Rose Garden Pests

Archive for February, 2010

Mosquito repellant plants for your garden – Part 1

February 18th, 2010

There are quite a few plants which you can grow which will repel mosquito’s . Here are a few :-

Plain , ordinary CATNIP . You can usually grow this perennial fairly easily from seed and it works wonders . These plants are a repellent which you can use on your skin . Crush the leaves and rub onto your body for a cheap and natural mosquito repellent . Similarly ROSEMARY has these properties . Both these are useful plants in other ways too .

There is a type of geranium called a MOSQUITO plant which has good repellent properties . It acts like CITRONELLA but will grow in a more diversified climate .

With MARIGOLDS you can add beauty to your garden and an aroma which will deter aphids as well as mosquitos . These brightly coloured yellow to orange flowers are easily grown from seed or seedlings each year and will last throughout summer .

Another pretty one is the blue and white annual AGERATUM . Apparently mosquitos hate its smell .

One I have come across whilst researching this subject is THYMUS CITRIODORA. This hardy perennial , which is a member of the THYME family ,has such a high citronella content its repellent properties are renowned .

I know GARLIC is a handy and safe mosquito repellent so it possibly works well in your garden ,but I am not sure . I do know that you can COMPANION plant to deter certain pests .In other words plant something alongside of your fruit and vegetables which will deter bugs and mosquitos from eating them ( for example lavender near to roses should deter aphids from eating your roses to death ).

Finally on a visit to Turkey some years ago we were shown an area with rows of EUCALYPTUS trees . This had been swamp land and was a hotbed for malaria carrying mosquitos . As this plant or tree needs a lot of water to grow well the ones they had planted had not only got rid of the mosquitos but had made the land more viable . Ask at your local garden centre for advice on which EUCALYPTUS will suit your garden . It will smell divine .

Insects and Pruning of Window Gardens

February 15th, 2010

Insects

The only ones troubling house plants are the green fly, the mealy bug, the scale, and the red spider.

The green fly is to be killed by a smoking with tobacco. Put the plant under a barrel with smoking tobacco; let it remain, say fifteen minutes; then give it a syringing.

Mealy bug is to be searched for and destroyed. Frequent sponging does much to keep down this pest.

Scale is to be treated in the same way. Warm soap-suds are peculiarly distasteful to the creature.

Red spider, which is seldom found on house plants, is nourished by a dry, warm atmosphere. Water is certain death. Keep the foliage syringed and atmosphere moist, and you will have no red spider.

Pruning

Is but little required. Should a branch grow out of place or die, it should be neatly cut off; and a judicious pinching does much to regulate the shape of a plant. Of course all dead leaves and old blossoms should be cut off at once. Not only will they infect other branches and blossoms, but they will make your garden statuary (http://www.garden-fountains.com/Detail.bok?no=1072) look terrible.

In the selection of our plants, we must be much influenced by the extent and location of our accommodations. Some plants thrive with less heat and light than others. As a general rule, choose only green-house plants, avoiding any usually catalogued by nurserymen as stove plants.

Discard ferns and lycopodia. With but few exceptions, these perish in the hot, dry, dusty air of our rooms. The Wardian case is their proper place. Remember it is better to grow one plant well than two badly. Because you have roses, geraniums, and daphnes, which do well, it is no reason you should also grow verbenas, fuchsias, and azaleas; your space is sufficient for the first three only; then be content, and do not crowd your plants.

The camellia is an ideal plant for window gardening and looks great amongst large water features (http://www.garden-fountains.com/Detail.bok?no=105). It is a native of China or Japan, from whence it was introduced to British gardens about the year 1739. The name was given in honor of Father Kamel, a Moravian priest, whose name, Latinized, became Camellus.

The plants first introduced were fairly killed by kindness; an error not infrequently repeated in our day with newly-discovered plants. They were planted in a stove where the extreme heat soon dried the leaves and parched the plant. We find no further mention of the plant till 1792, when the single red variety (Camellia Japonica) was introduced, and flowered profusely in a common greenhouse; during the next year many plants of this variety were obtained from China; next we find mention of the double red; soon after, the fringed double white, and many varieties too numerous to mention. Strange to say, the single white was not imported till about the year 1820, and even now it is not common, though a showy and free-blooming variety.

