A dream garden with your own hands
Dandelion - friend or foe?
What is a dandelion?
First, let’s understand what a weed is? It is essentially the same plant, just unnecessary and growing in the wrong place. Agree, a dandelion field is pleasing to the eye if it is not on our garden plot. However, no matter how beautiful and bright this plant would be, it is a weed, and not a simple one, but a dicotyledon.
Thanks to its powerful root system this malignant weed can destroy even the strongest soil cushion. It gets its subsistence from the deepest layers of soil, so it is rich in biologically active substances, which cultural plants often lack. Potassium, calcium, copper, iron, zinc, molybdenum — all these substances are essential for our vegetables and simple lawn, but since the culture itself can not get themselves these substances, we have to use various micro mineral fertilizers.
Ways to fight dandelion
Getting rid of dandelion is not easy. The weed is so tenacious that even a tiny root is enough to make a new rosette of leaves grow from it. You can try mowing the plant periodically before it blooms. The strength of the root system to recover each time will be less and less, and the weed will begin to wither. Its seeds remain in the soil for up to 10 years, but you must remember that its flower stalks become inseminated even when separated from the roots.
The best method is herbicides
Herbicides come in two varieties:
continuous action — they kill all vegetation, that is, not only the annoying weeds, but also the cultivated plants are killed.
Selective herbicides only kill the weed without damaging the neighboring crops.
Of course, it is best to use herbicides before the weeds sprout, but prevention is always easier than «treatment». Or treat as soon as you see a new weed. Young leaves and roots are more permeable to drugs than old ones. The substances are more quickly distributed throughout the plant, including to the roots. With the onset of stemming, the dandelion becomes more resistant to herbicides. However, at the end of August and September in perennial plants, the main drain of nutrients goes to the roots. Together with them herbicides penetrate there as well, and as a result the weed dies 2-3 times faster than in spring treatments.
When and with what to treat dandelions?
With types of herbicides we have understood, now let’s talk substantively about what to choose. Selective herbicides can be used to combat dandelion on lawns.
Often two treatments are carried out:
The first in late May or early June on young dandelion plants,
The second in late August or September, when the perennial plant has a major outflow of nutrients to its roots.
Choosing a remedy for ants on the site
Folk remedies that can be chosen for their elimination should be chosen based on several conditions:
ease of treatment;
safety for people, pets, plants and buildings;
consequences after use (smell, soil contamination);
the desired speed of eliminating the problem and the number of treatments.
It is worth saying that some folk methods and means of control can be quite effective. But, again, only in some cases. What does folk experience offer us?
In the first place, all kinds of plant repellents:
Fragrant plants in the form of twigs or whole brooms — mint, frogweed, wormwood, lavender, dill, parsley, etc.;
grinds of tobacco, cinnamon, coffee, mustard;
essential oils of eucalyptus, lavender, mint, clove, citrus.
These are probably the most controversial remedies. As practice shows, not only can they not destroy ants, but they are not even able to expel them from their favorite places. Ant colonies quietly continue to live near piles of odorous powders or fresh plant twigs. In the open air, the pungent smell quickly wears off and even immediately after laying out the effect is hardly noticeable. Yes, many have noted that ants avoid settling near such plants. But once the insects appear, the use of repellents makes little or no sense.
Ant colonies quietly continue to live near piles of odorous powders or fresh plant twigs.
Ant colonies quietly continue to live next to piles of odorous powders or fresh plant twigs.
It is also often recommended to pour millet and semolina into the ant exits or on the insects’ favorite «paths.» And this myth, stable in the internet environment, is not explained theoretically by anyone. The only justification for using semolina is that after eating it, it swells up in the digestive tract of ants and kills them. But from a practical point of view such an explanation looks, at least, strange.
The use of various household chemicals with a pungent odor seems more logical:
ammonia;
kerosene;
fuel oil;
vinegar;
household chlorine-containing products.
They are sometimes successfully used to destroy anthills by watering their entrances and the surface around them. But here we need to take into account one point. If ammonia is not so aggressive for soil and plants, then petroleum products or cleaning chemicals will lead to long-term contamination of treated areas. And there’s no telling what’s better — ants or persistent chemical odors and unsuitable soil for planting.
Ammonia is a different problem. It wears off relatively quickly, and to treat large and branched anthills, you will need a lot of working solution. If you sprinkled ammonia only the entrance to the anthill, the ammonia will rise up, not affecting the underground inhabitants.
Protecting the garden from pests: what, when and how to treat plants?
Why do I need to treat my garden?
Pests cause a lot of trouble — they weaken fruit trees and vegetable crops, thus reducing their yield. Even a small population of fruit moths can worm the entire apple crop and bring all the efforts of the dacha owner to naught. And the list of «lovers of your harvest» is not limited to moths (butterfly, moth, moth, etc.), it is also a brown-marble bug, spider mite, leafminer, flowerhoppers and many others.
The treatment of garden crops with chemicals allows if not to get rid of harmful insects completely, then to minimize their destructive effect. Such measures are justified because prevention is always better than fighting pests that have already spread, especially when it comes to the yield of garden trees and greenhouse crops.
What threats to crops?
All sorts of garden and vegetable garden pests wake up and become active in the spring with the awakening of nature. They feed on buds, young tree greenery, shoots, and buds, and spread dangerous diseases. As a result, leaves dry up, flowers fall off, and overall plant development slows down. Such a situation will surely affect the future crop.
Whiteflies are a real scourge for garden and greenhouse crops. These insects feed on the sap of leaves, petioles and stems. After a whitefly infestation, leaves turn yellow and fall off, plants lag behind in flowering and ripening fruit, and as a result, yields decrease.
The codling moth, the most common and well-known pest of orchards, is also a serious threat. The larvae of this insect attack apple, pear, peach, apricot and plum trees. Damaged fruits appear prematurely ripe, most of them fall off, often together with the caterpillars.
Another dangerous pest of fruit trees is the Californian scale. Larvae and adults deplete trees by sucking the sap out of them. This causes the bark of trees to crack and die, branches to wither, and leaves to fall off. Red or purple spots appear on the damaged fruits of apple trees.
What to treat the garden against pests?
The fashion for organic or natural farming is gaining momentum every year. Many dacha gardeners seek to completely eliminate chemical treatments on their plot. However, in fruit gardens, greenhouses and vegetable gardens, it is impossible to prohibit pest invasion, especially in hot weather. In addition, pests from year to year develop immunity to folk remedies. Sprinkling with ashes, tobacco dust or spraying with various infusions and decoctions of plants lose their effectiveness. So what should a simple farmer do on his six acres? How to protect your harvest and preserve the ecology on the plot? There is a solution: use modern means of plant protection by domestic manufacturers!
