Natural Pest Control Tips That Work | Low-Cost Gardening

Let's explore natural ways of dealing with pests in a garden that works for both vegetables and ornamentals. I've never once used pesticides and I hope that this helps show you how and why I don't need them, as well as why it is actually essential to have a few pests around - the key word being 'few!'
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[@archaicsoul4597]

This channel is insane between the amount of information packed into each statement and the absurdly scenic cinematography.

[@cbg769]

Yes. It's wonderful.

[@brad8892]

I love the Facebook rant. People ran those pages like it was a dictatorship haha. Such a strange thing to get kicked from a group for

[@cindybroadus3277]

Hyper reactions without knowledge seem to be the new normal. Appreciate your beautiful natural gardening videos. Pleasantly surprised with your calm and patient style of teaching.

[@chelleb3055]

Huw has the best garden on KZbin! I'm totally enchanted by it every time I see it. 😍

[@HuwRichards]

Wow, thank you! That is very kind

[@UwU-Crew]

There’s nothing more punk rock than getting kicked out of a gardening group 🤣

[@lunarlisa6533]

I’ve had an awful year! First year taking it seriously, planning out and starting seedlings early etc. Literally everything I planted out was eaten by slugs, snails, birds and rabbits 🤪

[@cbg769]

Bravo and well said @5:39. For all the gardeners trying to grow food for their families. Safely. With mother nature as their guide. Homemade soap tea is ok; sounds safe and respectful of nature. Your videos have assisted me greatly in developing my sense of successful biosphere creation. Thank you. Your garden is an inspiration and a personal favorite I am currently making preparations to emulate in my family high desert mountain home. I can hardly wait; chomping at the bit to get the trees planted and mounds of Earth made and some garden beds built. And poly tunnels... Very excited to build some. First time I've had the chance to comment since subscribing in '20 to your channel. Apologies it's taken me so long to share my immense appreciation and gratitude for the years of your incredibly supportive and encouraging videos. Thank you again.

[@ohio_gardener]

A couple days ago I got to witness a Tree Swallow help with pest control. The Tree Swallows have nests in the birdhouses on the fence posts. I saw one of the swallows swooping down from a tomato cage and over the raised beds before returning to the tomato cage. Upon watching carefully I discovered that it was flying down over the kale and catching White Cabbage Moths that were checking out the kale. The swallow continued this swooping down over the kale until there were no more moths in the area. In the past I have seen Bluebirds on the beans or potatoes picking off bean beetles or potato bugs, but I had never noticed the swallows in the gardens before.

[@marcussmith7694]

Tree swallow? Are you in a America? No offence.

[@ohio_gardener]

@@marcussmith7694 Yes, SW Ohio, USA. We have many Tree Swallows and Barn Swallows, in addition Purple Martins.

[@marcussmith7694]

@@ohio_gardener ah no worries 👍

[@tarynarcher3795]

The addition of flowers to your garden has made it so unbelievably beautiful! Great video as always xx

[@HuwRichards]

I really appreciate that thank you

[@PlantGuild]

Huw was BANNED? It’s like the really nice kid starting to become a rebel. Catches everyone by surprise! 😂 Great video and approach. Work with nature. Not against nature. I love the photo that usually makes the rounds on Reddit that shows a sign, “If nothing is eating your garden then it isn’t a part of the ecosystem.”

[@psisky]

Banned? Why?

[@erikahuxley]

@@psisky he made soapy water

[@keithmccracken5557]

The opening of this video was so much like an impressionist painting. I had to pause the image and look at it for a moment. Also, your thoughts are always topnotch, and they show in your garden. Thank you for doing this.

[@Chet_Thornbushel]

I share your perspective with folks who have such hard, extreme opinions on methodology. It’s almost as if people can become compulsive fanatics about things and are unable to step outside of their bias just the tiniest bit to see the bigger picture. At the end of the day, a gardener is usually improving a space by bringing in way more biodiversity than if it was just a lawn. And people are way more receptive to kind discussions rather than outrage. I’m glad you aren’t afraid to speak openly about all that!

[@petesliwinski9184]

These things are ok if you are managing your garden 24 7 these gardens are tended ever day if I could get to my allotment ever day I would have no pests or weeds don’t be coned by these people.

