Friends of Burlington Gardens & the Vermont Community Garden Network
creating, enhancing, and preserving community gardens for all
 
   
 

         Explore our organization
  Learn about our programs
   Access garden resources
News, events, and archives



Organic gardening links

Patchwork: stories of gardens and community

"In the garden" column

Garden organizer tool kit

Greenbelt gardening tips

Garden ideas for recyled materials

please scroll down










Organic gardening tips and resources

tomatoesGrowing garden vegetables and fruits organically is the safest and healthiest choice for community gardeners. Practicing organic gardening methods involves a commitment to learning about and understanding the relationship between soil, plants, weather, and insects. Organic gardening centers on stewardship and managing your garden for long term results, rather than short term success fueled by chemical inputs. This involves working with nature by devoting time to building healthy soil, planting a diversity of crops, and carefully observing the life cycles of plants and insects. 

The community side of organic gardening

Ludlow CGIn a garden, community starts with the earthworms, bacteria, and fungi that inhabit the soil and support plant life. Gardeners can help to replenish the soil community through composting, mulching, and cover cropping. Plants and animals living in a garden also form a community. Bees and butterflies transfer pollen between flowers, enabling zucchini and cucumbers to produce so abundantly, while amphibians consume slugs, snails, and insects. Because of their permeable skin, frogs and toads can be easily killed by chemical pesticides and fertilizers—yet another good reason to reduce the use of these products.

For millennia, human beings have cultivated gardens organically to nurture and sustain communities. When gardens are woven into the fabric of a town or city, people of all ages are strengthened by their relationship with the soil, plants, and organisms that make life possible. While chemical fertilizers can cause rapid plant growth, crops grown organically in healthy soil tend to have more flavor and a higher concentration of nutrients.

Here's what you can do to go organic:

  • Use environmentally friendly materials in your garden. Click on reuse and recycle tips for garden ideas.
  • Buy organically grown seeds, and learn how to save and use your own seeds the next season. A great source for organically grown seeds is High Mowing Seeds, a Vermont company which offers high quality vegetable, herb, and flower seeds for home gardeners and commercial growers. 
  • Instead of frequent watering, build organic matter in your soil by adding compost each spring and fall, by mulching beds with hay, straw, or grass clippings, and by cover cropping fallow areas of the garden. Harvest  rainwater and use compost teas where possible in your garden, rather than chlorinated tap water.
  • Avoid using bark mulch, sawdust, or woodchips as mulch in a vegetable garden as these mulches tend to bind nitrogen from the soil. Apply grass, hay, or straw mulch in early summer after weeding your garden thoroughly and when the soil is moist following a steady rain.
  • Practice organic pest control. To prevent pests from overwintering in your garden, remove and compost dead plants as the season progresses. If plants are diseased, remove them from the garden site.

ORGANIC PEST CONTROL
Topics include:
Homemade 
remedies
Beneficial 
insects
Companion 
planting
Barriers 
& traps
 Bt  Common 
local pests
More 
informatio

There are many ways to control garden pests naturally, without using synthetic chemicals.  From where and what you plant, to homemade sprays and beer traps, organic pest control is easy and practical.  Not only will you save money on expensive pesticides, but you can eat your produce in confidence, knowing that it is free of potentially harmful chemicals.  Keep in mind, though, that many of these solutions are not completely species specific, and if overused you could damage your plants and kill beneficial insects.

Homemade Remedies

These solutions can be made up in your kitchen out of inexpensive everyday supplies.  Try a few versions and see what you like best!  Solutions containing the following plants are popular: members of the allium family (onion, garlic, chives), hot peppers (jalapeno, cayenne), and herbs (basil, coriander, wormwood, peppermint). These sprays can successfully repel a wide range of insects.

Soapy water sprays can be quite effective against aphids and spider mites. When using any of these sprays, wet both sides of the leaves and repeat after a rain or as often as necessary.
Flour and salt can also be used to repel pests. Use them as a dust to suffocate or dehydrate many kinds of caterpillars. Wood ashes sprinkled around the base of plants also discourages cutworm attack. 
 
