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If you’re looking for a
few more “earth friendly” ways to garden this year, I’ve got a few products
you may want to add to your gardening list.
Get after some of the
tougher bugs and diseases before they ever get started, by using dormant
sprays. Dormant sprays meaning spraying the plants while they’re still
dormant, and usually the bugs and diseases are too. Lime sulfur spray is an
excellent way to help take care of over wintering diseases as well as a few
insects. And being lime and sulfur, this one is considered earth friendly.
For insects only, look to dormant spray with Horticultural oil. Again,
earth friendly, this one helps to control a wide array of insects before
they ever get started. As usual, read the labels before use, and only use
these products if absolutely necessary.
Get after some of the
weeds before they get growing, by applying pre emergent herbicides. Earth
friendly pre emergents are available for you in the form of corn gluten
meal! Preen now has their organic pre emergent with corn gluten meal, as
well as the folks at Espoma. This pre emergent can be used in the garden,
ground covers, landscape beds, and in the lawn, and will also give the soil
a slight shot of nitrogen. Now, corn gluten meal doesn’t cover as many weed
seeds as the synthetic pre emergents, but does a descent job as an earth
friendly product.
Once the season gets
going, and you need to spray a few bugs here and there, try hosing them off
with water. If that doesn’t work and you need to spray, don’t forget
Insecticidal Soaps, Horticultural oils, and Bt for earth friendly
insecticides. Between the 3, they cover quite a list of insects
controlled. Again, read the labels before you spray.
And one last insecticide
to keep in mind, that although is a synthetic chemical, it’s use is safe
than others, as it’s used as a systemic…Bayer Tree and Shrub Insect
Control…applied to the soil and roots, and taken up inside the plant.
Again, helps to control a wide array of insects, but does it from the inside
out. No sprays, so the good bugs don’t get killed…and that to me is very
earth friendly!
By the way, this is also
the product recommended for treating ash trees for the dreaded Emerald Ash
Borer. |
