Although no garden will live up to a wide-eyed new gardener’s expectations (no matter what you do, you will battle weeds and pests), these tips will help keep your garden as healthy as possible.
Walk your garden daily. Checking your garden daily, even without working in it, lets you keep an eye on growth and potential issues. Diseases and pests can rapidly overtake untended gardens, but with early intervention, you can limit the damage.
Handpick pests. Get to know the most common pests—aphids, squash bugs, hornworms, bean beetles, cucumber beetles, cabbage worms, etc.—and handpick any you see. Before resorting to spray (organic or not), try to manually remove them. Grab garden gloves and a bucket of water (with a drop of dish soap to cut the surface tension of the water), and drop the pests into the bucket.
Don’t kill a bug you can’t identify. Most insects in your garden are beneficial or harmless. If in doubt, leave it alone; many beneficial insects prey on bad ones. An Internet search will come in handy, as will Facebook gardening groups, where experienced gardeners can help you identify an insect. Good bugs include ladybugs, lacewings, syrphid flies or hoverflies, ground beetles, assassin bugs, and spiders.
Add flowers. To attract beneficial insects, add flowers and allow bolted plants to flower. Great flowers to add include cosmos, calendula, nasturtium, sunflowers, yarrow, zinnia, and alyssum. Bolted lettuce, arugula, carrots, and onions develop flowers that attract beneficial insects in droves, as do herbs such as oregano, parsley, cilantro, and thyme. With a suitable habitat, these beneficial insects will keep many pest insects in check. For example, I rarely have to spray for aphids because the ladybugs, lacewings, and syrphid flies take care of them for me.
Mulch. Don’t delay mulching. As soon as plants reach about 6 inches high, add a 2-inch layer of mulch for weed control and moisture conservation.
Weed regularly. Even with mulch, some weed sprouts break through. Set it on your calendar to weed at least weekly. Once weeds get out of hand, it’s much more difficult to catch up.
Water in the morning. Whether you hand-water or use a drip irrigation system, water in the morning hours. This gives the plants the moisture they need at the ideal time, plus it limits evaporation and cuts down on fungal diseases that commonly spread with evening watering.
Fertilize, if necessary. Many new gardens do not require supplemental fertilization at first, but as plants take up nutrients in the soil, additional fertilizer can help. Fish emulsion is an effective organic and low- dose source of nitrogen. This helps plants in their early developmental stages develop the leaves needed for photosynthesis. Too much nitrogen can cause fruiting plants to produce lots of foliage and little fruit. If your plants are growing rapidly, skip the nitrogen fertilizer. But if they appear stunted, this low-dose form of nitrogen can help. In my raised bed gardens, I add fish emulsion every 2 weeks to my fruiting plants until they start developing flowers.
Prune diseased foliage. The most common plant diseases are fungal diseases. These don’t kill the plant right away, but they can if left unchecked. Yellow leaves at the bottom of tomato plants usually signal early blight, and a white powder on squash and cucumber leaves indicates powdery mildew. Prune affected leaves and stems immediately and dispose of them in the trash (not compost). You can remove up to 25 percent of a plant’s leaves. When you catch disease early, you can lessen its spread.
Train vertical plants to their trellises. Plants such as beans and peas usually train themselves, but others, such as cucumbers and vining tomatoes, need some help. Every few days, gently wrap cucumber vines around the trellis in a zigzag pattern. Lift tomato vines and situate them on the correct rung of a tomato cage or tie them to whatever trellis you use. It’s important to keep all vines spaced out for proper airflow as you train them.
These small maintenance steps will keep your garden as healthy as possible. But bear in mind, when using organic practices, it takes time for healthy insect populations and healthy soil to build up. Don’t expect perfection in the first season, but instead look for progress.
Common Problems and Pests and What to Do about Them
Each organic garden will experience different problems and pests throughout the growing season, and until you start gardening, you won’t know which ones you’ll encounter. These are some of the most common issues.
Early blight or Septoria leaf spot on tomatoes. These fungal diseases cause yellowing leaves starting at the bottom of a tomato plant. Early blight may look like a target, with outer circles of yellow darkening to brown in the center. Septoria leaf spot appears as many brown dots on leaves and often shows up later in the season. Cut off and dispose of all affected stems when the leaves aren’t wet. During rainy periods, you may have to do this daily to get it under control.
Powdery mildew. Most common on squash, zucchini, and cucumbers, powdery mildew is a fungal disease that looks like white powder on the tops of leaves. Left unchecked, it will spread up the plant and inhibit photosynthesis and subsequent fruit production. If you catch it early, clip off affected leaves, up to 25 percent of the plant. If that doesn’t work, mix 1 teaspoon of baking soda with 1 quart of water and spray on affected and unaffected leaves once a week.