The camellia, in its native country, is a shrub or small tree, though Mr. Fortune mentions specimens of the single red as sometimes exceeding twenty feet in height, with trunks of proportionate size. This variety is almost hardy, and in the Middle States will often endure the winter; we have known it to survive even our climate, when well protected; all other varieties are more delicate, and few will bear any severe frost without injury. Most of the kinds in our green-houses are derived from Camellia Japonica, though other varieties have, we believe, afforded fine seedlings.

Why You Need Birds in Your Garden

February 14th, 2010

Garden birds are not just about looking nice while hanging from your bird feeders, they actually provide a vital role. If you are a keen gardener then you may already have birdfeeders in your garden to attract your local birdlife, but if you don’t here are some good reasons why you should.

If you are a keen rose grower or maybe enjoy the produce of your vegetable plot then you will know how difficult it is to keep away the pests. You can be sure that whatever is your favourite plant in your garden there is a bug or beetle around making life difficult.

You could use pesticides and chemicals to rid you of these pests but I think we are all aware of the ecological effects of chemicals in our environment and especially if you are growing veg or fruit you will want them as natural as possible to get that home grown taste.

By now you will have probably worked out where I’m going with this, it’s easy to take garden birds for granted but if you can make your garden a comfortable place for them to be, to feed, to rest and to play the will pay you back by eating every bug and beetle they can find. Now you may think that if you use bird feeders they will ignore the natural food and keep to the nuts and suet, but you would be surprised, once you have created a haven for your garden birds they will be spending a good deal of time there and that includes hopping about and doing bird type things, which includes hunting for bugs amongst the beds and bushes, it’s their natural behaviour and so the more birds you have in your garden the more effective they will be at keeping the pests down.

Other Useful Jobs
It’s not just pest control that the local bird life are skilled at, there are plenty other jobs they will do for you while they are in your garden. I’m sure at some stage you will have seen a finch hopping about on your lawn pecking at the ground a rooting for worms, a big garden worm is a tasty meal for birds and they are always keen to find them, well, once again they are helping us out, by pecking and rooting around on the grass they are aerating the top surface of the grass which will aid growth of your lawn and help it remain healthy and green.

The next job your garden birds will help you with is re-seeding of plants, this may not be an exact science but if you are a fan of a natural garden then they will be a useful and completely natural way of distributing the seeds of your favourite plants around the garden at just the right time of year, if can be a great surprise when you see where it turns up next year. This works when the birds are eating the berries and seed pods of the plants in your garden. They aren’t the most careful of eaters and will clean themselves after a meal, when they do this they wipe their beak on a branch allowing the left over seeds to fall back to the earth and re-seed.

The other natural method of seed distribution happens when they finally go to the toilet, not all the seeds will have been digested and the bird deposit will provide perfect nutrients to get the seeds off to a great start in the soil where they fell.

So you get all these jobs done for you by simply inviting your local neighbourhood birds into your garden.

So get those bird feeders up, make or buy a bird bath for them and help them to help you this year in your garden, they will thank you for it!

Organic Gardening – Part 3

February 12th, 2010

Think of the earlier days when chemical fertilizers and harmful pesticides were not invented and people used to grow cereals and pulses, fruits and vegetables, flowers and seedlings using fertilizers from natural waste products. They were dependant on home made pesticides instead of chemical pest removers. The produces looked better, tasted better and were absolutely harmless.

Well, people have come to appreciate today the practice the earlier generation accomplished so well and regenerate the system for their own benefit. In short, the method involves no inorganic substances to be used in planting, nutrition or growth of plants and trees. Fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and supplements are all obtained only from nature. When this technique is applied to gardening, it is called Organic Gardening that is gaining popularity pretty fast and the produces thus obtained are termed Organic Food.

Though Organic Food is also available at most supermarkets, people prefer to grow them on their own for the extra satisfaction that no adulteration has taken place and the produces are genuinely home grown.

