Your absolute best defence against pests in your garden is to build an army of beneficial insects to protect your vegetables. To acomplish this, you need to take advantage of the benefits of companion planting – certain plants can benefit others when planted next to, or close to one another.
Your high-density vegetable garden automatically takes advantage of these principals since all of the plants are already clost to one another!
Next you need to plant lots of flowers and herbs – ideally ones that the beneficial insects know and love. Insects such as butterflies and bees aid greatly in pollenating your vegetable plants for maximal yeild, and a whole host of other insects like lady bugs, tiger beetles, pirate bugs, ground beetles and soldier bugs that hunt and kill pesky pests such as aphids, slugs, whitefly, cabbage worms, caterpillars and even mosquitos. Be sure to provide decorative stones or logs and permanent garden beds for these beneficial insects to set up shop.
wildaboutgardening.org
farmerfred.com
Yet another benefit of organic gardening is this happy and healthy ecosystem in your garden. Even the least toxic chemicals can’t distinguish between the good and bad bugs, and will set you on a self-perpetuating downward spiral of pest problems. Yikes!
