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This “Garden Problem Solver” will help
you determine what is a cause for concern
and what just indicates you should change
one of your gardening practices.
Look for these five
strategies in this
“Garden Problem
Solver”:
Tough Plant Selection
The plants featured in our low-water plant list are ones that
survive with minimal care. Using a variety
of plants also helps prevent problems. An
infestation or disease will spread more
quickly in a landscape dominated by a few
plant types than it will when there is a wide
variety of plants.
Good Gardening Practices
The advice for each season includes
suggestions such as refreshing mulch that
will make plants stronger and prevent weeds
from getting started. Other practices such as
smart irrigation habits prevent fungal
problems that can be made worse by evening
irrigation or over-watering.
Biological Controls
These involve predatory or parasitic insects
that control a pest insect in order to reduce
the pest's numbers. Ladybugs are examples
of predatory insects that naturally find and
attack pests like aphids and diminish their
populations. Some gardeners speed up the
process by purchasing predators and
releasing them into gardens.
Mechanical Controls
Some pest problems can be reduced by simple
measures that discourage the pests. For
example, a strong spray of water directed
on the underside of leaves disrupts spider mites
that are feeding on plants.
Chemical Controls
Chemical controls are utilized in an IPM
system as a means to quickly reduce a pest
population (plant or insect) that is out of
control and cannot be reduced quickly
enough by other methods before the plants
Adult Ladybugs are easy to recognize, being fed upon are destroyed.
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