing garlic, ginger, hot peppers and vinegar with water. Do you know the ratio and process? We are a community garden, and many of our gardeners are asking for solutions. – Douglas, Akron, OH

Answer: Hi Douglas,

Great question! While there are sprays you can use, these also hurt the beneficials. So, if your community garden is dedicated to sustainable gardening that supports the pollinators and beneficials, then there are a few things you can do to massively change the pest story in your garden.

The biggest change we can make is our mindset. Adopt the mindset that nature can do most of the work for you! Your gardening group may be struggling and asking, “What can we do?” Instead, change that question to, “What can we do for Nature so Nature will do this for us?” From this, you’ll begin to make choices for the garden that create less work for you.

To help you get started in this direction, plant beneficial plants that invite pollinators and beneficials into your garden on the borders of each bed and around the perimeter of the garden. Now, you don’t have to sacrifice harvests here– many perennial herbs and edible flowers are beneficials.

Once you have those growing, add beneficials. Beneficial nematodes for the soil can help you immensely! And then I would add one or two generalist predators to the mix. The lacewing and the praying mantis are two of my personal favorites, but it depends on what’s native to your area.

Lastly, a huge portion of pests are soil-dwelling during at least one stage of their life cycle. So if you scuff the top two inches of any soil with a hoe–anywhere not planted–once a week minimum throughout the season, you can drastically reduce your pest populations. Since you have a community garden, you might be able to take turns on a sign up sheet, so maybe your neighbor to the left is doing your bed one week, the neighbor to the right the next, then you the third week, and so on… Scuffing the top few inches of soil consistently helps to bring all the pest eggs, larvae, and pupae to the surface and expose them to the harsh environment above the ground, where they won’t survive.

And lastly, remember that some pests keep the generalist predators around, which in turn protects your crop, so you WANT some pests in the garden.

This process really is the best recipe for long term success. I hope that helps!