[@marcussmith7694]

Biodiversity. Nature is tended every day by its biodiversity.

[@Zoeybeau_1]

Lost most of my kale, netted as well, I picked off so many caterpillars, now I'm companion planting with Lavender and Rosemary. So far so good on the second lot.

[@AlissaPaige91]

I love how this is pesticide free! No worries about my kids getting in the plants then getting all those chemicals on them. Thank you! ❤️

[@Enchantedlight_20_13_]

Mysterious! How you can get into the plants? Should it said like 'between' the Plants?

[@freedombug11]

I'm glad I learned this way of thinking at the beginning of becoming a gardener. In my second year, I do nothing at all about pests and if they nibble, I know not to worry about it. I notice many many ladybugs, hoverflies, wasps, and things that are good. If I thought I had to be proactive and attack pests with tricks and substances I'd be too overwhelmed with all the work and I wouldn't even have the will to garden at all. Same thing with fertilizing methods. Use compost and plant flowers and you don't have to go get a university degree in agriculture.

[@realgeorgiboorman]

Second year here, too. I like what David the Good says: "If the plant was sick, it didn't deserve to be here." Also, I think there's an over-emphasis on leafy greens in the gardening community, which don't fill you up and are hard to grow without significant pest damage. If I grow a rutabaga, I'm not planning on eating the leaves, so it doesn't matter as much (though it may slow down development). If I grow kale, I have to baby it because the leaves are the crop. Growing a lot of it would be worth my time.

[@freedombug11]

@@realgeorgiboorman I love David the Good!

[@williamhector6863]

I totally agree with the information you have put out on this video. I do not net any of my veg. however I feed the birds and the birds look after my plants along with other insects. I also have planted wildflower seeds over the top on my potato crop, which not only looks beautiful, but provides an habitat for all animals. Thank you for your advice Keep on gardening

[@kahae9858]

I grow my cabbages under a breathable cover with supports to prevent leaves touching. (Also do this with strawberries.) Works wonderfully. I don't like netting. Always afraid of wild creatures getting caught up in it when they panic. Perfectly happy to let cabbage white caterpillars nibble on my kale because at that time of year there is plenty of other food available for me in the garden. Even if the kale gets absolutely devastated - and that is rare - it bounces back once the weather gets cooler and produces a great harvest.

[@beverleymellor]

You’re the best gardener out there Huw 😊 thanks for sharing your knowledge 🙌🏻

[@ecocentrichomestead6783]

One thing ignored wrt "pests" is: We derived crops from wild plants. We then consider the wild version "weeds" and eliminate them. Then when the insects come, for the only food we left for them, we call them "pests"!

[@c.isforcookie]

Your garden is beautiful! so many colours all the flowers

[@Pixieworksstudio]

I grow completely organically and I was so pleased to find digger-wasps in my orchard this year. They are pretty fascinating, and predators. I must be doing something right.

[@mavisbritton6257]

On my allotment plots the only way to grow anything green is to "net" because of pidgins. They literally strip brassicas, blackcurrants and my neighbour has even lost gooseberries which they've never bothered with before. We are surrounded by housing and a lot of people have bird feeders. Between birds, slugs & snails it's very hard to grow anything 😢

[@gmorgan894]

I had to build raised beds with hindged , netted lids to solve this in the end , got myself a decent poly tunne;l to go alongside the greenhouse and netted the rasberries and plumtree. Not gonna lie it was a pain to build everything and source nettting cheaply , but now it's all done it's fantastic and everything is growing amazing. We had got to the stage where as soon as anything sprouted , even the potato's it got eaten so this was the only way. Constant battle .

[@jeanettebot193]

Yes, in my allotment too and the things the pigeons don’t eat are eaten bij the jackdaws

[@robgood719]

We are the same but the only way is too net for us

[@coolform]

Start netting yourself some pigeons, delicious cooked with some home grown veg.

