what is good to keep grass away from raised beds naturally

Raised beds offer unique opportunities for pest control thank you to their construction.

Nigh every gardener has been there: you're carefully disposed a bed of fruit, flowers or vegetables, when somewhere betwixt bulb and harvest an invisible pest moves in to take your plants downwards. Stems shrivel. Leaves disappear in a trail of slime.

Growing can seem like an uphill battle at times, but if you're gardening in raised beds, y'all have some unique options available for tackling pests. Raised garden beds (also chosen garden boxes) lift your plants higher up ground level. They allow yous more control over what's going on around your plants thanks to their design and construction.

The example for natural pest command

Call back of your garden as an ecosystem that needs diverseness to thrive. Toxic chemicals can upset the fragile balance in your soil and garden ecosystem. Natural controls tin can aid deter and eradicate pests by restoring balance and preventing issues in the first place.

Think of your garden as an ecosystem that needs diversity to thrive.

Even if you just have two or iii raised beds, you can continue them healthy by encouraging a balance of healthy microorganisms, beneficial predators and companion plants. Y'all tin as well avoid harmful pesticides by trying natural treatments first.

Not all natural treatments are plush and time intensive. Many are elementary and easy to apply. Natural controls ordinarily autumn into a few different categories. Nosotros've listed these below to get you started.

Related: How to Grow the Best Food Imaginable in Your Raised Garden Beds

What are the options for organic, non-toxic controls?

Biological controls

Often non the first selection in damage control, friendly garden predators and companion plants are the least harmful and most effective long-term solution for most garden pests. Nature abhors a vacuum and volition fill whatever niche left open up. Consider these the first line of defense for keeping your garden ecosystem balanced.

Barrier methods

Placing something in and around your garden bed that physically stop pests from getting to your plants is one of the soundest protections where applied. Common barrier materials include collars, fabric, fencing, mesh and more. While they audio expensive, some of them can be homemade from waste materials.

Foliar sprays and treatments

Mixes of organic materials applied to plant leaves and soil can often be extremely effective, depending on the pest. These are less useful in areas where rain or overhead sprinkling occurs regularly.

Soil surface treatments

These treatments are usually sprayed or dusted onto the soil surface of your bed. They can be particularly effective confronting soft-bodied pests like slugs and snails.

These methods can help you care for a variety of specific pest bug. Here are some of the most mutual ones you lot're likely to face.

Ladybugs are but one of many beneficial predators that can help control garden pests.

Related: Companion Planting for Your Raised Garden Beds

Treating or preventing insect damage

Have you e'er constitute tiny holes in your spinach or lettuce and wondered what caused them? From leafage miners to flea beetles, tiny pests that feed on tender greens tin be hard to track downward. Merely you can control their damage to your crops in the following ways.

Diatomaceous earth

Diatomaceous earth is a not-toxic product made from crushed diatoms—ancient freshwater plankton whose exoskeletons were made entirely from silica. It hinders the movement of pests in and around your fruits, vegetables and flowers. Employ to the soil's surface in a continuous line effectually the perimeter of your raised bed. Its abrupt edges (similar microscopic broken glass) will forbid soft-bodies pests from entering the bed. To halt an infestation already underway, spread around the base of operations of afflicted plants. Diatomaceous earth is effective until heavy rains wash it abroad.

Gummy traps

If y'all're not certain what's damaging your plants or if a particular pest is active, add an insect trap with a sticky surface to your bed. These can aid you monitor which pests are in the area, making your decisions about pest control simpler. Placed in every bed, they can as well help capture developed insects and forbid further reproduction.

Neem oil

This natural production is extracted from the neem tree commonly grown in India. Its leaves, seeds and oil contain salannin, a safe compound that repels insects.
Spray foliage with diluted neem oil concentrate to kill eggs, larvae, and adult insects for these common pests: aphids, spider mites, whiteflies, beetles, and foliage-eating caterpillars. Coat all leaves on pinnacle and lesser until thoroughly moisture. Reapply after it rains.

Neem oil concentrate is an all-purpose, non-toxic substance that helps command insect pests and constitute diseases.

Floating row covers

For pests that don't answer to other controls, floating row covers are the reply. The thin white fabric made from spun polyester tin can be placed straight on the soil or stretched over a frame to comprise your plants and protect them from outside invaders. If used straight on the soil, it volition demand staking with landscape staples or weights to prevent it from blowing effectually. Place these around your bed'southward perimeter, making sure to leave enough slack for plants to grow.

For taller plants or row covers yous want to go out in identify all season long, build a frame fabricated from PEX pipe and rebar (see details under "Rabbits" below). Raised beds make it like shooting fish in a barrel to use floating row covers over a frame.

