Garden Pests

I have four main problems in my high density garden and in order of worse first they are slugs, cats, aphids and birds. None of them are a serious problem and I am very lucky living where I do that we do not have problems with deer or rabbits or what ever pest may trouble you.

Until now I have not had a page to cover pests because the pests I have to deal with are totally different to what may be bothering you. For instance, my brother in Australia has a problem with wild kangaroos coming into his garden and eating his plants. He has had to net all his beds to stop this happening and has built walk in cages -expensive but effective. My sister in law lives near Atlanta and I'll be totally honest here, I don't know what pests she gets in her garden so you can see why pests are something I have not covered in any depth.

However, I am going to give some basic information here about problems which can affect most gardeners. For anything large you need to fence your raised bed area off. For things like deer your fence needs to be high enough to keep them out, 6 foot maybe or 2 meters. Rabbits do not need it this high but it is sensible with rabbits to bury the fence into the ground as they are burrowing creatures and will tunnel. I am not going into any more detail about larger animals as most things need to be specific to your pest. I suggest you talk to your neighbors and see what they do, especially older folk who have been in the area a long time. The know a lot and it is sensible to use their knowledge.

For most smaller pests your own dog or cat can help keep things away but then again you need to fence your vegetables off from your dog and possibly your cat ,but all the cats I ever had seemed to go next door to do their business. Now though, I do not have a cat so all the neighbors cats come to my house and as my soil mix is so fine, they want to use that as a toilet. Where I live there are only 2 or 3 cats though so it is not a major problem.