Homemade Soap Sprays . Soap is a deterrent to soft-bodied insects such as aphids. It disrupts insects’ cell membranes, and kills pests by dehydration. To make a soap spray, dissolve 3 tablespoons of soap flakes or liquid soap (not detergent) in a gallon of water and spray on plants. 
Herbal Insect Repellent . Gather leaves from tansy, lavender, and sage, which have strong insect repelling qualities. You'll need an ounce of leaves from each plant. Place the herbs in a 1-quart jar and fill it with boiling water. Let it set until it cools. Or make an infusion by steeping the herbs in a jar of water placed in a sunny outdoor spot. Drain off the liquid and set this solution aside. Dissolve 1 teaspoon of soap flakes in 2 cups of water. Add 1/8 cup of the herb solution and mix well. Use a sprayer to coat all plant parts with the bug repellent. 
Hot and Spicy Spray . Some gardeners combine hot peppers and garlic in a soapy solution. Puree two hot peppers and two cloves of garlic in a blender. Add 3 cups of water and 2 tablespoons of biodegradable liquid soap. Strain and fill a spray bottle with the solution. 
Bug Juice . Although it seems a bit macabre, consider using bug juice to fight pests. Collect at least 1/2 cup of pesky insects and place them in an old blender with enough water to make a thick solution. Blend on high and strain out the pulp using cheesecloth or a fine sieve. Dilute at a rate of 1/4 cup bug juice to 1 cup of water, pour into a spray bottle, and apply to plants. (Some scientists believe that pheromones from the blended insects send a warning to their living relatives!)  (from www.kidsgardening.com/growingideas/Sept_01/7organic.htm

Beneficial Insects

Beneficial insects feed on the insect pests in your garden. Beneficial insects will frequent your garden if you plant natives and other desirable plants in the garden and around the periphery. When the following plants are allowed to bloom, they attract beneficial insects with their nectar and pollen: 
 
  • Parsley family (parsley, fennel, coriander, dill and chervil) 
  • Sunflower family (sunflowers, daisies, asters and cosmos) 
  • Sweet allysum 
  • Native buckwheat 
  • Baby blue eyes 
  • Tidy tips 
Beneficial insects can also be purchased and added to your garden: 
  • Beneficial Nematodes for cutworms, weevils, grubs and fungus gnat larvae 
  • Green Lacewings for aphids, mealybugs, scale, mite and thrips 
  • Thrichogramma for moths and caterpillars 
  • Ladybugs for aphids, mealybugs, scale and leaf hoppers 

Companion Planting

Many plants have natural defenses that make pests want to keep their distance.  Plan your garden layout so that plants with pest-repellant qualities are next to more susceptible plants.  Use this chart as a guide:

PEST  PLANT REPELLENT
Ant Mint, tansy, pennyroyal
Aphids Mint, garlic, chives, coriander, anise
Bean Leaf Beetle Potato, onion, turnip
Codling Moth Common oleander
Colorado Potato Bug Green beans, coriander, nasturtium
Cucumber Beetle Radish, tansy
Flea Beetle Garlic, onion, mint
Imported Cabbage Worm Mint, sage, rosemary, hyssop
Japanese Beetle Garlic, larkspur, tansy, rue, geranium
Leaf Hopper Geranium, petunia
Mexican Bean Beetle Potato, onion, garlic, radish, petunia, marigolds
Mice Onion
Root Knot Nematodes French marigolds
Slugs Prostrate rosemary, wormwood
Spider Mites Onion, garlic, cloves, chives
Squash Bug Radish, marigolds, tansy, nasturtium
Stink Bug Radish
Thrips  Marigolds
Tomato Hornworm Marigolds, sage, borage
Whitefly  Marigolds, nasturtium

Barriers and Traps

Barriers are simple to use, and many are easy to make yourself. Cutworm collars are an effective physical barrier to prevent cutworms from girdling transplants of tomatoes, cabbage family members, peppers, and vine crops. Simply cut out a 1-1/2" strip of newspaper and place it 2 inches from the stem, anchoring it into the soil around transplants. When the cutworms emerge at night, they will run into the collar rather than girdling the new plant.
 

