Pesticides are helpful when it comes to keeping unwanted critters away from plants and other crops. Unfortunately, many are loaded with chemicals that hurt the environment and are even harmful to us. Fortunately, there are plenty of natural and sustainable ways to keep the pests out of your garden, and all you have to do is plant!
Contents
Aromatic Plants
These plants have very strong, but pleasant smells. While they’re pleasant-smelling to humans, many pests can’t stand them.
Lavender
When you think of lavender, you probably think of a calming and relaxing scent. Lavender is great at repelling pests, particularly moths, but it also attracts pollinating insects, like bees. This is a good thing, considering bees help other plants grow.
Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus is another popular scent known for its calming effects. It’s also a very good insect repellent. Eucalyptus can be a little tricky to grow, but once grown, you can use them in a variety of ways in your home.
Culinary Plants
These plants are aromatic as well, but you can also use them in the kitchen. Once grown in your garden, you can add any of these plants to a dish to enhance the flavor.
Basil
Basil is a popular spice that many people have in their kitchen cabinets, but this can be used for more than just adding flavor to any dish. Basil is known to repel beetles, mosquitos, worms, and whiteflies.
Mint
Like lavender, mint attracts bees, but it repels pests like ants, mosquitos, fleas, and aphids. If you’re new to gardening, be aware that mint spreads at a rapid rate, but it can easily be contained. You can also pick as much of it as you want, adding the leaves to tea or in your water for a refreshing treat.
Rosemary
Another highly aromatic herb, rosemary is great for repelling a variety of pests, but this is also an attractor of pollinators. Rosemary is also widely used in drinks, stews, and squash dishes.
Flowers
Chrysanthemums
Chrysanthemums contain a substance called pyrethrin, which is safe to humans, but toxic to insects. In fact, this ingredient can be found in many pesticides. Chrysanthemums are known for repelling both garden pests and household pests.
Marigolds
Marigolds are easy to grow, and they are known for repelling roundworms and distracting spider mites from other plants. They attract butterflies and other pollinators, and some varieties are even edible.
Petunias
This flower is known to repel aphids, beetles, and worms. They also bloom in a variety of colors, making your garden come to life.
Sunflowers
These are probably the most recognizable flowers in the world, but they also repel unwanted organisms! They attract pollinators and distract unwanted pests from other plants. Sunflowers also contain an allelopathic chemical that can deter the growth of weeds, making it a natural herbicide as well as a pesticide.
Natural Herbicides
Natural herbicides can be a little different, since not many plants repel other plants, such as weeds. However, there are some natural options to using chemical herbicides, most of which contain glyphosate, which is a known cancer-causing carcinogen.
You can choose to pull up weeds by hand, or you can leave them in the garden. This is not a very tempting option, since you probably don’t want weeds in your garden. But, what you probably didn’t know about weeds is that they can actually provide some benefits to your plants. Some have the ability to break up compacted soil and prevent soil erosion.
If you must get rid of weeds, then try mulching the soil. This will prevent sunlight from reaching potential weeds, while also helping to prevent soil erosion. Vinegar is another natural option. Just be sure to spray the weeds only, as this could also damage other plants.
While these plants repel insects and other creatures, keep in mind that many of them attract pollinators, such as bees and wasps. If you don’t mind the pollinators, then give these a try.
