• Gardening Tips & Tricks •

garden pests & disease

There you are out in the garden, soaking in your self-created Eden, when bam…out of the corner of your eye, you spy a cucumber beetle nestled in your squash blossom. As you go to nab it, your arm brushes against your beloved rosemary that is now coated in mildew. As your heart picks up in pace, you realize, relaxation time is over…it’s time to go to battle.

Cucumber Beetles and Bacterial Wilt

Have you ever gone to bed saying goodnight to your beautiful cucumber or squash plants, only to wake up the next morning to sad, wilting shadows of that plant? Chances are, it got infected by bacterial wilt. To help prevent this heartbreak, you’ll need to arm yourself with cotton swabs, petroleum jelly and a cup of soapy water and go to battle. Either in the early morning or evening (ideally both), go out to your garden and start hunting for cucumber beetles and stink bugs on your cucurbits (they transmit the bacterial wilt through bites to the stem of your plants), they are groggy these times of day and easier to catch. Knock the stink bugs into your cup of soapy water. For the cucumber beetles, swirl a cotton swab in petroleum jelly and nab the bad guys by tapping them with the swab. They’ll stick to the jelly and then put in the cup of soapy water. Super gross and a rather unpleasant way to start your morning, but it’ll quickly become a bit of an obsession once you start to see how many you’re actually nabbing

Cabbage Worms

Ugg…cabbage worms…my garden nemesis! First of all, keep an eye out early in the season for small white butterflies. These guys are seeking out your brassicas to lay their eggs on. Their eggs become cabbage worms. Floating covers are the easiest protection, but then you don’t get the benefit of seeing it’s prettiness. If you use covers, get them on BEFORE you spy that first white butterfly. I love companion planting with Calendula. It’s been helpful for me, especially the Resina variety. But the real most effective deterrent is being diligent about checking out the back of each cabbage leaf for the cabbage worm eggs and destroying them. It’s very time-consuming, but it does work.

Squash Blossom End Rot

This is one of my favorite tricks I learned over the years. You know when your precious baby squash all of a sudden rot at one end and fall off? That’s Blossom End Rot and you can prevent it. Once your fruits begin to swell in girth and grow, nip off the blossom still connected to the fruit. If left on, that blossom can easily develop a fungus that will begin to infect the squash.

Cabbage Root Maggots

This cruel foe is responsible for my biggest crop loss ever in my 20 years of gardening. One afternoon, I found two cabbage seedlings limp on the ground. They were fine that morning. Upon inspection, there were horrid maggots nestled around the root by the base of the plants. These vile creatures are Cabbage Root Maggots and they took out every single cole crop that I planted: broccoli, kale, cabbage and Brussels sprouts, along with my radishes as well. Cabbage Root Flies, preferring cool Northern gardens that have rich soil, lay eggs around the base of the plant (cole crops in particular) in early spring (and again in late summer). The larvae then tunnel to the root system, destroying the plant. All of this goes on undetected from above the ground. It is not until it’s pretty much too late, that you will notice something isn’t right. Heartbreakingly, there is no saving these plants. I’ve been successfully practicing organic gardening for two decades, mindfully rotating crops, balancing soils, creating an environment for beneficial insects, the list goes on and on, yet at the end of the day, it is all very much out of my control…as Mother Nature made quite evident today. The only real true prevention for this pest is to religiously use row covers from the moment of planting through harvest. I prefer not to use them, because I love to soak in the eye candy of the vegetables, but this has been a price I’m not willing to pay again. 

practice Crop Rotation

There is a season…turn, turn, turn. Same with your garden beds. Crop rotation is another essential practice towards achieving growing success. Basically, if you grow the same crops in the same bed year after year, the soil will become depleted of the needed nutrients to grow those crops. Crop rotation not only helps keep your soil’s fertility healthy, it also reduces soil-borne diseases and pests that are dwelling in the dirt. Some crops are heavy feeders (lettuce, cabbage, squash, tomatoes, corn), depleting the soil of many valuable nutrients. To keep the soil balanced, follow heavy-feeding crops with ones that give back to the soil like legumes. Or follow with light-feeders like root veggies and herbs. The other key, is to remember that crop rotation applies to entire vegetable families, meaning, you can’t follow broccoli with kale or cabbage because they are all from the Brassica family. Same goes for squash and cucumbers, or tomatoes and peppers. Companion planting and cover crops also help keep the soil balanced, but when used in combination with crop rotation, you’re giving your soil the best possible care. 

My Baking Soda Garden Miracle

The baking soda garden miracle maker that’s hanging out in your kitchen pantry. Garden diseases can easily kill not only the plants they effect, but many a gardener’s spirit as well. Around a decade ago, in late August, I lost 40 tomato plants that were huge and full of fat, green fruit ready to ripen, to late blight…all within 48-72 hours. I remember sobbing as I bagged up plant after plant for disposal. So, let’s just say, all these years later, I’m still a bit sensitive to this trauma. That’s why one summer, when I saw that my Glacier tomatoes suddenly took a nose dive with possible early blight, I was ready to yank them out immediately (after another good cry). But then I rallied and did a last ditch attempt to say them by spraying them with a homemade fungicide.  Sure those copper ones are super nice to have on hand, but they are a bit too pricy for me, so instead, I went and grabbed that 88¢ box of baking soda, some soap, veg oil and water and in seconds, I was armed and ready for a fight. I thoroughly sprayed both side of the tomato’s leaves and crossed my fingers. To my complete amazement, those tomato plants bounced back with vigor. Then I tried it on my patty pan plant that wasn’t looking to hot…another miracle turnaround! Basically, I believe that this simple baking soda spray is the biggest garden miracle maker that I have ever experience in my 20 years of gardening.

Baking Soda Garden Miracle

Ingredients:

3Tb baking soda

1 gallon water

1Tb veggie oil

2 drops dish soap. 

Shake well and spray coat both side of leaves. 

Now a warning…do not apply this spray on super hot days or at the height of the sun’s rays…it could end up burning your plant instead of helping it. I like to spray first thing in the early morning, ideally on an overcast day. Also, it is key not to make the solution too strong, better to err on the lighter side because that too can burn the leaves. But, these risks are minor compared to losing the entire plant itself. 

Mildew on Houseplants

Mildew can be fairly common indoors with your houseplants if you have fluctuating temperatures and not great air circulation…both things we lack here in our sealed up winter home. Combat it by trimming off the affected areas with a clean scissor. Then, mix up a spray bottle of a 1:4 part mixture of milk to water. Spray all the herbs and promptly placed them under fluorescent lights. The lights are the key here as the milk needs the bright light to active it’s mildew killing powers. A bright, sunny spot works just as well. After a few days, calm was restored and your houseplants will be happy again.