Row covers can hinder flying insects (such as cabbage moths and leaf miners) that would like to lay their eggs on your plants. Cover your seedlings before the insects emerge and fasten the sides securely. Check under the covers periodically for insects..  Remove the covers, if necessary, for pollination and then replace them again. In very warm climates, you may need to remove the covers if the temperature underneath gets too warm for your plants.  When using row covers, it helps to know a bit about the life cycle of the pest you're trying to control. If  insects overwinter in the soil, you may actually be trapping the emerging larvae underneath the covers. In this case, cultivate the soil before planting to expose insects to birds and other predators. 

Traps can attract insects by using color, taste, and sex hormones. For example, yellow sticky traps will lure aphids, Whitefly, thrips, and leaf miners. Slugs will drown in a shallow saucer of stale beer if placed in the garden. Japanese beetle traps commonly use sex hormones and floral lures to attract the adult insects to them.

Bacillus Thuringiensis

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a naturally occurring, soil borne organism that has gained recent popularity for its ability to control certain insect pests in a natural, environmentally friendly manner. Bacterial agents, like Bt, are effective in controlling insects in the larva stage only. The larva stage in an insect's life cycle is the stage during which most of the feeding occurs. Since, Bt must be ingested to work, the insect must be controlled during the larval stage (in which the insect appears worm or caterpillar-like).

The Bt is applied to the foliage of plants infested with a leaf or needle eating larva. If possible, apply the Bt to the underside of the leaf surface, as most larva feed from the underside of leaves and Bt is broken down quickly in sunlight. There are different strains or varieties of Bt available that have been selected for the control of specific insects. Bt variety kurstaki (BTK) controls the European corn borer, tomato hornworms, fruitworms, cabbageworm, cabbage looper, spring and fall cankerworm, spruce budworm, and other caterpillar-like larvae. Bt variety san diego (BTSD) controls early larvae of the Colorado potato beetle. Bt variety israelensis (BTI) controls mosquitoes, black flies and fungus gnats. 

Common pests

Flea Beetles, Cabbage Butterflies, Colorado Potato Beetles, Striped Cucumber Beetles, Squash Beetle, Mexican Bean Beetles, European Beetles, and Leaf Miners are some of the most common pests frequenting community, school, and neighborhood gardens in Vermont. Rotenone and Pyrethrium (available as a concentrate or dust) are botanical insecticides that are effective against adult beetles and leaf miners. Pyola (which is pyrethrium dissolved in canola oil) is an effective ovicide for the eggs of beetles and the very young larvae. BT (Bacillus thurigensis) is a bacteria that is effective against the larvae of cabbage butterflies.For potato beetles, hand pick adults and/or apply rotenone/pyrethrium at the first sign of adult beetles, and until the plants are well along in their growth. If larvae hatch, BT (variety san diego) can be applied.  Hand picking of larvae is also effective if done on a regular basis. For Mexican Bean Beetle, Bio Neem can be an effective deterrant that interrupts the life cycle of the larvae.
 
More Information
Here are some other helpful web sites: 

Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont
Provides information, resources, workshops, conferences, and links for organic gardeners and homesteaders

http://www.extremelygreen.com/pestcontrolguide.cfm

Gives a great list of garden pests (along with an identification key) and beneficial insect and organic solutions to keep them out of your garden. 

http://www.ghorganics.com/Page44.html 
Includes a chart of pests and natural pesticides with will work on them.

http://www.gardeners.com/gardening/content.asp?copy_id=5288
 “How to tell the good bugs from the bad” – a good identification guide.

http://www.cdcg.org/pests.html 
 Provides a few more homemade solutions and spray recipes. 

http://eartheasy.com/grow_nat_pest_cntrl.htm
A complete source for natural garden pest control, including: prevention, beneficial insects, homemade remedies, insecticides, traps, and deer control.

Guide to lake friendly lawn care
published by Friends of Burlington Gardens & the UVM Sea Grant Program


The Web www.burlingtongardens.org
  
Friends of Burlington Gardens & the 
Vermont Community Garden Network
180 Flynn Avenue Studio 3
PO Box 4504
Burlington, Vermont  05406-4504
802-861-GROW
www.burlingtongardens.org

web site hosting generously provided by


web site content and images © Friends of Burlington Gardens, all rights reserved