[@lindasands1433]

​@@coolform😂😂

[@9172Nee]

Your garden is such an incredible beautiful place and amazingly productive too. Always a joy to watch 😊

[@clarkl4177]

😢 Shoot! I only WANTED to LISTEN as I work--but your garden is too gorgeous 😍So, I MUST watch aswell 💕

[@sandraconner6968]

I have pest patrol wrens who think that the oasis I have planted is only their domain! They follow me around the garden, tweeting at me to get out! It's quite comical, but I remind them that we have to share!

[@davidshinn6501]

I'm used to the robins being close by on my allotment throughout the year.But during this berry season the blackbirds just ignore me and carry on hoovering up the fruit.

[@etheplant]

That is adorable, thanks for sharing and good luck with your (and the wrens) garden. 🐦

[@marckeating6620]

Yeah man. My Gardens are full of food..but it's a patchwork craziness of interplanted flowers, stuff left to seed..its chaos. But lots and lots of insect life. It's taken a few years to get to know my garden though. And I'm still learning. Which is the best bit. Never stop learning, your brain can store loads of stuff

[@judifarrington9461]

Great video, Huw! I found nature is so much like us--waiting all year for our favorite treats. In the USA we get a nasty looking caterpillar--the Tomato Horn Worm. When I see one, there is usually an army of them. I just put the worm on my bird bath and the next day the birds are out there gobbling them up. If I need the help of a frog or toad, I put a lighted solar decoration near my problem area and the next morning those pests are gone. It's kind of fun going out at dawn and seeing a frog soaking in a bowl of water after a hard night of work. I love working with nature!

[@thatgirlthatgrows]

Such a great video and great points! I’ve been trying not to over think mine and I’m always told ‘if you don’t do this, this will happen’ so this was great!

[@windhorse3889]

Wow! Look at that garden! Beautiful. Well done 😊

[@J87Visuals]

The leeks look awesome when they flower too. Great channel

[@chriswillock2177]

Very beautiful there in Whales. Much different and more rugged here in Northern Alberta

[@garethnaylorartist]

You got banned for making a soap by the no dig Facebook group. That's hilarious. Seriously? Carry on doing what you're doing. You are a good person and a good gardener.

[@lindaelert1796]

Thank you very much!! This video is excellent, as all your videos are. You are a gem!!

[@tabrown5226]

And the soap part works great and if you use an environmentally happy soap, so much the better. It’s what I do, sometimes just washing or picking them off works too

[@marijeb278]

again great topic and beautiful filming Huw! My experiences with going pesticide-free, and embracing bugs as part of the garden, is that you have to give yourself and your garden time, both short term and over seasons. The previous owner of my garden used some pesticides, and I have used some slug pellets in the past, because I foolishly thought that if the package mentioned "eco"' it was fine to use in nature (sadly not true). The first years without them, you feel like you're failing without these options, because the garden is out of balance. But the longer you go without them, the better your garden adapts: our slugs increased, but the next season, our frog, hedgehog and bird population increased as well, and they dealt with the slugs in time. now it's not perfect, but manageble. Natural methods work just as well, but they aren't as instanteneous. When my courgettes were decimated spring, I really wanted to go back to stronger methods, but I gave myself time, and lo and behold, the stronger plants all survived just fine!

[@beahappy1today]

Wow. It must feel amazing to look out on such a gorgeous garden. Amazing work! Thank you for the tips.

[@Nikolas-vl6fj]

Nice to see your colour correction is back on track! 🎉😊

[@gasparocelloman9852]

Great ideas. Beautiful garden.

[@raysouth1952]

Must put more flowers about. They look so good.

[@pisees738]

I left my kale out on the allotment net free this year, interplanted with sunflowers, courgettes, cucumbers, tomatoes & capped beds with marigolds & leeks (flowering). Had some damage from pheasants stripping some leaves but all in all pretty good results. I did net the 2 red cabbage beds, the bed where the leaves touch the netting are suffering caterpillar damage, the ones in the higher net house are perfect so far. An interesting side note, the red cabbages that I water are monstrously large, all leaves not much head. The ones I abandoned with no water are looking fabulous. Second year trials not watering red cabbage & I can safely conclude that not watering them is the way to go. I’ve been rescuing greenhouse/poly tunnel frames from those plastic covered greenhouses/poly tunnels (when the plastic deteriorates as it always does). I wrap them with debris netting & they make great net houses, which are easily movable. Stake the corners with 6-8ft bamboo canes to anchor them down. Thank you for the useful tips and inspiration Huw. I hope to visit your little patch of paradise sometime soon 🌱💚

[@nicholachapman5682]

That's interesting. Its very hot where I live and I water the brassicas every night and they look great but no heads yet. I'm going to cut back watering the red cabbages and see if this makes a difference.

