Pesky Pests No More
Perk Up Your Plants
Gardens provide you with your own delicious, home-grown produce that you can pick right off the plant. The only downside to tending a personal garden is the bugs and pests that are likely loving the fruits (and vegetables) of your labor just as much as you are. At Moxie, we don’t spray gardens, but luckily, you can get rid of these little guys with a few simple steps. First, closely examine your plants . Are there little holes in the leaves where critters have been chomping? What do the bite marks look like? Are the leaves droopy? Different pests cause different damage to your plants. Look at the damage carefully to better decide what type of insect you’re dealing with.
You’re worthless without your morning cuppa Joe, but “the best part of wakin’ up” can be a serious perk for your plants as well. Don’t pour your stale coffee down the drain — put it to good use by feeding it to your flowers! Acid-loving plants, like spider plants, roses, and hydrangeas, thrive on all of the nutrients coffee has to offer. Seriously, who knew Folgers was such a good source of potassium for your plants? Coffee is chock-full of flower-friendly nutrients like calcium, nitrogen, phosphorous, and other minerals. But not all plants can digest its acidic quality. Most herbs and indoor plants are perfectly suitable, but do your research before you spray! If your garden happens to host a variety of non-acid-loving fauna, you can still mix coffee grounds with the soil to give them a little extra boost of flower power (so to speak). To make your coffee mixture, simply brew a normal pot of coffee and dilute it with 1½ parts water. For example, if you have 1 cup of coffee left over, mix it with 1½ cups of water. Your plants like their coffee black, so don’t try to feed them any coffee that has been mixed with sugar or cream. Add your coffee/water solution to a spray bottle and spray your plants once a week with the mixture. But beware: Even acid-loving plants can only take so much, so spray sparingly and water as normal throughout the week. When it comes to coffee and your flowers, less is more! Start small and increase the dosage each week, then evaluate how your plants respond. Before long, your plants and flowers will be fuller, stronger, and live longer than ever before! Talk about a perk.
After determining what you’re up against, get the appropriate garden insect traps . You can find a trap for basically any common California garden pest, from aphids to scales. For added defense, dust your plants. No, not with the feather duster. Use dry wheat bran to fight potato beetles, cornmeal for cutworms, and diatomaceous earth for slugs or other moist and soft insects. After each of these steps, if bugs are still eating away at your plants, it may be time bring out the big guns . Find a garden- safe insecticidal spray. Bayer makes a popular application that kills most of the common garden pests in California, as does Target. Check the label to make sure it targets the specific critters you’re looking to eliminate and let it rip (following the instructions carefully, of course).
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