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10 Easy Ways To Protect Your Garden From Common Animals and Pests (Part 2)
In part one, we talked about how you can protect your garden by making specific plant and garden bed choices. (Click here to read it!) Now, we’re talking about a few steps you can take in and around the yard itself to deter pests and animals.
Step Six: Don’t Be Too Tidy
If you live in a less urban area, let the shrubs and grasses around the edge of your yard go a little wild. If there are other opportunities for food around you, your garden will present less of an attractive target. Animals will also be less likely to come out into the middle of your yard, where they will be exposed to predators, if there is a food source nearby that doubles as shelter.
Step Seven: Contain Your Compost
Open compost piles attract all kinds of creatures that then discover the other delicacies in your backyard. Protect your garden from pests by using a self-contained compost with a lid to keep dumpster divers away. If you feed your pets outdoors, be sure to bring their bowls inside after meals so you won’t attract skunks, opossums and raccoons. If you keep bird seed or other food sources outside, secure them in a sealed bucket or chew-proof container.
Step Eight: Scare Them Away
Metallic streamers, bird tape or an old-fashioned scarecrow may keep birds away, but require being moved around the yard regularly so they don’t get used to them. Motion activated sprinklers or lights are another possibility to scare away mammals.
Step Nine: Try Repellants (But Don’t Hold Your Breath)
Odor repellants are granular and attempt to keep the animal away from an area with a bad smell. Taste repellents are sprayed on vulnerable plants and cause an animal that ingests them to feel sick. It’s important to note that they won’t cause long-term damage, just train pests to stay away from a specific area. These products have to be used year-round and must be reapplied after rain, plus animals are known to simply eat the plants anyway or get used to the taste.
Step Ten: Do A Reality Check
In any given year, there are a number of factors that affect how much damage animals might impact your garden. There will be good years and bad years, and realize that what you’re doing in your yard benefits the local wildlife too – even if you didn’t get to enjoy that heirloom tomato you planted, there’s always next season.
Ask SummerWinds For Advice On How To Protect Your Garden From Pests and Animals
Are you tired of losing your harvest to the four and six-legged residents in your backyard? Stop by any of our South Bay Area locations and talk with our gardening experts for custom solutions and materials to protect your garden from pests and animals, and keep your edibles safe until they’re ready to be picked.
About SummerWinds Nursery: SummerWinds Garden Centers is a leading high-end retailer of garden and nursery products. Headquartered in Boise, Idaho, SummerWinds operates retail nurseries in the greater Phoenix, Arizona area, and in Silicon Valley, California, making it one of the largest independent retail nursery companies in the west. SummerWinds appeals to both the serious and casual gardeners, with a broad selection of premium gardening products and a friendly and knowledgeable staff.
