An ounce of prevention is worth dozens of pounds of fresh herbs and vegetables.
You’re planting lots of food in your garden, specifically greens… and all of a sudden there’s someone else eating all your food before you have a chance to harvest it… ARG!
Everyone has some pests that show up in the garden. But before you can kick them out of your garden, you need to figure out WHO has invaded! Typically, there are 5 (actually 6!) common pests that give gardeners the most trouble. Watch this video to help identify these unwelcome guests:
Once you identify which pests, diseases, or weeds have come into your garden, you can start showing them the door!
Related articles you may enjoy:
Pests & Diseases in the Garden Happen… What do you do?
Keys to Partner with Mother Nature
Why You WANT Pests in Your Garden
Are Weeds Really ‘Bad’?
Masterclass on YouTube:
What are favorite, or not so favorite, visitors to your garden?
its a beetle yellow and black strips
I planted Marigolds all around my vegetable garden in the North Coast of Westport, CA and also Garlic bulbs. These plants helped to keep the pests out!
I also put pine needles around my strawberries to keep the slugs and snails away! Pine needles also ADD Vitamin C, and give you even BIGGER strawberries. The snails and slugs do NOT like to crawl over these pine needles because these pine “needles” have a JAGGED edge! (I know that “Straw”berries have this name because people covered their berry patch with “straw,” but actually pine needles serve the same purpose and work even better! My neighbor who “shared” this idea with me: also shared his pine needles from all these Pine Trees he had growing on his property. Therefore, I tried his “idea” right away on my strawberry patch, and WOW, this was truly amazing~
Another “help” for strawberries I discovered in Mount Shasta, CA where again I had planted strawberries in an empty wooden planter that was already there} when I rented that house on 4 acres of land. That land was very RICH in nutrients because of the water that ran down the mountain nearby bringing with it} rich topsoil. Therefore, I did not have to fertilize anything…just supplied the watering during dry weather} which was also filtered through that mountain and this pumped well water was also the cleanest purest water I had ever seen.
But, I did have problems with the many birds and also squirrels both brown ground squirrels and grey tree squirrels eating my strawberries even while they were still “white” and hardly ripe. And so because of this, I then covered these strawberries with this “glittering” rainbow colored net I had purchased from a Nursery.
This “glittering” net then kept these various birds and squirrels (both grey tree and brown ground squirrels} OUT of my strawberry patch! This net that had this rainbow colored glitter on it was quite lovely too. My neighbors all “coveted it,” but the birds did not, and neither did these squirrels. But to make up with them: I would share my organic walnuts and sunflower seeds just as I did every morning with a whole flock of seventy Blue Jays!
This net also protected a Praying Mantis that kept my garden free of bugs! I discovered him living there when he was just a baby about 1/4 inch big… a very “tiny” fully developed Praying Mantis! Every time I watered that strawberry patch, I then offered to him a LEAF to jump on so that I could carry him out of this large planter before watering there with a hose. He would always jump on this “offered” LEAF,” and then he would sit on the LEAF, put his two “hands” together, close his eyes and “PRAY”… just as I lifted him out, and I then gently placed that leaf on the ground. After watering…I then lifted that leaf with him still sitting there… and, he then would jump into that protected strawberry patch again: which I then covered with that glittering strawberry net.
This happened every time I watered there over the years…And after about 3 years had passed… this same Praying Mantis was about 3 inches long…And always he would sit and PRAY with his “hands” together and his eyes closed while sitting on that leaf. And, the land there with just a little water added: gradually became so amazingly RICH with plants as well as wildlife.
I ADD here there was no Wi-Fi in that Mountainous Canyon and it
was also “free” from any cell towers or smart meter grids. WE kept that EMF Pollution OUT of that canyon, and it was then truly an area like the Garden of Eden. I could tell that the land had been worked in the distant past as a farm with a old chicken coop and up the long driveway stilled lined with failing heirloom rose bushes!
There were many old flowering bulbs deep underground that suddenly sprouted from just a little water! My neighbors “noticed” and came over and said, “WOW, three feet tall Irises…What did you put on them!?” and I said, “Uh, water.”
My flowering trees also came back, and these flowering fragrant trees were just COVERED with hundreds of butterflies that flew down that canyon during that first Spring! Whelp, after this people within that canyon suddenly became enthusiastic gardeners… planting roses, and crops, and putting in new chicken coops and tending their fruit trees again. And the wildlife became much more abundant too.
I had a whole “tribe” of black lizards that lived in a shelf of rocks towards the back of my land there. They would come and enjoy my garden, the rocks, sun, the plant shading, and the water too. And every Spring they would come to proudly show me their off-spring of new baby black lizards. These lizards were black, but they had these shimmering rainbow colors in the sunlight. Sometimes I would sing in my garden…and they they would suddenly appear out from under plants and rocks to enjoy the music!
And here I experienced a “cooperation” between wildlife plants and people like I had never witnessed before. Even these two herds of deer would not eat the flowers if I said to them “to eat these is o.k., but not those.” And the baby deer would “wag” their deer tails just like a dog would when they were happy!
There were mountain lions that visited the riverbed area of that canyon, and in the Fall we had wild black bears eating everything they could before their winter hibernation. But, I never witnessed anything “scary” even from these animals. There was a special “balanced”energy on that land so much so that it almost seemed sacred.
May God Bless Us All, In His Name,
Pamella Beth Morey, B.A., M.H. (Master Herbalist), Certified Iridologist, Health Counselor/Researcher 40+ years
How do you get rid of cutworms or prevent them next season?
We have crows who lift out sprouts, particularly soy beans. They like to take the seeds. We have reflective cds strung up. Ordered mylar tape too. Also have slugs and have run copper tape.That is helping. Recently a chard plant that had several leaves and well established was completely mowed. I do not know what did that overnight. A bird? Jays are another thing around. Also there are cats and squirrels digging. I have sticks and wood baracading where things are growing.So many pests. This year is the worst for it. Oh yes, we have those grey cabbage aphids and they require constant spraying with hose or safer. I bought praying mantis larvae. I do not know if they hatched. I have seen those zucchini beetles again recently and will definitely not grow that after they were terrible last year. So I do not have a great handle on all this. I have compost and amendments from Lane Forest. I will take suggestions! Btw I am in Oregon.
Your videos are very instructive and relevant. I appreciate your professional expertize.
Something is eating my green beans as soon as they come through the ground. Would that be cut worms?