The organic movement has gained momentum and has now become a national hobby that is as interesting as it is productive. However, pests are pests and they are merciless when attacking plants and herbs in an organic garden. But there are ways to get rid of them in a natural way. One simple method is to plant marigolds near the vegetable patch; another is to make a concoction of cooking oil, dish washing soap and water and spray the mixture to remove the pests.

Nor is the subject of natural fertilizers ignored. Merely using kitchen and garden waste materials that may contain potato and other vegetable peelings with a touch of rose prunings to improve the texture has solved the mysterious way of compost making. Coffee grounds add an agreeable smell to the blend. This also does away about disposing all that waste products. But make sure that everything is dry.

If you are interested to know how the organic garden lovers insulate and enrich the soil, I may till you now. It is a simple matter composed of pine needles and grass clippings gently spread over the ground right under the plant. Ingenious, isnt it?

By the way, parents of young children are worried about the chemicals that usually find their way in our food production and sometimes these chemicals get into the waterways, causing unknown damages to the human system. However, organic gardens are free from such hazardous chemicals and your kids and the dog, already a family member, can play there safely since it is a natural chemical free zone.

People indulge in organic gardening not only to obtain the product but also for their own mental satisfaction. Any creative work, big or small, always has its reward. Lovers of organic gardening derive immense pleasure in planting, pruning, enriching and taking care of their garden. And this taking care also becomes a part of the entire family as others are encouraged to take active part in the organic garden. They learn that it is important to identify with nature to survive and flourish.

Rose Tending In June

February 11th, 2010

“O my Luves like a red, red rose, Thats newly sprung in June” An extract from the 1794 poem “A red, red rose” by Robert Burns, Scotlands national bard.

Which roses?

Do you have any roses growing in your garden? It does not matter whether the rose is a floribunda, hybrid tea, standard, patio, climbing or rambling, all will now benefit from a plant health check up. These checks should ideally be carried out on a weekly basis from the end of March up until the end of flowering, so let me detail a few of them.

Aphids and greenfly problems

Check your roses for greenfly; just a few aphids can be dealt with by spraying with soapy water from an atomiser whereas a heavier infestation will require the application of a systemic insecticide or a combination systemic insecticide and fungicide such as “Rose-clear”. Some people have questioned whether they have greenfly and whitefly upon discovering what looks like small white insects mixed in with the typical greenfly our roses attract; this is in fact white outer bodies that greenfly shed during their life cycle.

An organic and safe black spot spray

Now I have already mentioned the product “Rose-clear”, this is chemical mix is also commonly used to deal with the other problem our roses encounter, which is black spot. This disease cause leaf loss, and die back. Black spot is encouraged by much the same conditions that encourage potato blight, which are warm, moist conditions. Check your roses leaves for black spots with yellow halos and treat with “Rose-clear” according to the manufacturers instructions paying careful heed to the safety instructions. If you wish to try to prevent black spot on your roses organically and safely, you may only have to go as far as your fridge. Mix equal parts skimmed milk and water, apply this with an atomiser or a sprayer to the upper and lower section of the roses leaves. This milky solution causes an invisible and friendly fungus to form, which will help prevent the formation of the dreaded black spot.

Feeding and fertilising

Apart from these treatments, there is another way to help your roses battle pests or diseases and that is to keep their vigour up by proper feeding. Roses benefit from mulching with well-rotted cow dung or garden compost; this will give you bigger blooms, healthier foliage and strength to survive pest and disease attack. A 5 cm (2 inch) layer of this mulch is adequate; do not allow this to touch the stem as it may in some cases lead to rotting. One final benefit of mulching your roses in this way is the reduction of water loss and the suppression of weeds, both of these are very important in a dry summer (we live in hope).

Rose Garden Pests

Archive for February, 2010

Mosquito repellant plants for your garden – Part 1

Related Posts:

Insects and Pruning of Window Gardens

Related Posts:

Why You Need Birds in Your Garden

Related Posts:

Organic Gardening – Part 3

Related Posts:

Rose Tending In June

Related Posts: