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| From Gardening |
This leaf belongs to a cauliflower plant that never grew a cauliflower. I think I'm understanding why that happened, or really, why it didn't, but my question is somewhat tangential. Since there are clearly pests in my garden, should I pull up the plants they are eating that I have no use for anymore (dud cauliflowers, dud cabbages, and so on), or should I leave them so the pests eat them and not anything else?
I saw beetles on my butternut squash plants and got some good feedback in Facebook - I bought Organicide but haven't used it yet. I don't want to put actual pesticides near things we will be eating! But I also don't want to do all this hard work for the pests.
I wanted to acknowledge those of you who keep reading and giving us feedback. It is so helpful in our greenhorn journey!
I think that your response needs to be based upon what kind of pest you have. That said, if you're not going to eat the veggies, pull them: they're just sucking nutrients out of your soil to feed the vermin!
ReplyDeleteYou can take care of lots of vermin using insecticidal soap: it dries them out, and doesn't hurt anything. Another thing you can use is neem oil, which does something similar. You can also use things based on pyrethrin (which is extracted from marigold flowers), or you can plant marigolds as a border. The thing about pyrethrin is that it's highly dangerous to honey bees, so only apply it when the bees aren't out (i.e., after dark).
Good luck, and thanks for the updates! It's wonderful seeing a garden, not being able to have one at the moment!