Repelling Pests Away from the Kitchen Garden

Farmers who embrace organic farming can   seek creative ways of controlling pests and diseases in order to successfully put together a productive kitchen garden. Together with well aerated soil and the right amount of compost, disease and pest control is a vital part of organic farming. To achieve this, farmers can use plants with a pungent smell to keep away the pests.

One of the common plants   that a farmer can use is the onion, the leaves can be planted around the vegetables in a ring formation as they act as repellant to insects  causing diseases. Alternatively, mint or pyrethrum can be used for the same purpose.

Organic pesticide from plants like chives and Mexican marigold whose leaves once boiled   excretes  a juice  with a bitter taste that keeps insects away. The farmer can prepare the pesticide by taking the leaves and cutting them into small pieces, boiling them for about  half an hour and once the mixture has cooled add a bar soap to the mixture and create foam. The soap would make the leaves sticky once the solution is sprayed on vegetables which would then trap insects. Planting the plant around the garden  will also keep the pests away due to irritating smell.

Tree planting around the garden can also help in controlling the pests since trees acts habitat for birds and therefore the birds living in the trees will eat   pests like caterpillar hence protecting the farm from pest attacks.

Tobacco can be applied in keeping   off destructive pests   like armyworms from the farm. When tobacco powder are put in   maize stalks, it suffocates the armyworms since the worms breathe through their spores.

In addition,  farmers should also plant tithonia hedge around the farm that could be used in making compost since it has a lot of nitrogen. The farmer should also pant leguminous plants as part of crop rotation to improve the soil.