Garden Tips #3 - A labour of love

Any enthusiastic gardener will tell you that gardening is food for the soul. Gardening stirs your imagination to be creative. It provides some fun along with physical exercise, fresh air, and sunlight. In addition, there is the delight of seeing the seedlings sprout, flowers bloom, picking fresh fruit, harvesting vegetables and having fresh herbs at your disposal.

An added bonus is seeing a variety of butterflies, birds, and frogs you attract to your garden. These are just some of the joys of gardening and creating a well-balanced ecosystem around you. So today we will discuss the importance of keeping your garden pest free and how to attract butterflies as well as providing a well-balanced eco-system for them.

“Every garden is an individual expression of creativity. So! You think you‘re not creative. Well, plant a garden and you may find out that you are far more creative than you thought.”

BLACK SPOT ON ROSES

This is caused by a fungus which starts off, as the name suggests, with small black spots appearing on the leaves. Before long they grow in size, the leaves turn yellow and fall to the ground. If left untreated the spores can actually survive and re-infect the new growth on the rose bush during the next season. So here is a quick way to cure the problem.

Combine the following ingredients to make a spray for your rose bushes.

• 1 tbsp. baking soda
• 1 tbsp. vegetable oil
• 2 drops dishwashing liquid
• 4 liters of water

BUGS AND APHIDS

Rid your garden of bugs and aphids by spraying your plants with a solution of 1 cup of vinegar to 4.2 liters of water. Vinegar is a natural pesticide; it will get rid of many critters with this diluted solution without harming the environment as well as being safe for your pets.

BUTTERFLIES

Butterflies are not only beautifully colourful, they also add a certain vibrancy to our garden. They are crucial to a healthy ecosystem because they are a vital part of the pollination process. So please do what you can by encouraging butterflies to visit your garden regularly by creating a friendly pollinator habitat for them. They require two types of plants i.e. host plants because this is where they lay their eggs and preferably native semi sun to full sun-loving plants which will provide the nectar for them. You can also encourage butterflies to visit your garden by putting out some over-ripe fruit for them to feed on.

CABBAGE WORMS

To prevent the larvae of the cabbage worms from burrowing into heads of cabbage and other Brassicas, cover each head with a nylon stocking and leave it on until harvest time. This is better than trying to fight pests after they appear on your vegetables. Good organic gardening takes preventative measures to stop them from infesting garden in the first place. If you are already battling them, make a 50/50 mixture of flour and baking soda, and dust it all over the affected plants. They'll eat the combo while munching the leaves, and die within a day or so. Repeat as needed.

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Animation By @zord189

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(Aphid & cabbage worm photos from Pixabay, all other photos by @claudiaz)