[@pisees738]

I really recommend giving it a shot. I’m basically zone 9, last year we had unusually hot/dry weather (mid 30s) & apart from watering in when planting & once or twice the following week I didn’t water them at all. It was following advice from one of the old guys who have been growing vegetables for 30-40 years. He said less watering forces roots to go deeper. I was so surprised at how well they did.

[@tabrown5226]

I found with aphids, they are attracted to the color yellow (researched based). So I tried it. I now plant sunflowers downwind from my garden. I still get aphids. 90% of them are all over the sunflowers. Which then attract all the predators. Third year growing them and still working

[@FastGardeningMichigan]

Interplanting! I do the same. Nature doesn't plant rows of the same plant. They are mixed together

[@ManJay3220]

You are AWESOME!

[@nice2nettles]

Ah, the no-dig facebook group. Don't worry, you're not the only one to have had an overblown reaction on there. Leaving facebook has been one of the best things I've ever done for my sanity! Anyway, I'm just starting with a new allotment plot, and either I'm having a very poor germination rate, or things are being eaten the minute they come above ground. The soil definitely needs improving, so I'll be concentrating on that.

[@ingela1767]

The only pest I actively fight are the caterpillars on my cabbage seedlings, because they will otherwise be eradicated. 😂 Apart from that my thinking is, that whatever I grow, a small percentage goes back to nature and therefore can be eaten by pests and I don't mind. Works well for me :)

[@daveandkatyreadings-bower2282]

Another brilliantly voice message

[@anatevkabell6046]

I agree with you. I Even had help from swallows when the potatoe beetles got out of hand. Diversity is key. 💚

[@Yensu.Gaming]

Hey, one of the first!

[@fleurmp3820]

Fantastic!

[@dn744]

I also don't net. The birds clear up snails and such below my plants. I don't object to nature having some fruit and veg. As a rule, grow 25% more usually covers losses 😊

[@davidshinn6501]

Unlike the past I did net my gooseberry bush this year.Aftet harvesting two thirds of the berries one evening I removed the netting and by the next morning the blackbirds had hoovered up every last berry left.

[@dn744]

@davidshinn6501 yes, I only had a third of my redcurrants this year. I was going to pick on a Sunday as looking yummy. Family visited so didn't. Monday morning the birds ate lots. But, they do need food also. As a retired builder, it's no wonder with all the natural food sources being taken. Karma lol 😆 🤣

[@SuntiJunrod-uz3lr]

Wow! Beautiful I'm love it 😊

[@meapantz1983]

Thank yoy fot recognising the allotment police 😊

[@HuwRichards]

I stand up for those of us who just want to grow food in a natural way, and not pressured into feeling guilty for having to use a fork to harvest some potatoes lol

[@AL3walyFarmEGYPT]

Greetings from Egypt 🌹

[@datwuballa31]

Look at all that borage ❤

[@LotteKirchwehn-ns7ih]

Thanks!You're sooo good at explaining everything, and your garden is my dream garden - amazing, thanks again for your great work!

[@HuwRichards]

I really appreciate your comments and also your support!

[@LotteKirchwehn-ns7ih]

@@HuwRichards 😊

[@J87Visuals]

Could you use Yucca extract as a soapy pesticide? I think some people are far to fanatical about techniques like no dig for example. I just work with what i have available and be conscious about trying not to spend a fortune and be "sustainable" but not it a cult-like way. I love the cycle of returning everything you grow back into the compost and using it in the garden. Just added some worms today but there were plenty already in there. Nothing more satisfying than working in the garden and reaping the rewards. Should get into nettle tea if you don't already. Plan on collecting some rosehip too when it's time 🙌

[@J87Visuals]

Great video btw

[@trish3580]

Thank you soooo much!!! for mentioning about birds that can be caught in netting. It is likely a terrible death for them to be caught...sadly one junco in decades of growing food got caught and died...and it still hurts my heart to think about it.

