Gardens - how to protect your crops naturally.

Nice thread.
Heres another quick easy tip for keeping slugs off your food plants-surround the base/pots with either dead holy leaves,or human/animal hair clippings-slugs can't seem to get past such a barrier.

Worth trying,works well for me every time.

Some great suggestions here and I can vouch for many of them myself. Pennyroyal is a good insect repellant (also known as tickweed or mosquito plant) and don't forget pyrethrum daisies as well as marigolds. Some of these planted here and there in your crop will have a great effect on insect damage. Snails & slugs won't venture across diatomaceous earth (used in swimming pool filters) because it's like us having to walk barefoot on broken glass. Larger critters, well that's what fences were invented for. Also had excellent results with nicotine spray which was made by boiling a heap of cigarette butts (they had to be good for something).

Had a lot of trouble with birds when growing strawberries and eventually had to construct light wire cages to completely cover the plants to keep them out which worked very well, bell shaped contraptions made from cheap lightweight galvanised birdwire that were easy for me to remove whenever necessary.

Originally posted by Sararainmaker
[ working with plants is one of the most peaceful things I have ever done!

[edit on 7/25/2010 by Sararainmaker]

It's springtime now so I thought I'd give this thread a boost. I don't have any gardening tips ( You'd have to ask my mom that one) but I like what you said about gardening being peaceful. I don't know why I noticed this, but women seem to relax more when they're gardening. It can be a nice change of pace when it's needed. Some even like it and excel at it so much they turn it into a full time job of sorts.