Preventative Pest Control
I get a lot of question about organic pest controls. Everything from organic weedkillers (there is such a thing), to vicious predatory ladybugs (I see a B-Movie coming on...) can be used to protect your plants from the plagues of locusts "o'er the land" and other biblical disasters.
The key to going organic is preparation and prevention. For example: Weed out all the poorly perfoming plants in your garden. These are the ones that will provide the foothold your foes need to force their way into your empire. By eliminating the struggling rose under the oak tree, and re-seeding your lawn with a tougher lawn mix, you're allowing the plants to do most of the work for you.
Good Preparation Tips:
In the summer, mulch all flower beds heavily with humus, bark or compost. Putting a two inch layer will knock out 99% of all your weeds and protect the plants form heat stress during the summer.
Set a consistent clean-up schedule. By preventing dead and decaying plant material from collecting on the ground, you eliminate many of the places that disease lay dormant during their "off" season. Give yourself an hour or two at least once a month (You'll need more time in Spring and Fall). Treat the yard like just another part of your house. How much time do you spend cleaning the Living Room on a monthly basis? You'll probably need less time that that for your yard. Also, it's important to avoid composting any plant material that you suspect of carrying a disease, otherwise you run the risk of spreading it throughout your garden in the compost.
Fertilize consistently. A vigorously growing plant will be a stout ally in your battles against evil. Either use a slow-release fertilizer that you can apply a few times a year, or set a schedule of fertilizing every 4 to 6 weeks.
Move the sick and elderly to retirement homes and hospitals. If you have a treasured plant that is sick or just slowly fading away, dig the plant up and transfer it to a large pot and move it to a more protected location. Often times such plants will benefit from the protected location and be re-envigorated from fresh soil and fertilizer, and the increased attention under the patio.
Evaluate the plants in your garden to see that they are performing well. Go out with a notepad and keep track of how certain plants are performing throughout the year. If a plant doesn't seem to be suited to your garden, replace it with something better.
Pick native species for your garden. Obviously, this won't work for roses and fruit trees, but by choosing natives and adapted species for your garden, you will have to spend less time keeping your plants healthy and more time enjoying your garden.
Get beneficial "pets". Box turtles will eat slugs and snails for you, allowing you to avoid dangerous snail baits and unappetizing traps. You can encourage both bats and owls to move into your yard with special-built houses.
Set a healthy watering system. This can change depending on your rainfall, average temperatures, and soil types. In Modesto, many people are guilty of setting their sprinkler timers to water daily for 5-10 minutes at a time. This drowns the top few inches of soil, causing rot to set in, while at the same time leaves everything deeper than 6 inches dry as a bone. In our area, it is much better to soak the area for hours at a time, then follow up a week later.
In hot weather areas, misting the plants will help protect them from heat stress. When coupled with a thick mulch and deep watering, any yard should be able to withstand 100 degree days for quite a while.
It's important to keep in mind that none of these steps actually require any extra work on your part. In fact, by planning your garden with preventative pest control in mind, you can actually lower your work load by avoiding the many messy, difficult tasks required to deal with pest problems, and letting the plants pull their own weight!
