A Pest Free Spring: Tips and tricks to set your garden up to be pest free this spring!
MARCH 07, 2025
March always brings birdsong, longer days, sunshine, and… pests?!! **record scratch**
Temps are warming up, which means we'll be welcoming back aphids, army worms, and several other warm weather pests and diseases!
This week's email is all about how to prep your garden now to cultivate the healthiest soil, plants, and ecosystem within your garden so that pests do not take hold this season!
01. Start with soil health
Healthy Soil
Having soil with an active microbiome is your first step to a pest-free season.
Start by applying an organic granular fertilizer. As this breaks down through the season not only will it provide nutrients to your plants, but it will feed the soil!
Then, top it with well rotted compost. Whether you make your own, or buy local, adding a 2-3" layer of compost top dressing will jump start activity in your soil that will keep it healthy throughout the season.
If you're Houston local, I've begun stock the exact soil I use at the farm, available on the website for next business day porch pickup:
02. Raise the Brix Level
High Brix Molasses
Molasses is great for a lot of reasons in the garden, but my personal favorite is for pest control.
When high brix molasses is sprayed on your plant's leaves and the soil they are growing in, you are raising the sugar content of the stems and leaves.
I spray molasses twice a week this time of year, and then reduce to once a week in May, once I'm confident pests are not making a home in my garden.
To apply molasses, fill your pump sprayer most of the way up with water. Add just a glug or two of high brix molasses, shake your sprayer and spray!
As always, read labels to find exact dilution rates! More isn't more when it comes to sprays applies to leaves!
03. Remove weeds + decomposing plant matter
A Tidy Garden
Knowing that pests make their homes most often in weeds + decaying plant matter makes it that much easier to head out to the garden once a week and do a clean up.
Keeping your beds tidy will make a world of difference in terms of keeping the pest population and pressure low this season.
4. Seek Beneficilas
The Good Bugs
If you've been around Bungalow Blooms for a while, you know I'm VERY against broad spectrum pesticides, even the organic ones.
The reason being - broad spectrum pesticides will ALSO kill the bees, wasps, ladybugs, lace wings, assassin bugs, and other beneficial insects that will feast on pests, should they show up in your garden.
Whenever you're searching for how to deal with a pest, I like to start with “how to treat [insert pest] without chemicals”. Each pest has it's own protocol, so make sure you search for each one as you see it.
My first step is usually just picking the pest off - you can smush aphids on rose buds, you can knock caterpillars off leaves into soapy water, you can smush leaf footed bug eggs before they ever emerge!
Making your garden a home for beneficials will naturally keep the pests at bay!
If you've got a specific pest in your garden, know that the QUESTION BOX has been moved to every TUESDAY!! You can drop pictures of unidentified pests, questions from your gardening experience that week, or anything else that you need help with in your garden!
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