If you’ve been interested in organic gardening for at least ten minutes, you’ve probably already heard about Neem oil. It’s the gold standard for natural garden pest control, among other issues, and folks will recommend it for everything from bug infestations to blight or fungal wilts. Caterpillars? Neem oil. Leaf spots? Neem oil. Deer, rabbits,…
If you’re in the business of growing food at home without using dangerous chemicals, you’re probably familiar with natural pesticides like Neem oil, Spinosad, and diatomaceous earth. It’s tempting to go straight for the sprayer and the Neem, when you find pests eating unsightly holes in your vegetable plants. Here’s the issue, though: many natural…
If you’re like us and you want to get serious about growing more food at home, setting up a system for floating row cover is a must. Row cover is a low-stress way to protect vulnerable plants from both pests and damage from weather extremes. That makes it an invaluable tool for reducing losses, extending…
I was a big bug enthusiast well before I started gardening, and I’ve always thought caterpillars of any kind were the coolest little things. Granted, I still think they’re fascinating, with their resilience and all the adversity they face in going from tiny rice-sized hatchlings to cocooning and transforming into moths or butterflies. Unfortunately, though,…
Summer squash has a reputation for being easy to grow, since it’s a vigorous, fast-maturing crop that tolerates a lot of soil conditions (including our clay-heavy soil in Georgia). It’s also a reliable and heavy producer. Once your plants get going, they’ll give you a steady supply of squash every few days. Unfortunately, if you…
If you’re interested in growing organically, I’d bet a big part of the reason is because you’re informed about the health and environmental hazards that come along with conventional pesticides. They’re toxic to pets and animals, and they can cause cancer, birth defects, and other health problems in humans. Obviously, we’d rather not put them…
If you have a garden anywhere that gets wet weather from time to time, you’ve likely seen the trouble slugs can cause. Slugs are active all through the regular growing season, they’ll eat pretty much anything, and they can cause lots of damage in a short amount of time. And, since slugs aren’t insects, the…
