Organic Gardening Tips: Keeping Critters At Bay
Since it finally stopped raining long enough for us to actually get our plants into the ground, I learned a couple of new tips from my Dad and some others that I thought I would share.
I was talking to my Dad about how I planted twelve tomato plants (hoping for a huge bounty this year!) and he reminded me that I need to plant them really deep, which I had forgotten, so I went back and planted them deeper into the ground.
But, the best tip he gave me was one he got from a coworker. About cutworms. Cutworms are devestating for small plants. They attack tomato plants at the bottom of the plant stems, near the soil, and kill your plants before they even get started.
But, his coworker said to wrap the bottom of the stem with some aluminum foil. The cutworms can’t get through it and it will expand as the plant gets bigger and continue to protect it!
I thought this was genius. So, I wrapped all of my tomato and pepper plants. Fingers crossed!
The other problem I have is with slugs. They eat the leaves of my plants and always go after my tomatoes, peppers and hostas.
Last year I put little shallow dishes of beer out for them to drink. They love beer, the little lushes. So, they go to drink it, then drown. A little morbid, but effective.
Recently we’ve learned a couple of other tricks that we are trying as well.
One is crushed eggshells. Wait until the eggshells are completely dry, then crush them, but not too finely. Spread them around the plants. Then, any soft bodied critter, like slugs, that try to cross over them will stop and go away because the shells are sharp and hurt/cut them. This might even help stop cutworms as well.
The other tip is to sprinkle oats around your plants. The slugs eat them and then the oats expand, since slugs are made mostly of water, and it kills them. (btw, this same concept works with instant grits and ants).
Hopefully between these tips, my coffee grounds and compost, I will have a good bounty this year!
Do you have a tip for keeping critters off of plants?
See more great tips for all kinds of things at Works For Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family.
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05/13/2009 | Frugal & Green Living, Gardening, Healthy Living.
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May 13th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
I make cloches out of bottles and jars, mostly soda bottles, as that we have in plentitude. For a more full description, see my newbie gardener blog post: Singing the praises of garden cloches. http://tinyurl.com/pnaymv
May 13th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
I don’t have any specific suggestions, but would love to know how others keep the worms off of their broccoli – other than by picking them off by hand!
May 13th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
I spray my plants with melaleuca. It’s made of tea tree oil, and completely safe to eat. I have not a problem at all with any critter, and it’s easy to do.
May 14th, 2009 at 11:50 pm
Hi. I was just surfing around some blogs, and I came across yours. It’s pretty nifty and I’m really enjoying my stay here. I’ve bookmarked your site for daily visits, and I hope you’ll visit me. I’d love to have you.
Have a great day and I’ll see you around the blogosphere. 
May 15th, 2009 at 7:19 am
If my other methods don’t work, I will have to look into this. I put tea tree in my laundry, but I never thought of putting it on plants.
May 15th, 2009 at 7:20 am
Hi Jenny, thanks for visiting! Glad you’ll be coming back!
May 15th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
I was wondering what to do about cutworms! I love that!
Now I just have to keep the roaches off of things. I hear you can’t drown them like you do with slugs. We live in a tract where everyone has cindrblack walls dividing the yards. The roaches love to live in these. I have seen the roaches eating new plants and also eating my roses!
May 15th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Oh my word. I HATE roaches. I don’t think I would deal very well with that! I read somewhere that if you mix sugar and baking soda together the roaches will eat it because of the sugar, then the baking soda kills them. Worth a shot!
June 17th, 2009 at 10:12 am
I use the crushed egg shells around my garden and marigolds by the tomato plants to keep off the bugs.