Replace Pesticides with These Plants

You don't need to use any pesticides in order to control pests in your garden. All you need is three kinds of plants. Long before the introduction of pesticides and chemicals, nature has always had a way to protect itself from predators and the coolest thing, it does it with plants. So let's clear the air. First of all, there's no such thing as a pesticide. There's only insecticide. So a pesticide kills all kinds of bugs and insects, all the living things around your plants, not just the bugs we want to keep away. So when you spray an insecticide or a pesticide, you are harming all the life, including the good guys, like the ladybugs, the butterflies, the bees, all those insects that bring good to the garden, we harm them when we harm the bad guys too. All right, so the first of the three types of plants you need in your garden to control pests are what we call the bouncers. You know, when you're trying to go into a nightclub, bar, something, this guy's like really big and scary at the front door, that's the kind of plants we're talking about here. So these plants, thankfully, they don't look scary. In fact, they're all pretty darn beautiful and they smell good too. So the first category of the bouncers, these are the mint plant family. This is also called in fancy Latin, Laniaceae. So this includes mint, basil, lavender, rosemary, sage. All of these herbs do an incredible job of repelling pests, literally bouncing them out of the club so they cannot get in and party in your garden. So they're gonna put off this scent that most of the bad pests don't like. Mint, you definitely don't want in your raised beds, but I love putting rosemary, lavender, basil, right alongside all my plants that are most susceptible to being attacked by pests. The next plant family that are great at bouncing out the bad guys are those in the onion plant family, Amaryllidaceae, if we're speaking Latin. This includes garlic and chives. I literally call my garlic plants my soldiers in the garden because they are lined up right alongside my greens and they put off such a strong onion smell that pests often just bounce away from those lettuces because they don't wanna be near the onions. So onions, chives, garlics, these are incredible bouncers too. And then finally, we have flowers, particularly marigolds. These are in the aster plant families, same as lettuces, and marigolds have a super strong smell that does a great job of bouncing away the pests too. So the first kind of plant you wanna think about when it comes to controlling pests are the bouncers. And now you know exactly the right ones to put in your garden. So we've already covered our first line of defense, which are the bouncers. They're keeping the bad guys from even entering the door of your garden, but there are gonna be some bugs that make their way past. They kind of sneak in and we gotta take care of them. So now when that happens, we're gonna employ the decoys. This is our second type of plant you've gotta have in your garden to control pests. So decoys are also known as trap crops. They are distractors. Essentially, they are sacrifices that we give to these pests so that they will hopefully leave our best plants alone. Now, there are lots of plants that you can give to the pest to munch on, to distract them from your main crops. Here are some of my favorites. First would be flowers. So flowers have these bright colors and scents, and they do a great job of pulling pests toward them. One flower is nasturtium. Another one is calendula. Zinnias do an incredible job of attracting a ton of Japanese beetles. Then there's also amaranths and sunflowers. So these flowers can be planted inside your raised beds. I love having nasturtiums, calendula, and zinnias right on the edges of my raised beds. But these can also be planted surrounding your kitchen garden area to keep the pests out of your main growing space. So beyond flowers, you can also use plants in the brassica plant family. I don't know why it is, but pests love greens in the brassica family. Radishes, mustard greens, collard greens. Let's be honest, you know, sometimes we don't want to eat too many collard greens. You know what I'm saying? I mean, they taste really good with a lot of butter, but at some point you're done. So use collard greens and mustard greens to attract and distract the pests so that they stay off the plants that you care the most about. Radishes also do a great job of pulling pests toward them, especially as they get older in the garden. Then finally, dill and fennel and the carrot plant family, they do a great job of attracting caterpillars. So if you want to pull those away from your leafy greens, having dill and fennel near those greens does a great job of distracting. So we've handled bouncing at the door, and then a few bugs made their way in. We've distracted them the best we can with our decoys, but still there's a few more pests to control. So what are we going to do? We're going to bring in the bad guys, the enforcers. Actually, they're the good guys because they eat the bad guys. So how are we going to fight these bugs? Well, we need more bugs. We need good bugs this time. So you want to be sure that you have not just a garden full of food that you want to eat, but you have a garden that grows food for the wild because out there in nature are plenty of bugs, plenty of predators that would love to come and eat those caterpillars that are trying to eat your food. They would love to come and feast on the beetles that are crawling around in your soil. So you just need to attract them with the plants you're growing in and around your garden. So first up, surprisingly, are cilantro and parsley. So these are herbs we grow anyway, and if you let them go to flower, they're going to attract ladybugs and parasitic wasps and hoverflies, things that you need to be bringing into your garden that would love to feast on those pests. So cilantro, parsley, dill, those are no brainers. Also with that is fennel. You may not want to have fennel right in your garden beds, but at least have it right next to them. Then you want to have some pollinator-friendly flowers, things like cosmos, coreopsis, zinnias, what we already listed. These plants have pollen in them that are going to attract beneficial insects. They're going to come and feast and bring more wildlife to your garden, which is going to start to balance out that pest pressure. And then finally, you want to have native plants in and around your garden space. Things like milkweed, goldenrod, all kinds of native plants and grasses that attract wildlife and feed the good bugs so that they will be coming to your garden and eating away the bad ones. You should do your research and start to find some of the best flowering native plants in your area, and be sure to plant them around your garden space, and you'll find that you've got good bugs doing the hard work of fighting the bad bugs for you. Phew, we made it through that list super fast. So if you didn't keep up with taking notes, don't worry. I've got the full list of all three types of plants right below this video. Thanks so much for watching. Don't forget, it's not about killing pests. It's about controlling them. And now you know how. I'll see you next time.