[@linguaphile42]

This year I have really just sat back and watched the progression of various infestations. The red aphids that covered my new (prized) goldenrod had me panicking, but then in a couple of weeks they were gone, having been feasted on by predators who were happy to find them. They were not damaged at all. Same with little tiny beetles that looked like they were going to deform the buds on my Black-eyed Susans. Just waited it out and no permanent impact at all.

[@etheplant]

I haven't had the opportunity to try it out for myself (currently garden free unfortunately) but I've heard several people say that they let some weeds/other native plants stay in the garden and apparently the aphids prefer to hang out on them instead. Makes sense (since it's native plants they're adapted to and not our often non-native crops) and a very low effort thing to test out. 😊

[@craigmetcalfe1749]

Hey Huw! A couple of ideas for you, if you haven't done them on your channel before. 1. A review of the book "One Straw Revolution" by Masanobu Fukuoka. 2. The Welch Rugby Team singing a few Christmas carols. Love your channel and I delight in the fact that we as gardeners are all on different journeys in different microclimates but we can all learn from each other as stewards of what Mother Nature has blessed us with. Cheers!

[@bethm5580]

Thanks!

[@josesisyowma5242]

Sadly there are people who don't care for insects or the beings that are below the ground that help us above. These same people suffer from immune diseases and wonder why. ☀️ Start your day by saying" How can I help? instead of "what can I kill today!?" If there is a bugs house just leave it be . They'll be gone by winter. Their just trying to survive 🦋

[@Oktopia]

I started my garden late last season. This year I have made raised beds and built beds inground too. I adore the difference it has made so quickly. Now the pests have found my garden space but I have lots of help in birds and other helpers. I also go out every now and again with my trusted scissors, dealing with the slugs and snails as I see them.

[@katewhyte6274]

What do you do with your scissors?

[@Oktopia]

@@katewhyte6274 I cut up the slugs. It's ugly but effective. I bring the bodies into my compost. I walk barefoot so I don't want the corpses littering my lawn.

[@AL3walyFarmEGYPT]

U are amazing ❤

[@erikahuxley]

I have much less pests now once I invited pollinators and birds to my garden, to the point I don't even spray bt anymore. Lacewings is attracted to dill as well, at night, and lays egg on it. By far my favorite flowering plant is catnip, you will have a bee festival. Regular bird feeder drop lots of seeds on the ground and attract rats, I switch to suet feeder but it is preferred for cooler weather, I don't fill the feeder with food all the time. Companion plant herbs with your veggies.

[@peace4peaceful]

I netted mine. Flea beetles got in some how. They ate the middle out of my cabbages. My defence is cold season crops. BT, neem oil and planting more than I need. Pests are a daily chore. Finding them before they cause too much damage. Im in Australia btw. The bugs in summer is rediculous. No amount of beneficial bugs can stop them. Netting, herbs, organic sprays and proper watering and feeding is essential. I tried trap crops. Butterflies love golden candle shrubs. I can pick 100 catapillars a week from one plant. Dont do as i did. Keep them a distance away or the catapillars end up in your brassicas too.

[@NatureHerbsandTea.]

❤❤❤❤Very good 👍 👏 👌 🙌

[@tubenotter]

With a broad soil-biology including fungi and all 80+ minerals and trace elements and no soluble nitrogen (nitrate or ammonia) plant will not only be much more pest resistant but also much more healthy. It is the slightly bitter stuff that repels pests and keepy us healthy, too. Thank you, Huw! Ralf (Author of "Garden Communities")

[@erikahuxley]

The "no soluble nitrogen" part intrigue me.

[@tubenotter]

@@erikahuxley It is great that we can easily get away from the N of the NPK. Living soil will produce for us, send no bill... We just have to make sure that Molybdenum is present - nitrogenases (enzyme for nitrogen fixing) is available in the soil.

[@hammer9185]

Awesome garden and nature around! Where is the garden located?

