Looking for a new house project and an excuse to go outside? Stay safe right in your backyard by gardening those breezy May days away! Make your garden bloom with your favorite flowers or vegetables with these watershed-friendly tips:
Pesticides:
- Learn to live with a few insects, most bugs in your garden are helpful and good for gardening.
- If you do use pesticides only target problem areas – do not apply pesticides over large areas. Natural options include the use of cayenne pepper or garlic cloves.
- Build healthy soil with compost and mulch – they store water for plants and protect them from pests and diseases.
- Know how much water is too much, let the surface of the soil dry before adding more water, this can reduce pests.
Herbicides:
- Minimize herbicide use and always ensure that it doesn’t overflow into the storm drains. You can manually keep weeds out of a vegetable garden by hoeing weekly so that the weeds don’t have time to get big.
- Add plastic or a thick layer of mulch in between rows of vegetables to stop the spread of seeds from the weeds.
Fertilizers:
- Fertilizers are thought to be essential to the growth of your garden but that is not true! Remember that it can damage the soil and also be harmful to our waterways.
There are tons of alternatives you can utilize as fertilizer for your garden such as bone meal, alfalfa pellets, or even compost made from recycled produce.
