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Prevent Your Garden From Dying (Part 2)

May 6th, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed

Before you douse your plants with poisons and chemicals to get rid of bugs, insects, and other diseases, you must first figure out what is causing them to get infected and sick in the first place. You have to find the underlying cause of the problem in order to apply the best possible cure and keep it from coming back.

Spraying your plants with insecticide can actually worsen the pest problem because you are not only killing the harmful insects, but you are also destroying the ones that can actually help you maintain a disease-free garden. In addition, the effect of insecticides on plants may vary and many of them are not effective at killing some types of harmful bugs, such as mites.

The best prevention is early detection. As an conscientious gardener, you have to get to the root of the problem and find out what is destroying your garden. Examine the following 7 factors described below to find out why your perennials are easy targets for bugs and insects:

1. Drought. Not enough water studs the growth of the plant, makes them look sick and weak, and causes the leaves to turn yellow or produce brown tips.

2. Excess water. Just as not enough water kills your plants, too much water also causes your perennials to become weak and gradually die. If you are living in a wet climate, choose plants that are more tolerant to extra water.

3. Poor Sunlight. Most perennials love sunshine. Plants and flowers that aren’t getting enough sun become pale until they eventually shrivel and die. If your garden is in a shady location, choose perennials that are more tolerant to the shade.

4. Too Much Sunlight. On the other hand, there are many types of perennials that prefer less sunlight. Too much sun causes these shade-loving flowers and leaves to turn pale and develop thin patches and/or dark burns.

5. Air Pollution. Some plants and flowers do not respond well to smog. Air pollution causes their leaves to look warped and distorted. If air pollution is a problem in your area, choose perennials that are more resistant to them.

6. Lack Of Fertilizer. Perennials that are deficient in one or several required nutrients develop discoloration in their leaves and stunt their growth. Go to your local nursery and ask for information on different types of fertilizers that fit the need of your plants.

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Prevent Your Garden From Dying (Part 1)

May 4th, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed

If your garden has insects and bugs that are proving to be damaging, you can easily eliminate them by dousing your plants with different types of chemicals. However, this type of practice will not only kill the harmful insects and bugs but it will also get rid of the good bugs and other living organisms that visit your yard.

For instance, spraying poison on caterpillars that eat your flowers will also get rid of the welcomed butterflies that hover around your garden. Similarly, there will be no lovely songbirds to greet you if your garden does not provide them with bugs for their next meal.

You need to keep the good bugs in and the bad bugs out of your garden, and at the same time, be willing to tolerate some of the annoying ones if you want to attract other creatures to visit your garden. You also need to make sure that these bugs do not get out of control in their numbers and destroy your garden.

Below is a list of things you can do to prevent problems from occurring in your garden:

1. Keep Your Garden Clean. Maintain a clean garden by regularly taking out dead leaves and stems, as well as unhealthy leaves and stems, to prevent the disease from spreading. Remove weeds from the flower beds where insects and other diseases can live.

After clipping the diseased plants, sanitize scissors and pruning shears by soaking them in a solution consisting of water and household bleach. If you are a smoker, wash your hands thoroughly before working in your garden because tobacco and cigarettes have viruses that harm plants and flowers.

2. Take Care Of Your Flowers. An unfit environment weakens your flowers, making them an easy target by diseases and bugs that can kill them. Similar to our immune system, by keeping your perennials healthy and stress-free, they are less susceptible to diseases and other threats. Keep them strong and healthy by providing enough water, sunlight, good soil, and fertilizer. Examine your flowers on a regular basis and spray off bugs and small insects.

3. Provide Enough Space Between Your Plants. It is beneficial to maintain proper air circulation in order to contain diseased plants and keep them from spreading and contaminating healthy plants.

4. Keep The Good Bugs In. Some of these creepy crawlers are actually working for you. Examples are flower flies, praying mantis, lizards, spiders, and predator mites.

Cypermethrin Lady Bug Control Isn’t this sacrilegious to a Gardener? Every- one knows lady bugs eat many nuisance pests so why would we want to kill them?

They are really only a pest by their presence when large numbers of them take up residence in a home.

Cypermethrin is an active ingredient lady bugs can’t stand. It will keep them out of your home. A concentrate which mixes with water and may be applied inside and outside of the home.

TARGET PESTS: Lady Bugs. Although this product will work well for ants and roaches, it has a good ability to keep lady bugs off the home. This repellency is strong enough to keep them from invading during the fall. WHERE TO

USE IT: For lady bugs, you need to treat the side of the home where they are active. Although this may be one side of the house, it sometimes is more than one and may be all four sides!

RATE OF APPLICATION: Mix it at the rate of 1 ounce per gallon and a gallon will cover 1000 sq/ft well. It may take two or three gallons to treat big homes. 4 ounces (makes 4 gallons) (cannot be shipped to New York)