[@davidshinn6501]

I try to work with nature on my nearly no dig allotment by mixing up the fruit,veg and flowers rather than monocropping.However I'm still having to net things like chard, beetroot and lettuce until they bulk up otherwise the Sparrows rip them to shreds.

[@paullittle5200]

We get all sorts of creatures on our allotments,including deer.

[@ThomasCassonActor]

I really hope you were being sarcastic with the CD jibe Huw! Otherwise I feel very old ahah. Yes, they have movies and music on them!

[@paulroberts7544]

I've given up on brassicas. The only success I had was in year one. I planted cabbage, broccili and cauliflower nice and early and had them harvested before the cabbage whites really got going. I've never managed it since. I might try again. I hate nets.

[@erikahuxley]

Why not just spray bt.

[@Christine-813]

Thank you for this very informative video. I definitely need more flowers growing in my garden. I had loads of ladybug larvae but only for a certain time and aphids are around the whole garden season here in my area. So I use garlic water to deal with them and it works fine. 💚 Do you maybe have tips how to deal with leaf-miner flies?

[@sqeekable]

Banned from no dig ? Bahahah. Stupid drama. Thanks for all the practical help you give us.

[@englishweather9763]

please tell me about the soapy spray!😀

[@danfarkas5375]

I don't net brassicas, but I keep an eye out for the green caterpillar poop balls they leave. Then smash them.

[@partidaportet27]

Perhaps we ought to renew our understanding of what it means to have insect pressure. For us, insects, or for that matter fungal/ bacterial pathogens, bring with them messages about the health of our crops and so it's suitably as food for humans. If you have insect pressure, then you are growing insect food. Insects have very simple digestive systems and they typically can not consume healthy plants whose proteins remain intact and so our goals should always be to manage the minerals which are the keys to healthy crops. Being organic isn't enough if you aren't producing minerally dense food, and we can see how mineral decline in our diets is linked to comorbidity. As minerals have gone down, illness has gone up. Recent research conducted by Olivier Husson et al, shows that problems of plants can be linked to imbalances in mineral ratios subject to redox fluctuations, and so if we can learn how to measure and correct mineral deficiencies, we should be able to avoid having to use any insecticides, even the ones on organic lists or soap etc which are also still bad for the wider environment. Neemoil doesn't care if you are a bee or an aphid does it? We use SAP analysis to gain an insight in to the distribution of minerals in living plants, and then we use a series of foliar sprays to correct impending deficiencies that will for sure manifest as problems for our plants should these deficiencies be allowed to continue. The bioavailability of critical minerals like Copper, Zinc, Boron is finite and so the window of availability can easily be missed where dynamic conditions prevail .Studying Pourbaix can help us understand which minerals are available under what conditions and together, all of this information can help us be better stewards of our plants, the land and all of it's inhabitants. Rather than using soap, you can use sea salt. Mixed at a 3% solution (3g good quality sea salt/ 1litre clean water) Sea salt will gelp your plant access missing minerals and these are already balanced so you wont have the headache of Mulders Chart to worry about. Yes higher animals are much harder ti orevent unless you have physical barriers.

[@quantafitness6088]

There is an interesting podcast on the subject of Brix and pests: joe gardener show ep 292. Essentially, pests favour plants with a low brix.

[@originalwoolydragon8387]

My great grandmother used to pour her soapy dishwater (in the days before dishwashers) over her outside plants (roses, gardenias, hibiscus, etc.) and never had insect damage on them. That was all she used and this was in south Florida. Nanny was from Bolton, England. Cheers!

[@lizpowell7085]

Hey Hew, any idea why just 2 out of 10 cherry tomato plants in the same space are wilting? I have read they get stressed, or under watered, or under fed, but surely that would affect all of them. There are tons of tomatoes on them but the leaves are wilting like mad 😢

[@erikahuxley]

Could be bacterial wilt, or perhaps some grubs underground is eating up its roots.

[@karltraunmuller7048]

What an explosion of colours your garden is, such a nice sight. The pink flowers at 1:41 are lovely, what are these?

[@palez1046]

Look like cosmos bipinnatus to me.

[@TrixiaDK]

Thank you for sharing 🥦 When talking about pest, does anyone have a good idea, as to prevent wasps in your plums?

