How to Keep the Plants Healthy Without the Use of Chemicals
There is no greater joy than to be able to pick own fruits and vegetables, and rest your eyes on a beautiful flower garden. However, to be able to enjoy eating your own fruits and vegetables, and grow beautiful flowers you need to keep them healthy which can be very challenging if attacked by pests or diseases. Some plants manage to defend themselves on their own but the others cannot survive without the gardener’s intervention. And this is where the most gardeners face a great dilemma – how to keep their plants healthy without the use of hazardous chemicals. The answer to that question does not lay in the use of organic pesticides only.
In order to keep your plants healthy without the use of chemicals you need to provide them optimal conditions for growth. These vary from one plant to another but the majority of plants, especially fruits and vegetables prefer rich, fertile soil and a lot of direct sunlight. For that reason you should choose a proper location for your garden and make sure that it receives at least 5 hours of direct sunlight per day. The next step is making sure that the soil contains enough nutrients required for optimal plant growth, especially if starting a garden from scratch. Get a soil test kit and measure the soil acidity. If the test shows that your soil is neutral or slightly alkaline you can immediately start with planting, otherwise you need to improve your soil first by adding some organic material such as compost. Plants that have optimal conditions for growth are much more resistant to pests and diseases similar as people who have a healthy lifestyle.
Unfortunately, making sure that your garden soil is nutrient rich and that the garden receives enough direct sunlight often is not enough to prevent diseases and pests from attacking the plants. For that reason you should take care for additional preventive measures such as building an insect house and plant some repellent plants. All insects do not try to harm your plants. On the contrary, predatory insects such as ladybugs feed on numerous pests and help the “bad” insects from causing too much damage. The more the beneficial insects the less the “bad” ones. You can additionally reduce the risk of pests and diseases in your garden by combining an insect house with companion planting. Some plants such as marigold repel the “bad” insects with their smell and attract the “good” ones at the same time. For that reason you should plant some repellent plants in close proximity of your garden or even better in the garden.
Another important thing is to make sure that the plants have enough space. The more space they have the better. If you plant too many plants on a small area they will end up competing with each other for sunlight and nutrients resulting in some growing smaller and weaker than the others. Those plants will be more susceptible for pests and diseases because being unable to get enough sunlight and nutrients. Once infested, the pests and diseases will easily spread to the healthy ones due to close proximity. If possible, plant the plants apart enough to prevent touching each.
It is important to keep in mind that the plants that are native to your region are always the best choice. They are adjusted to the weather and other conditions in your area and defend themselves against pests and diseases a lot easier than exotic plants and hybrids. This means that you should inform yourself very well about plants that grow best in your area and concentrate on those plants. For example, if peaches do not grow well in your area, plant a fruit tree that does. With so many fruits and vegetables that most certainly grow well in your region you should have difficulties finding a delicious alternative. If you do not achieve success with a particular plant three or more years in a row, you should probably stop trying as well because it most likely is not appropriate for your area/climate.
Inspect your plants frequently in order to be able to react as soon as you notice a pest infestation. The earlier you act the better are the chances to repel, mitigate or kill the pests. There are many organic pesticides that are just as effective as the chemical ones but are not harmful to the environment nor human health. However, sometimes it is also necessary to accept the fact that you cannot save every plant.