Beating Weeds and Garden Pests

The only thing I've found, aside from roundup and the like, is a heavy layer of mulch, repeated yearly.

I'm big on the mulch thing.

got my shredder fired up today. gonna start making some more this week...

Do let us know how that works out. Fortunately, Roundup still works on the goatheads, but everything else including the grass seems to have developed a hardy resistance in the past few years.

I just happened to remember; at one time I used vinegar in a lawn sprayer to try to neutralize our alkaline soil. Didn't hurt the soil and maybe didn't help. Durn sure didn't kill anything, but it was quite dilute by the time it came out of the sprayer.

I think you gotta spray it full strength on the leaves. multiple times if I remember correctly...

it was a late night conversation once long ago with drunken gardeners.

I get a four pound box of table salt at Sam's and try to get it on the leaves and blades of grass. This is obviously in an area where growth of any kind is undesirable, ever. You would be just amazed at how much salt can be tolerated by elm suckers after a tree has been removed.

adopted little brother left a big bottle of blue stuff that the professional tree chopper guys use. it's very potent.

not sure I wanna know whats in it...

I don't have vinegar at the moment. But, I intend to give it a shot.

That also comes from Sam's unless you can do better, elsewhere. It's about $4.00 for two gallons. Somewhere around the cooking oil, I believe.

Vinegar doesn't work. Roundup doesn't really work either, the weeds adapt as in "what doesn't kill them makes them stronger". Heavy mulching is good, especially if you start with a layer of newspaper working so you don't suppress the plants you want.

PS I should clarify that while vinegar will burn the leaves it doesn't kill the roots and the plants will return within a few days.

Actually, the vinegar worked on all the weeds last year except the thistles which, as everyone knows, are resistant to everything except an Act of God. My weeds are no more, thank you! and you can spray the vinegar on or use a funnel ... even the thistles looked rather bedraggled and unhealthy towards the end. Love it!

Be careful with the vinegar, too much of it will probably change the pH of your soil and cause problems for future plants in that location.

In Sacramento, I tried cucumber peelings all around the places where ants were coming into my second floor apartment. It seemed to work, I never had ants again after the first year there.

Tried it again here in Albuquerque in the backyard. Didn't work at all, the ants just used the peelings as an overpass en-route to their destination. Different species for sure, other than that I have no explanation for why it worked in one location but not the other.

My cucumbers depend on aluminum to activate as pest control.

That could explain the difference in results between Sacramento and Albuquerque. I put the peels all around the sills of the sliding glass windows and on the metal pipes under the sinks.

When the ant armies make their annual invasion here, I'll have to give the aluminum a try. It is my understanding that the cucumber aroma smells just like one of the ant's predators so they avoid the area.

Got any tips for discouraging the white cabbage moths and their offspring?

Last year, we must of had a dozen of them spend the whole summer in our backyard to help prune the foliage in the vegetable garden.

I'm going to be ordering a flock of ladybugs this year to do battle with the aphids and white flies once the leaves on all the trees come out. Neem oil sprays didn't have much effect on them late in the season last year.

This might vary with species, but regular ground cinnamon has never failed me as an ant repellent in new. Doesn't produce a good body count, but they do seem to go away. Just sprinkle some where they travel.

Ive used the vinegar trick and had only moderate success. Plants with deep root corms or thise adapted to really dry conditions just would show a little ttop kill and then would keep growing.
I had better luck using cinnamon oil spray. You can get ag grade(cheaper) cinn oils through some garden shops.

My best tool for killing weeds among the rows is to use a gas flame gun and just hit the weeds as they pop up. Dont get tooclose to your plants . The weeds in the rows still need hand weeding.

Companion planting helps to control pests, like cucurbits and pumpkin types will all respond well if you plant radish seeds among em. The radish keeps all types of worm larvae away.
Garden marigolds (tachete) will repel a bunch of weeds and nematodes from almost any other plant. Its good to have a test are and you will see a "ring" of weed free soils around marigolds. I use em liberally among my veggies all summer.

I don't mean to be critical, EB, but when it comes to weeds, i don't think beating them helps. We used to pull 'em up.

I am a lackadaisical tender of the soil. I only mow when I suspect the neighbors are of a mind to whack me with their rake handles. I don't try to grow food, because we don't get that much sun. The last time I planted tomatoes, I was stuck with dozens of tomatoes that could not ripen, because the winter had overtaken them. I used Roundup last year on the poison oak, but it only scaled back the amount there. It did not kill the roots as promised. I want to kill the weeds mainly near the fence line, because my neighbor has a very nice yard and we don't want my stuff contaminating hers. I hate using weed killers, because my land is next door to the community well and our soil is sandy.