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PEST RESISTANT PLANTS |
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How do you keep those pesky pests from ruining your garden? Plant something they wont nibble! Our guide to pest resistant plants will keep your flower patch from becoming a salad bar.
DEERDeer control is perhaps the landscaper's biggest pest control challenge -- literally. As North America's largest of garden pests, deer can do a lot of damage in a small amount of time. Although you can practice deer control by fencing the deer out or using repellents (sometimes spelled as "repellents"), the most sensible approach to deer control is simply to plant what deer are least likely to eat. These plants are known as "deer-resistant plants."
RABBITSWild rabbits are landscaping pests year-round. Indeed, you should protect your landscaping trees and shrubs against wild rabbits even in winter, encasing chicken wire fencing around the bases of their trunks, lest hungry rabbits nibble at them. But while pest-proofing your garden against rabbits cannot be relegated to any one time of the year, what better time to discuss rabbit pest control than at Easter, with so much talk of the Easter Rabbit in the air? For children intent on hunting for the Easter eggs that he leaves behind, he may well be the "Easter Rabbit"; but for landscapers, a far more fitting moniker would be "Eater Rabbit." Remember, too, that some plants function as "natural pest repellents," at least in terms of saving their own hides. Many of the same plants that are rabbit-resistant are also avoided by deer. In the case of some of these plants, it's easy to see why: although natural, they're poisonous (yes, to humans, too). For this reason, deer and rabbits will generally leave alone Foxglove (Digitalis) and Monkshood (Aconitum), for example. In the case of other "natural pest repellents," rabbits avoid them not because they're poisonous, but because they don't smell good -- to rabbits, at least. Aromatic herbs such as Lavender (Lavendula) may send humans scurrying for their potpourri supplies, but they send rabbits just plain scurrying! And if you aren't keen on spreading your cat's litter around the yard as a repellent, at least plant some Catmint, or "catnip" (Nepeta) for puss. Rabbits don't like the smell of Catnip. Nor will they like the smell of a garden frequented by a catnip-craving cat. It's also a lot of fun to see cats going crazy over their Catnip! |
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••• bulbs
• pansies • roses
• pest resistant plants ••• These tips are only of a general nature. Plants and climate will greatly differ wherever your garden may be. Always check these suggestions against your local extension office's advice. |
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contents copyright • 2004 • fairygardens |
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