Beneficial Nematodes

Beneficial nematodes are microscopic organisms effective against over 200 dissimilar insects. These include cutworms, cabbage maggots, coddling moth, raspberry crown borer, beetles and root weevil larvae. They are often sold in a pocket-sized sponge one million at a time.

In most cases you'll mix nematodes with water and apply to the soil, where they hatch and get to work. They are harmless to humans and pets and won't kill earthworms or harm pollinators. Applying benign nematodes in raised beds allows yous to accurately target the larval stage of soil-dwelling pests. Simply be sure to buy the correct multifariousness for the pest you lot promise to target, since different nematodes will casualty on unlike insects.

Stopping slugs and snails

Those slime trails weaving through your tomato seedlings tin only mean 1 thing: snails or slugs accept moved in, and you need to act fast to prevent them from taking over. Thankfully raised beds offer you the risk to target your controls and brand them more effective. Hither are some suggestions to help.

Copper mesh

Command snails and slugs by fixing copper mesh "tape" effectually each bed perimeter. Slugs don't like crossing copper. The reason isn't fully understood, merely some take suggested the way copper oxidizes into various toxic salts sends them in the opposite direction. Whatever the example, raised beds offer the perfect surface for installing copper record in a continuous perimeter. Avert putting too close the ground to prevent the copper from getting coated in dirt.

In a similar manner, you tin can employ a copper wire attached to a 9-volt battery, which will give the wet slugs a fiddling zap. Only exist certain to keep surrounding weeds down so plants don't provide a bridge for adventurous slugs.

Diatomaceous world

As mentioned above, this natural control works like tiny $.25 of broken drinking glass to deter soft-bodied creatures. Slugs will avoid areas where information technology has been spread. Line your bed's perimeter after hand picking any slugs already present, or grit around susceptible plants. This will stop farther visitors.

Related: Natural Slug Control

Ferric phosphate

Another effective soil treatment is ferric phosphate, which is approved for certified organic growers. While information technology causes slugs to shrivel up and die, information technology'due south labeled non-toxic to people, pets, birds, insects, earthworms and other wild animals. However, it's important to notation that the chelated form of ferric phosphate (containing EDTA) has been found to exist toxic to dogs and other animals. Read labels and don't overapply: tap a few pellets around the perimeter of your beds and near target plants.

Cats and rats and...

Larger pests tin do harm in raised beds, which unfortunately don't prevent climbing cats and scurrying rodents. But raised beds do make bulwark protection easier and more effective. Read on for more details.

Rabbits

Raised beds 36 inches or taller will prevent rabbits from getting into your garden. Hardware fabric fastened to lesser of bed and extended up the insides a few inches volition foreclose them from digging from beneath. If your beds are shorter than this and you have a rabbit problem, consider attaching a garden cloche or floating row cover to your bed frame. One uncomplicated method is driving metal rebar along the length of your bed at 24-inch intervals. Elevation rebar with PEX piping bent to form a "U" shape. Cover this frame with plastic or fabric for instant protection.

Birds

Often targeting juicy, ripe fruit like strawberries and tomatoes, birds tin can reduce a harvest pretty quickly. Block their access with row covers or fine mesh stretched over a frame every bit described above. Just be aware that birds tin can get tangled up in netting that'southward not pulled tightly beyond your bed'southward span. While you want to reduce their access, you never want to crusade harm. Many birds control insects and are a sign that your garden ecosystem is thriving.

A proactive approach to controlling bird damage is planting native fruiting bushes outside your garden. Exit wild areas like copses or hedgerows to preserve bird habitat and food sources and they will aid control pests over the long term.

Some birds will feast on berry crops, reducing their quality very quickly.

Rodents

The first footstep to controlling rodent damage is identifying vulnerable crops and sealing them inside a protective barrier. Greenhouses can provide protection from rodents if installed on a solid surface and intendance is taken to seal up all cracks and crevices. Trapping is the well-nigh effective and safest method of control. Be consistent with setting and checking traps to prevent rodents from reproducing. Remove all food sources other than your crops, including bulk fertilizers. Store these inside metal cans with lids. Rodents will chew through plastic trash cans.

Cats

Cats like to dig in all types of garden beds and can unearth new seedlings before they've established strong roots. Simply they dislike prickly surfaces that can injure their tender foot pads. If cats are digging around specific plants, pushing pine cones into the soil surface of your bed will deter them from visiting. Y'all tin can also put craven wire between plants around your bed's perimeter—on the soil surface—to brand your beds less welcoming.

Related: How to Keep Fauna Pests Out of Your Garden

ricereckeddens.blogspot.com

Source: https://learn.eartheasy.com/guides/control-pests-naturally-in-your-raised-garden-beds/