Weed Library

The main problem I am having with my straw bale garden this year is weeds… mainly grass. Grass just LOVES my straw bale garden! But there are a few other weeds too and identifying them isn’t always the easiest thing.

Today I discovered The National Gardening Association’s Weed Library. It is very well laid out and very usable. They are also divided into the categories of “grassy weeds”, “broadleaf weeds” and “woody and vining weeds”. They have wonderful pictures that make identification easy. The site is worth bookmarking for year-around use.

Coffee Ground in Gardening

The following is a reprint from The Dirt Doctor, Howard Garrett.

I have used and recommended coffee grounds as an organic fertilizer for years, but they have another important use. To control slugs, snails and pillbugs, broadcast coffee grounds around plants troubled by the little beasts. To run pests off effectively, use anywhere from 2 – 5 lbs of coffee grounds per 100 square feet.

Slugs in most cases come right up to coffee grounds but wouldn’t cross over. Not only is the product organic and works great, but it also replaces one of the worst toxic pesticides on the market, Metaldehyde. Diluted coffee is also an excellent organic fertilizer, especially for orchids, African violets and may have some of the same pest control powers. It’s probably worth a try.
Coffee contains N-P-K, trace minerals and the food stuff to stimulate the growth of beneficial microbes. The best part is that coffee grounds are basically free. Just ask your local restaurants or coffee shops to put them in a container provided by you. At the least, save and use your own coffee grounds at home. We do every day.

Coffee tends to develop a green or blue-green fungus that looks like mold. Don’t worry – that’s good. The green fungus is really beneficial (Trichoderma species) while the blue-green one is reported to be moderately beneficial. In any case, moldy coffee is great to use directly in the garden, compost pile and on interior plants.

For more info, visit The Dirt Doctor.

Corn Gluten to Control Weeds & Ants

Corn Gluten

Corn Gluten Meal is a natural pre-emergent that safely inhibits the germination of grass and weed seeds.

It has also been used to effectively control ants. By putting the meal around ant hills, over time they will die off.

It comes in powder and granular formulations, and is available in most garden centers.

For more great advice, check out The Weekend Gardener Monthly Web Magazine.

Homemade Organic Pesticides

Cayenne pepper can be used for pest control.

I ran across an article today that gives the recipes for 10 homemade organic pesticides. The information in the article was so good, I decided to tell you about it here.

Here is the first recipe:

1. Neem
Ancient Indians highly revered neem oil as a powerful, all-natural plant for warding off pests. In fact, neem juice is the most powerful natural pesticide on the planet, holding over 50 natural insecticides. This extremely bitter tree leaf can be made in a spray form, or can be bought from a number of reputable companies.

To make your own neem oil spray, simply add 1/2 an ounce of high quality organic neem oil and ½ teaspoon of a mild organic liquid soap (I use Dr. Bronners Peppermint) to two quarts of warm water. Stir slowly. Add to a spray bottle and use immediately.

Here is another one:

3. Mineral oil
Mix 10-30 ml of high-grade oil with one liter of water. Stir and add to spray bottle. This organic pesticide works well for dehydrating insects and their eggs.

There are 8 more of these wonderful recipes on the Global Healing Center website. Check them out!

Garden Pests

Here are two organic recipes for killing soft body insects in your garden.

1. Mix one cup of canola oil into a gallon of water. Spray the mix on the plants and it will suffocate the insects. Don’t use more oil as it could harm your plants.

2. Take one garlic bulb, mix it with two cups of water and let it stand overnight. The following day, strain it and mix one gallon of water and spray it on your plants.

Beneficial Insects In Your Garden

We’ve talked some about bugs and insects that are harmful to your garden. But as any gardener knows, there are certainly many wonderful insects that are quite beneficial to your garden and your plants. It’s good to identify these insects because we do not want to kill them. They are our friends and our little helpers. They are our gardening partners.

1. Green Lacewing

Green Lacewing

Adult lacewings consume nectar, honeydew and pollen. However, the green lacewing larvae are voracious predators. They are known as “aphid lions” and they enthusiastically devour aphids by the dozens.

2. Lady Bugs

Lady Bug

Lady Bug Larvae

Lady bugs are one of the best insects you can have in your garden. Adults and larvae both eat aphids, thrips, mites, scale insects and mealybugs. Remember that the lady bug larvae look like tiny colorful alligators – something you’ll want to know so that you don’t mistake them for a pest and kill them.

3. Praying Mantis

Praying Mantis

These guys can handle the largest pests in your garden. But watch out! They’ll eat the beneficial ones too!

