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Many gardening books provide illustrations of the most common beneficial and harmful insects and will provide information on how to promote the population of beneficial insects such as ladybugs, bees, green lacewings, praying mantises, …

Source: Yoga Resource Center

Question: Can you give me some examples of beneficial insects, and what I can do to attract them to my garden?

Source: unknown

I wasn’t surprised because those three good guys get the best press in magazine articles and organic gardening books. They are in fact valuable for use by commercial growers in fields or in the greenhouse, however, in the home landscape …

Source: Nancy & Jeff

Hi everyone

Welcome to this edition of your Gardening Weekly, today's edition is entitled:

Organic Gardening Basics That Ensure Healthy Happy Gardens And A Healthy Overall Environment

It's worth understanding that using organic gardening methods does not mean that you have to learn to live with insect chewed fruit, vegetables and flowers because you can easily learn to protect your garden from destructive insects and maintain healthy soil and healthy plants without the use of chemical insecticides and fertilizers.

Organic Fertilizers and Compost

Organic fertilizers and compost are simple natural products that feed your plants and nourish your soil.  You can create your own compost heap in your back yard, recycling grass clippings, tree leaves, garden cuttings and even kitchen scraps.  You can also buy compost at local garden centers.  Compost can be used as fertilizer or you can grow your plants in pure compost.  You can even create your own liquid fertilizer from compost.

Creating your own compost is as easy as taking out the trash.  All you need is a small space in a garden corner to pile your left over grass clippings, tree leaves and garden cutting.

Organic Insecticides and Pest Control

Not all insects are bad for your garden.  Most of us know the benefits of ladybugs, butterflies and bees.  There are also wasps, flies and beetles that can protect your plants from destructive insects.  Using chemical insecticides, even using organic insecticides can kill the destructive insects but will also kill the beneficial insects.  You can also buy beneficial insects at your local garden center or online to import into your garden.

Plants can also help in the war against destructive insects.  Planting certain plants as a border around your garden or mixed in with the plants in your garden can repel thrips, white flies and tomato hornworm.  Peppermint will even repel and discourage ants from taking up residence in your garden.

Our Gardening Made Easy has some excellent advice on organic gardening as does The Organic Gardening Guide.

Watch Out For Your Next Gardening Weekly Entitled:

What are the best vegetables for a beginning gardener to grow?

Bye for now!
The My Gardening Home Blog Team

Hi everyone

Welcome to this edition of your Gardening Weekly, today's edition is entitled:

Getting Rid of Garden Pests

QUOTE: A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in
- Greek proverb

There are many different types of pests that can ruin your good work in the garden.  The most common are insects and they can destroy a garden in a very short time if left to their own devices.  Even the neighbor's cat can be a pest if it is always using your garden as a toilet.  Birds can be another reason for concern if they are eating your plants and can become quite smelly if they are nesting in trees or hedges in abundance.
 
Pests will use your garden primarily for food and shelter.  To reduce the amount of pests in your garden you need to create an environment that isn't as inviting.

By clearing leaves and waste from the base of your plants you will reduce the amount of shelter.  This will allow you to work the soil better and eliminate the incidence of in-ground insects that can suck the nutrients out of the soil.

Website Of Interest. Check out the following:
http://blog.mygardeninghome.com/soil.html

You can stop cats, rats and mice from digging in the soil by using effective ground cover in the form of mesh where it becomes too difficult for them to get through to the soil.

By keeping your compost in the correct composting containers there won't be any decaying matter lying around the yard that will attract rats and mice.  Having a tidy garden and yard will not encourage them to make their home on your property.  Traps might be needed as a final deterrent for rats and mice.

Spraying your plants with suitable insecticides will also reduce the unwanted insect population.  There are some good natural applications on the market that will do the job of the commercial insecticides or you can make your own effective natural insecticide.

If you prune back trees and hedges you might make them less appealing to birds and this might help to reduce the population in your garden.  Keep in mind that some insects do a good job of maintaining a balance in the garden by eating other insects and birds will also eat insects that could be causing damage to your plants.

Website Of Interest. Check out the following:
http://blog.mygardeninghome.com/soil.html

Thanks,
Annie
http://blog.mygardeninghome.com

Hi everyone

Welcome to this edition of your Gardening Weekly, today's edition is entitled:

Diseases In The Garden

QUOTE: Gardening is something you learn by doing and by making mistakes.
Like cooking, gardening is a constant process of experimentation, repeating the successes and throwing out the failures.
- Carol Stocker

Disease can spread more readily in wet conditions so you need to be careful when working in your garden during the wet season not to transfer disease from one plant to the next.

If you find any diseased parts on your plants cut them out and discard them in the rubbish.  If the plant is too far-gone to recover then remove the whole plant but always be careful that in doing so the diseased portions don't come into contact with the other plants, as this will cause it to spread.

Website Of Interest. Check out the following:
http://blog.mygardeninghome.com/compost.html

You should never use diseased plants for compost. It is better to send it out in the trash or burn it to ensure it doesn't spread any further.

Many diseases in the garden are spread by insects so keeping control of the insects in your garden will reduce or eliminate the incidence of disease.

There are suitable sprays that will help you to eliminate insects in the garden but even these sprays can cause problems.

It is essential that the spray dries and the foliage is not left damp because damp foliage can cause disease.  Spraying should therefore be done early enough in the day to allow for the foliage to dry out before night.

Another area that can harbor disease is in pots that have been used with plants that have had some form of disease.
By repotting other plants into these pots you run the risk of those plants also becoming infected.  Simply wash out all pots before reusing them.  Bleach will generally kill any fungus or bacteria and then rinse the residue out and all traces of the bleach.

Garden hygiene is essential if you want to have a healthy garden.  Many people assume that due to the fact that you are working with soil/dirt cleanliness is not important but it is this lack of care that is responsible for the transfer of diseases in the garden.

Website Of Interest. Check out the following:
http://blog.mygardeninghome.com/compost.html

Thanks,
Annie
My Gardening Home Blog

Lady beetle (ladybug) nymphs look creepy, but they are actually one of the more beneficial insects to welcome to your garden. One ladybug nymph will eat about 400 aphids during the 3 weeks before it pupates and thousands once it becomes …

Source: unknown

Question: I am starting my first garden this year and would like to plant some flowers in with the vegetables. I also understand that there are certain flowers that aid in pest control. Can you recommend some?

Source: unknown

Organic gardeners avoid using chemical pesticides because they are toxic to humans (especially small ones), pets and the environment as well as to insects. Organic garden pest control uses non-toxic, natural methods of deterring or …

Source: Jennifer

Maybe I should go to a gardening community for this, but I'm sure someone has some advice. I am having some insect problems in my garden. I don't know what insects they are because I never, ever see them. I do have quite a few ants in …

Source: The Herbal Apothecarium