Blossom-end rot. Most common on tomatoes, this black rotted spot appears where the blossom drops off the fruit. It can also affect squash, melons, and peppers. Although this condition is caused by a plant’s inability to take up calcium from the soil, simply adding calcium is usually not the best remedy. Most soils have enough calcium present (a soil test will confirm this); the problem typically lies in uneven watering or out-of-balance pH. Keep plants watered regularly, especially during the blossoming and fruiting stages. If this doesn’t help, get a soil test to determine if a lack of calcium or pH issue is to blame.
Lack of pollination. When a fruit stops growing and begins to rot, usually a lack of pollination is the cause. Squash, zucchini, cucumbers, and melons are most susceptible to this condition. Without the presence of pollinators such as bees, cross-pollinating plants can’t develop fruit. You may need to hand- pollinate. Find the male flower (the one without a fruit developing at the base) and with a cotton swab transfer the pollen from its stamen onto the flower of the female (the one with a fruit at the base). These flowers only open once per day, usually in the morning, so you’ll need to go out early, and daily.
Aphids. Tiny, pear-shaped insects in various colors, aphids congregate on new growth of many plants such as tomatoes and peppers, especially early in the season. Avoid spraying, because most insecticidal soaps also kill ladybug, lacewing, and syrphid fly larvae, which prey upon aphids. Instead, apply worm castings to the base of the plants and water well. Worm castings contain chitinase, an enzyme that aphids cannot digest. When the aphids suck the plant juices containing chitinase, they die.
Worms. Cabbage worms, tomato hornworms, armyworms, and other worms can defoliate your vegetable plants almost overnight. If handpicking doesn’t keep them under control, coat affected crops with the organic pesticide Bacillus thuringiensis , being careful to avoid any flowers. You might also consider a floating row cover to protect vulnerable crops (broccoli, cabbage, kale, and lettuce) against the moths that lay the eggs that hatch into these worms.
Beetles. Beetles such as squash bugs, stinkbugs, Japanese bean beetles, Mexican bean beetles, cucumber beetles, and others are some of the most difficult pests to control. Organic options are limited, because deterrents that might affect these beetles will also kill beneficial beetles such as ground beetles and ladybugs. The best way to control these pests is to handpick adults and remove egg clusters.
Removing infested plants and practicing crop rotation also help for future seasons.
Less is more when it comes to issues in an organic garden. Early manual removal of diseased plants and pests offers the best protection. Be willing to accept some damage, and know that the healthier the soil is, the healthier the plants will be, which enables them to withstand more pest and disease damage over the course of the season.
Resources
Find your average frost date
The Old Farmer’s Almanac, https://www.almanac.com/gardening/frostdates
Find your local cooperative extension service by zip code
Gardening Know How, https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/extension-search
Find soil-testing labs by state
Gardening Products Review, https://gardeningproductsreview.com/state-by-state-list-soil-testing-labscooperative-extension-offices
Garden tools
Gardener’s Supply Company, https://www.gardeners.com
Seed and plant suppliers
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, https://www.rareseeds.com
Seed Savers Exchange, https://www.seedsavers.org
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, https://southernexposure.com
Territorial Seed Company, https://territorialseed.com
References
Bradley, Fern Marshall, Barbara W. Ellis, and Deborah Martin. The Organic Gardener’s Handbook of Natural Pest and Disease Control. New York: Rodale, Inc., 2009.
Bradley, Fern Marshall, Barbara W. Ellis, and Ellen Phillips. Rodale’s Ultimate Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening. New York: Rodale, Inc., 2009.
Bradley, Fern Marshall, and Jane Courtier. Vegetable Gardening. White Plains, NY: Toucan Books, 2006.
Cool Springs Press. Gardening Complete. Minneapolis: Cool Springs Press, 2018.
Damrosch, Barbara. The Garden Primer . New York: Workman Publishing, Inc., 2008.
Harrington, J. F. “Soil Temperature Conditions for Vegetable Seed Germination.” University of California at Davis. Accessed October 18, 2019.
https://extension.oregonstate.edu/sites/default/files/documents/12281/soiltemps.pdf .
McCrate, Colin, and Brad Halm. High-Yield Vegetable Gardening . North Adams, MA: Storey Publishing, 2015.
Reich, Lee. Weedless Gardening . New York: Workman Publishing Co., Inc., 2001.
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (blog). “The Major Plant Families in a Vegetable Garden.” Accessed October 22, 2019. http://www.southernexposure.com/the-major-plant-families-in-a-vegetable-garden-ezp-190.html .
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