How To Keep Diseases And Bugs Away From Your Garden

Now that spring has well and truly sprung, your garden might start being under attack from insects and diseases. After spending so long planting and nurturing your plant babies, it can be frustrating to see your crops being eaten away by bugs. However, there are a few things that you can do to prevent this from happening. This article aims to give you a few pointers on how best to keep diseases and bugs away from your garden. So read on!

Sterilize Your Soil

This might sound like a lot of work but sterilizing your soil is a very effective way of killing off bugs and preventing diseases. Sterilizing soil involves heating it to 180℉ (82℃) for about half an hour, which is hot enough, and long enough to kill anything nasty that you don’t want in there. To make sure you do it right, you might need to refer to a guide to sterilizing soil, as overheating your soil can have serious negative effects. Sterilizing your soil is a great first step in preventing bugs and diseases from invading your garden. 

Give The Plants Some Breathing Room

Although this is a preventative measure that happens before you have planted, adjustments can be made once everything is potted. Plants need space to thrive, they need access to sunlight and water directly, rather than being shaded by their plant neighbor. Overcrowding a flower bed gives bugs shelter from the wind and rain which means they will more easily thrive. This is also likely to make your plants less stressed, which will keep them strong against diseases. Making sure there is ample room between your plants is a great way to deter bugs and fight off diseases. 

Water Them In The Morning

You might not think that it really matters when you water your plants, but it does. Try to make it part of your morning routine, ideally, one of the first things you do after you get up. Watering in the morning is good for the plants’ health as it means they will not get dehydrated in the hottest part of the day. This helps keep the plants from getting stressed, which in turn makes them less susceptible to disease and bugs. Insects tend to prey on weaker plants so watering them in the morning is a great preventative measure to keep your plants healthy and less appealing to bugs. 

Frogs Are Your Friends …And Birds Too!

Another great way to keep bugs away from your plants is to attract other animals that will feed on the nasty bugs. Frogs are particularly good at eating up the bugs that you don’t want hanging around. To attract frogs to stay in your garden, make sure there is some accessible water. A pond would be ideal but a simple bowl of water could suffice. An upturned pot can provide them somewhere cool and dark to make a home as well. If you are less keen on having slimy frogs around, birds are also good for hoovering up bugs. Although they might nibble at some of your fruits, if you plant some surplus food for them they will be a big help in tackling your bug problem. 

Not All Insects Are Bad

Alongside frogs and birds, you can try courting some carnivorous insects. The Ladybug Nymph, in particular, is great at eating the types of bugs that wreak havoc on your plants. The way to attract these insects is to make sure that you have ample pollen for them to eat. A simple way to do this is to let some of your crops go to flower, this way you don’t have to add additional plants to get the benefits. Although it can be confusing to try and figure out which bugs are good and which are bad, with a little bit of research you can find which ones you can use to your advantage.

One of the best ways to keep your garden happy and healthy is to stay on top of bugs and diseases. Thankfully, there are a few easy things you can do to keep the bugs and diseases at bay. Sterilizing your soil, spacing out your plants, watering first thing in the morning, attracting frogs, birds and the right kinds of insects are all great ways to do this. Looking after plants is not always easy, they do require a large amount of attention and care. However, by following some of these tips you should have an easier time of it.