Organic Gardening Pest Controls: Webinars, Videos, Podcasts, and Articles
In our garden, July is prime pest season. This is specially true with insect pests. The populations of insects has built up with the warm weather and they’re attacking squash, cucumbers, tomatoes and a whole host of flowers. What’s a gardener to do? That’s why I put together this newsletter filled with helpful tips on controlling animals, insects and diseases.
In this newsletter, I highlight two of my webinars that might be helpful. The Organic Gardening Pest Control Webinar features ways to identify and control common insect pests, animals and diseases in your landscape. The second is a more broad, preventive approach to pest control. In Ecological Gardening and Companion Planting, I highlight ecologically-friendly practices that will reduce pest problems including using companion planting. Check out details of both webinars below.
In this newsletter, there’s also information on specific pests. There are videos on controlling deer and Japanese beetles; two favorite topics on my radio shows. But also there’s a good article on IPM and the steps you can take to reduce pest pressure in your garden. And also there’s an article/podcast on powdery mildew disease. This is a common problem in many vegetable and flower gardens.
Until next time I’ll be seeing you, in the garden.
Charlie
Organic Gardening Pest Control Webinar
In this webinar I talk about you can protect your plants from insect, animal and disease pests organically and still have a great harvest. Preventive topics included in the webinar are selecting pest resistant plants and varieties, design ideas to reduce the chance of damage, fencing, netting, row covers and other barriers, and traps and do they work. I also discuss targeted organic sprays for insects and diseases, animal repellents and how to use them and which home remedies work and which don’t work.
Ecological Gardening and Companion Planting Webinar
More and more gardeners are trying to garden more in tune with Nature and still protect their plants. In this webinar I talk about what’s ecological gardening, how it differs from organic gardening and the many techniques you can use to protect your plants. Ecological topics include how to build soil health without turning or tilling and ways to increase soil fertility with cover crops.
Then, I talk about companion planting and how far it’s come from just being folklore driven. With new scientific research behind it, I discuss ways to lure and establish beneficial insects in your garden, examples of companion planting techniques for pest control and examples of companion planting techniques for disease and weed controls.
Learn more and purchase my Ecological Gardening and Companion Planting Webinar Here
More on Organic Gardening Pest Controls……
How to Grow: Controlling Deer
Probably the number one pest I get calls and messages about is deer. With the exploding population of deer and less predators and hunting, deer are getting bolder about coming right into your yard to munch on your favorite plants. There are a number of plants deer love and an equal number of plant lists of “deer resistant plants”. Just always remember, if deer are hungry enough they will eat just about anything.
In this video/article, I talk about resistant plants, and the two main ways to keep deer at bay. That would be using a fence and repellent sprays. There are nuances in how to do both techniques, that I describe.
Learn How to Control Deer here
IPM for Organic Pest Controls
While many gardeners want a silver bullet to control a pest, often the best technique incorporates better cultural practices, barriers, traps and targeted sprays. This technique has been known as Integrated Pest Management or IPM.
In this article I talk about what IPM is, the steps to making your yard more pest proof and the details for each pest control technique.
Learn more IPM for Organic Pest Controls here
Controlling Japanese Beetles
If you live anywhere East for the Rockies (and in some areas of the Northwest), you know the Japanese beetle. This shiny, metallic black beetle munches on hundreds of plants, such as basil, grapes, raspberries, roses and zinnias, in summer. They also mate, lay eggs and create future generations. But there are weak links in the Japanese beetle’s lifecycle that you can exploit without having to resort to harmful chemicals. Check out the preventive and direct control tips in this video/article/podcast you can use to stop this menace.
Learn more about Controlling Japanese Beetles here
Controlling Powdery Mildew Disease
With variable weather, diseases are starting to create real problems in gardens. One that is ubiquitous in our area is powdery mildew disease. This fungus attacks flowers, such as bee balm and phlox, and vegetables, such as squash and melons. It kills the leaves and reduces the beauty and production in your garden. In this article/podcast I talk about ways to thwart this diseases including using organic sprays.
Learn more about Controlling Powdery Mildew Disease here
