How to Keep Your Flower Beds Pest Free

You've got a green thumb and love to keep your garden adorned with beautiful flowers. The vibrant, colorful beauties are pleasing to the eye, give your home great curb appeal and spruce up the neighborhood. Everyone thanks you, even those pesky bugs that have now found a dinner table.

What can you do to control pests in your flower beds and keep your annuals or perennials looking great, without hurting the environment?

First we must understand that not all insects are bad insects. Remember the hierarchy of food chain? Yes we have insects and yes they feed on plants and flowers, but those insects provide food to other insects and so on.

So let's take a look at how we can control aphids naturally by releasing a few hundred ladybug beetles. Live ladybugs can be purchased at your local garden store, like OSH. Once the sun has gone down and dusk is upon us, water your flower beds first, before releasing the ladybugs so that there is ample water for them to drink. You will gently release the ladybugs into the flower beds, spreading them out, so they can quickly find food. Releasing too many at once into a single area will limit food supply and at first light, they will be off in search of a meal. Ladybugs are known to consume 50 to 60 aphids per day but they will also dine on various other insects and larvae and work as a natural enemy to help combat garden insects. For more information on the benefits of the ladybug visit Nature's Crusaders.

Keep in mind that insects are most often plant specific. When planting your garden flowers, mix the plants so that pests don't spread as quickly.

It is best to water your flowers early in the day so that the foliage remains dry. Wet foliage will encourage insects to stop by for a drink, and then they stick around for a meal or two. It's best to use a watering can for small flower beds or a low ground irrigation system so that only the roots get the water they need thus keeping the plant stems and leaves dry. This will deter pesky insects.

If you have problems with slugs, using seaweed mulch in your flower bed will help repel them and the properties in seaweed will help to enhance the growth of your plants.

Your flower pots or gardens should be tended to regularly to remove any weakened or dead plants. Because these plants may already be infected by pests, the sooner you remove them, the less risk of infection and infestation to the other plants and flowers.

If natural insect control and regular garden care isn't enough to combat your flower pot pests, here are a few natural homemade remedies that are non-toxic and don't endanger our eco-system.

To control mites and aphids, spray your plants from top to bottom and bottom to top with a solution made of one quart water, one tablespoon canola oil and about three drops of Ivory liquid dish soap. The oil will naturally smother the insects.

You can also use a solution made up of one quart of water, two tablespoons of cayenne pepper and about three drops of Ivory liquid dish soap. You allow the solution to sit over night, then pour it into a spray bottle and spray your plants from the top to bottom and bottom to top, shaking the mixture often. The cayenne pepper is a natural deterrent.

There are many more natural eco-friendly remedies and ideas available online by visiting the eartheasy store.