4. Damsel Bugs

Damsel Bug

These guys will eat a lot of soft-bodies insects, leafhoppers, caterpillars, aphids and thrips. The nymphs are also predators and will eat smaller insects and their eggs.

5. Big-Eyed Bugs

Big-Eyed Bug

Both adults and nymphs will eat insect eggs, mites and aphids.

6. Assassin Bugs

Assassin Bug

These are great in your garden because they will eat everything from caterpillars to beetles. But be careful for these guys because they have quite the bite!

7. Ground Beetles

Ground Beetle

These guys mostly stay on the ground in your garden and eat slugs, cutworms, maggots and other ground pests. There are a few species that will climb up onto the plants to eat insect eggs and caterpillars.

8. Minute Pirate Bugs

Minute Pirate Bug

These guys eat a lot for their teeny tiny size! They are only 1/16th inch long, but eat a lot of mites, thrips and aphids.

9. Syrphid Flies

Syrphid Flies

These guys are often mistaken for bees. They are also sometimes called “hover flies” because they like to hover over flowers. The syrphid maggots crawl around on the garden foliage and eat aphids while the adults pollinate your flowers!

Garden Pests and Diseases

There are lots of things that can go wrong in a garden. Too much water or too little. Your plants need more sun or maybe more shade. You could plant in the wrong kind of soil or have contaminated soil. You get the idea. The list of what can go wrong is certainly a lengthy one.

Two of those problems are pests and disease. These two can be interesting to identify, but once you do, it opens the door to a handling. Is the problem on the leaves, stem, flowers, fruit or root? Do you see a bug, eggs or maybe just damage? Sometimes identifying the culprit can be a long and arduous process and sometimes involving several gardening books scattered across the dining room table. But today I stumbled across a wonderful tool that I think can really help! It’s the Garden Pest and Disease Detective.

You start out by choosing the vegetable or herb you are having trouble with and then choose the area of the plant where the trouble is occurring. A list of possible pests and diseases is then given to you with pictures and descriptions so that you can identify the correct problem.

This is a great little tool and I hope it makes your gardening a little easier!

Cedar Sawdust in Plants

In an earlier article, I wrote about keeping insects out of your houseplants by simply putting a cedar stake, about the size of a pencil, into the plant and this should discourage insects.

Now, I have been talking to people about taking this a step further. Could you put cedar shavings on houseplants or on your garden? And funny that we would start discussing this. My husband and I were just wondering if you could sprinkle a small amount of cedar sawdust on cranberry bogs as an organic form of pesticide.

Apparently the experts are divided on this one because cedar sawdust has oils in it that can be toxic to some young plants and veggies. However, it also discourages insects and fungi.

Because of this, many gardeners agree that it should only be used on the pathways of your garden. But others agree that cedar sawdust can be used by mixing it with other sawdust or used by itself around acid-loving plants such as roses and rhododendrons (and maybe cranberries?).

Here are some of the problems with using very much sawdust, and especially cedar sawdust, around your plants.

1. Fresh sawdust put in layers around a plant can form a crust that will resist water absorption. This might make it harder to water your plants.

2. Sawdust has a tendency to rob the soil of nitrogen rather than add it because it has a high carbon-to-nitrogen ration (300-500:1).

3. Sawdust is very acidic.

4. On cranberries – when we flood the bogs for harvesting, the sawdust might float away!

So when using cedar sawdust around your plants, try a small amount and test with it. Watch for nitrogen depletion and then give them more by using compost tea or fertilizer.

Gardening Tip: Discouraging Insects

No Bugs!

How do you discourage soil insects in your house plants? Just place a pencil sized cedar stake into the soil.

The Slug Bar

Tired of serving drinks at the Slug Bar?

I’ve heard many gardeners talk about using beer in a pie-tin to get rid of slugs. I happen to know that this works quite well. My only problem with this method is that I have to keep buying beer and wasting it on slugs. It also goes to waste every time it rains here. So I have been researching other ways of killing the little buggers and I think that I have finally found one that I like. Killing slugs with sandpaper!

This method only works if you have raised beds. Buy a product known as silicon carbide. It is used to sand drywall and spackle. It comes in sheets that are 4 1/4 inches wide by 11 1/4 inches long. Be sure and get the 80 grit waterproof kind. The non-waterproof kind just won’t last very long in a garden.

Staple the sheets tightly around the top of your raised beds. Don’t leave any gaps where the slugs can go under. The slugs won’t cross this barrier!

I love it! Now I can stop spending money at the “slug bar”.