Long-term pestreduction

Pest and disease management in the garden over the long-term requires time and effort but it is possible.

At the heart of nearly all your pest problems is too much love, a few bad habits and a myth I’d like to clear up right away – that is you can completely eliminate pests! If pesticides worked, we’d be pestfree already, but alas, they’ve adapted to all our sprays and have come out trumps – more of them and stronger.

Pests are nature’s response to the environment, a big part of which is the way you garden. It’s potent, knowing this – you can do something about them. Rather than calling them in so loudly, learn to whisper instead. The solutions, you’ll be pleased to know, are simple. So simple, you’ll kick yourself! Homemade compost, organic matter, better timing and a deeper connection with life in the micro, that is, soil life and beneficial insects.

You’ll recognise these strategies – they’re the same ones we use to keep our soils well. Natural systems are superefficient in this way – everything is connected! Make one thread stronger and you strengthen the whole. As we put the web of life front and centre in all we do, we create a garden where pests no long reign supreme.

It’s a wonderful irony that the most heavily sprayed gardens are the most pest laden. From this we draw great learning. The three –icides (pesti, fungi and herbi) break the bonds of natural cycles and as those bonds break, the whole system begins to collapse. No need to despair though. Repair happens quickly, when we focus in the right places. Let’s get on with it!

The first thing to do is clean out your shed and get rid of all the artificial fertilisers and pesticides. Go cold turkey. Your soil food web will begin to rebuild right away.

Fungicides and herbicides must go too. If you’ve been leaning on them, you may need to transition steadily. Use a roll-on herbicide while you wean yourself off. Spray is insidious. If it were dyed, you’d be horrified at how it covers the outdoor furniture, your vegetable patch, the clothes on the line.

The first thing to do is clean out your shed and get rid of all the artificial fertilisers and pesticides. Go cold turkey. Your soil food web will begin to rebuild right away.

The next habit to undo is how you feed your garden. Too much – even when done naturally, with love and good intentions – is unhelpful. Most of us have been here, myself included, piling it on the soil without questioning whether it was needed or not. Overfed plants grow like triffids, sending out juicy, sweet shoots – and oh how the sucking pests love them. FYI, artificial fertilisers create the same kinds of growths.

Time is nigh to drop our overfeeding habits. As you do, sucking pests will drop away. Stick to humble stuff such as leaves, seaweed, rotten manure and garden waste. Nature knows how to work with these things. They support all those natural cycles we were speaking of earlier.

Ponder your bought fertilisers: Does your garden need them, and do you know what’s in them? Stop adding stuff willy-nilly. Less really is more.

Homemade compost is truly all you need – homemade is the gold standard. If you don’t have enough, buy some in and mix it through your homemade stuff. If you have no homemade, set your bought compost on the ground to imbue it with life before using. By life, I mean all the microscopic bacteria, yeasts, fungi on which the health

of your garden spins. And without which, pests rule.

Plants grown in soil amended with homemade compost are sturdier and less sugary, hence fewer pests. Akin to eating bircher muesli for breakfast: no blood sugar spikes; just a steady grounding release of energy.

The next habit to change in our search for fewer pests is to plant in guilds, or mixtures. Cobble together a tap root, nitrogen fixer, pest repellent, pollinator attractor, groundcover and perhaps a vine as well, and tap into the below-ground collaboration. Plants source many of their own needs when in a diverse community. Amazing, aye. The more you learn, the easier it is to feed less.

Each plant attracts a different guild of soil life and the more diverse the range of soil life, the stronger the system. Guilds not only grow sturdier plants but also supply your next pest-reducing tactics – disguise and distraction.

Pests hunt by smell or shape. The simple act of planting in a mashup makes a huge difference. One crop in an uninterrupted line sends strong scent out on the airwaves and visually screams, “Here I am!”

Many of the flowering companions you include in your guilds will also be enticing predatory insects. Nature specialises in pest predation – she’s got you covered as long as you don’t get in her way. You’ll have more pests at the start of your natural gardening journey than at any other time.

It’s a sharp learning curve, I know, but find your calm, and stay the course. As your garden becomes more diverse and your soil more alive, you’ll begin to notice fewer problems.

When you feel ready, have a go at letting the pests go a little. Our habit of controlling pests is a big one to change and kind of scary to let go of, but watching pests do their thing will help you time your management wisely. As a rule, aim to cut in as early as you can, eggs and larvae are generally the easiest. Don’t be afraid of a burst of pest – it will attract the predatory insects, which will come along eventually, just not as quickly as the pests, nor do they reproduce with the same alacrity.

You’ll notice as you go along that some varieties get hammered by pests and some do not. Save the seed of and grow the ones that don’t. Chances are these same varieties are the ones that suit your environment well and therefore grow with vigour. There’s great wisdom in choosing varieties with care – particularly trees as they are with you a long time.

As your garden becomes more diverse and your soil more alive, you’ll begin to notice fewer problems.