Green Gardening

How to Control Gray Mold in Plants

Many types of fungi serve a valuable purpose in the garden.  They contribute to healthy soil and they have a symbiotic relationship with plants that allows both types of organisms to thrive.  However, some fungi are harmful in the garden.  These destructive types, called pathogens, invade healthy plant tissue, weakening the plant and slowly killing it.  In fact, the most prevalent cause of plant disease is harmful fungi.  One fungal condition that you should know about is botrytis, commonly referred to as gray mold.  Here are some tips on identifying and controlling this disease. Gray mold can strike a wide variety of flowers, vegetables, and fruits.  It is widely seen in cool and damp climates.  The disease is characterized by a tan, gray-brown, or gray fuzzy mold that shows up on plant leaves and stems.  There may be brown blotches surrounding the moldy areas.  Fruit and vegetables are also susceptible, often exhibiting tan blotches that turn into rough gray mold.  The fungus usually starts on old plant material or fruit and spreads to healthy growing plants, causing the tissue to rot.  The spores are spread by the wind and by splashing water. Many new varieties of ornamental plants and vegetables are resistant ...

How to Get Healthy Soil in Your Garden

Even if you don't consider yourself an organic gardener, you may still choose to adopt growing methods that have the least harmful effect on the environment.  The first step towards gardening in an eco-friendly way is to build up the health of the soil using natural materials.  This is important because good soil produces strong plants that are less susceptible to disease and insect pests.  Improving the soil is something that should be done every year, because each crop and planting depletes the earth of nutrients.  Here is some advice for achieving rich, fertile soil in your garden. Test the soil Soil testing is becoming a more commonplace practice, even among hobby gardeners.  This procedure will tell you the levels of essential minerals and the amount of organic matter in the soil, as well as other useful information.  When you know what the soil needs, you can take the correct steps to bring it back into balance.  There are many mail-in soil testing services available to gardeners.  You can also look in the phone book for local soil testing companies.  Garden supply centers often sell home test kits that let you assess certain important soil qualities such as the pH level. Get air ...

How to Keep Wild Animals from Becoming Pests in the Garden

As an enthusiastic gardener, you put a lot of work into growing plants for your own pleasure and use.  The problem is that a yard bursting with healthy plants, flowers, and food crops is downright irresistible to many animal pests.  Mammals such as rabbits, squirrels, raccoons, and skunks are common backyard visitors even in urban areas.  You may even see foxes, bobcats, deer, and coyotes if you live closer to the outskirts.  As much as you appreciate wildlife, you probably don't want animals ravaging your garden and eating up this year's harvest.  Here are some tips for keeping wildlife pests out of the garden. Put up physical barriers.  This strategy will work better for some animals than for others.  For example, a tall fence will help keep deer out but will be no obstacle to climbing mammals like raccoons.  If you attach chicken wire to the bottom of the fence, burying it one foot deep into the ground, it will deter some smaller animals and burrowing rodents.  As an alternative, plant thorny plants or prickly hedges around the garden beds.  Roses, barberry, holly, or gooseberry bushes will work for this purpose. Set up a sprinkler with a motion detector so that animals ...

How to Use Beneficial Insects for Pest Control

Harmful insects in the garden are always a nuisance, but organic gardeners have a wide range of natural pest control methods to choose from.  It may seem strange, but one way to control damaging insects is to bring in more insects.  This is because certain beneficial species will prey on harmful species, eating them in great quantities and keeping the population of pests down to a manageable level.  Here are some tips for using beneficial insects for pest control. The best type of beneficial insects are those that are native to the area.  Your first step should be to encourage these helpful bugs to take up residence in your landscape.  You can do this by creating the environment they like, which means providing them with food, water, and shelter. Begin by planting things that appeal to beneficial insects.  They are attracted to flowers that have abundant supplies of nectar and pollen.  Dill, carrots, calendulas, zinnias, sunflowers, basil, thyme, sage, asters, yarrow, marigolds, parsley, and artemisia are a few of the cultivars that can be used.  Flowers that attract butterflies will also bring in the beneficial insects.  Many species prey on harmful insects only during the larvae or immature stage.  The adult beneficial ...

How to Use Companion Planting for Pest Control

Gardeners have long been aware that certain vegetables and herbs have protective qualities in the garden.  They seem to fend off harmful pests just by their proximity.  This interesting effect is particularly noticeable with food crops.  Vegetables can be protected from the most damaging pest threats by planting them close to specific types of vegetables or herbs.  This strategy, sometimes known as companion planting, is a very sensible way to enhance the health of individual plants and the garden as a whole.  Here are some tips for using companion planting to control pest insects. Before the gardening season begins, make a list of the items you want to grow.  Try to match them up with a protective plant or herb.  Then you can map out a garden that mingles different plants in a way that will reduce insect attacks.  Generally speaking, diversity in the garden helps reduce potential threats from all types of pests and disease.  That's why cultivating a wide variety of plants is so important to organic gardeners. Every garden should have onions growing in it, if only for the onion's general usefulness as a pest repellent.  Plant with cabbage, carrots, corn, potatoes, and tomatoes to help repel potato beetles, ...