During the past 5 years there’s been a significant shift in the number of people growing their own food — namely vegetables. As a matter of fact, 35% of all households in America grow food either at home or in a community garden. Are you one of these people? Or at least considering joining them? There’s a lot of reasons to consider planting a garden in your backyard. Lowering grocery bills, taking up a new hobby, improving your health and teaching your kids about nature top this list. All great reasons but one thing you might not consider is the impact a backyard garden may have in a possible increase in the number of pests and wildlife populations that find your tomatoes just as juicy as you do!
No problem! You just need to take some time to educate yourself about problems that may arise and to learn some techniques that help keep pests from wreaking havoc on your garden. Let’s explore some of these techniques together now:
1. Make your garden unattractive. Yep, that’s right. Make your garden as unattractive as possible to curious (and hungry!) wildlife. Clean up any nearby spilled bird feed. Seal off access to any crawl space below your deck or porch. Remove tall grasses which could be possible nesting areas.
2. Some temporary solutions can work — if only temporarily. Scent repellants such as castor oil and garlic can sometimes be temporary solutions; however, they must be monitored and reapplied quite often.
3. Put a lid on it. Literally. You can create simple covers for your plants out of chicken wire that are usually effective at keeping most wildlife at bay.
4. Plant more! This time, plant some things that wildlife typically find repulsive. Azaleas & marigolds annoy rabbits. Daffodils can repel deer.
Even more annoying than wildlife in your garden is if the critter decides to make itself at home INSIDE your home. We have an incredible team of Wildlife Specialists who are only a phone call (636-343-7900) away!
