Are you in the EU? If you've been gardening for some time then you probably are aware of which garden pests you have to face annually. I have but a few garden enemies in mine; the slugs, the snails, the aphids - all sorts of them, pink, green, yellow green and that abominable black ones which is of course supplied by the sneaky ants.
It is still cold, isn't it? However, the temperature seems to be heading for Spring and the bulbs are already in bloom and those blooms are already smiling to the sun. That means, there shall be more warm days ahead, fingers crossed and the first thing I have to combat would be the black aphids cause they always pester my cherry trees.
If you think they come in an army you're wrong! It's a plague! The young leaves of the cherry trees go curly and they all tend to grow unhealthy and give me a few tiny blooms.
This year, I've already prepared for their attack - am growing the plants they hate, indoors. In case you don't know what they look like, let me bombard you with pics from seeds, to young plant to flowers.
I've already set a few Nasturtiums in the pot so they'd be ready or I'm hoping so . The black aphids love them and hopefully, they'd serve as a distraction instead of my cherry trees getting sucked up dry.
They seem to like my Coreopsis, too so I collected more seeds of them and have already, set a few in the ground. I still am planning to grow them in pots though just because they also happen to combat snails and slugs.
I've also raked the sides of the cherry trees and burrowed some of the Calendula seeds. I've planted a few in the pots to put near my yellow roses in the facade because it's not just black aphids that get attached to them but also green ones.
My ultra organic pest control better than chemical sprays are my Marigolds . They don't just combat aphids but also snails and slugs. They protected my pakchois and other vegetables last year so I collected plenty of their seeds this year.
I could just leave them to dry and sow themselves in the ground, too but it's too wet here, they were starting to get mildew so I didn't. I've raked the ground around the cherries, apples and plum trees and burrowed a few in there. They don't need to be buried deep btw, just rake, spread and cover, it'll do.
We're still expecting frost but I could also just cover them with plastic in case they forecast frost and if not, I've got enough quietly germinating in pots.
Hopefully, those seeds manage to germinate before a legion of them pests start showing up specially those annoying black aphids. If not, I'm zealous enough to collect and poke each with a toothpick, too. I prefer leaving it to those plants though, not much of the dirt and effort on my side when they do their job.
How about you?
How are you getting ready for your garden pests?
Do you happen to know any other plants that could combat snails, slugs and aphids? If you do, do shout it out on the reply section, I love taking tips!
This content's 100% mine. All pics were taken with my Samsung galaxy A3 2016 edition. I took all those pics last year but they're mint because I haven't used nor posted them anywhere else except for the nasturtiums which I provided the post link from here, too.
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