[@shawnamuschamp8972]

❤❤❤

[@debvalle7466]

Great information and nicely reassuring. I was starting to worry because I have a lot of insects, particularly flies, and I thought I’d done something wrong. What are your thoughts on Neem oil spray, Huw? This week 5 hibiscus trees bloomed in my backyard (had no idea that’s what those trees were!) They’re gorgeous but do seem to attract both Japanese beetles and the dreaded Spotted Lantern fly. This is in far northwestern NY, zone 5a-6 ish.

[@debvalle7466]

Also, I love that you got banned on fb. It’s happened to me 3x 😂

[@J87Visuals]

Just blasted my cabbages with the hose. Caterpillars were munching away. Think I'm gonna spray them with some homemade pesticide

[@niclas4779]

It depends, what kind of soap you use, I guess. After all natural pest control with natural predators like ladybird larvae is a good way to go for the garden. And if they are too slow just use your garden hose to wash them off.

[@dattebenforcer]

Hi, do you have a way to deal with Wild Parsnips? They are caustic so removing them by hand is troublesome, but using Roundup on them is damaging to the environment. Any suggestions would be welcome. Thank you.

[@carolynforsyth5884]

3 year-old veg garden and the pests have arrived. Haven't had a single radish or beetroot this year - flea beetle and beet leaf miners i think. Will this sort itself out in time? Intercropping, plenty flowers... Soil could maybe be better but desperate not to resort to chemical control. Any advice?

[@risasb]

That one time I had so many bugs on plants that it was clearly crop failure, but I had chickens, so ...

[@Sweetlady1916]

Wow, leeks flower like that, any particular type?? Looks similar to alliums.❤

[@chefsamblack]

They are the same family.

[@Crina-LudmilaCristeaAuthor]

Hi Huw! Do you know a good source where I could purchase borage seeds? I would like to give them as wedding gifts and I need them by the end of August. I looked at premier seeds direct but I was wondering if you know of other suppliers. Thank you in advance!

[@johannasuter9139]

I have a huge problem with russet mites. Has anyone experience with those? We had a very warm June and suddenly, they were every where on the tomatos: Polytunnel, Pots and Garden. I had to apply an organic product to save at least some of my tomatos. What can I do better next year?

[@jackm2293]

❤🙏

[@doughopkins6790]

What's Dwr Cymru got to do with netting brassicas ? 😮

[@chefsamblack]

Dwr Cymru = PestSmart. PestSmart = the promotion of chemical free gardening advice.

[@iraceruk]

Hardly anything about Slugs and Snails, which are the bane of our garden. We grow in pots and raised beds and we have literally thousands of Slugs and Snails that devastate entire crops. Lots of birds here too, but they don't make any difference 🙄

[@erikahuxley]

Slugs and snail indicate a deficiency in frogs and ducks.

[@miikeydobodobo5304]

Any tips for thrips I planted 10 peppers in my grow tent to put on balcony took a good 2 months to get to a perfect size put them all outside and within a week they had brown growing tips and stopped growing completely fucked my pepper season

[@erikahuxley]

My go to spray for those things are cold pressed neem oil and dr bronner peppermint soap diluted with water.

[@miikeydobodobo5304]

@@erikahuxley ive used neem oil and soap didnt work but peppermint i might give that a try thanks for the suggestions

[@johnlord8337]

With all the excess foliage of your brassicas et al veg waste - time to have gerbils, hamsters, (domestic rats), rabbits, hares, ducks, geese, quail, chickens eat up all of those leaves. Leave no waste.

[@chefsamblack]

We compost and use chop and drop too, so there isn't any waste.

[@johnlord8337]

Time to have ducks (not geese) in the garden and they will chow on the snails, slugs, beetles, bugs, etc. No geese - they are like goats - as they eat grass and anything greens - will eat up your entire garden. Ducks also don't scratch and dig up a garden like chickens do - althought chickens will scratch out pill bugs, ants, fly larvae, beetle grubs etc. That means having a farmer's rake and rake the garden surface so that the ducks can eat up those exposed bugs.

[@petesliwinski9184]

I’ve never seen a bird eat a slug ever If you don’t net it will be gone