Spring Into Action
for a Pest-Free Garden

Customer photo by Robin R. of Phippsburg, Me.: Take a few steps in spring to ensure that you attract garden friends that help repel pests. See the full-size photo in the Photo Center Go to the Photo Center and see more images from Gardener's Supply customers.

Wouldn't it be great to avoid pest and disease problems this summer? To skip the sprays and dusts, the hassles and heartbreaks? Well you can reduce if not eliminate these problems, and now's the time—when you're prepping and planting—to make it happen. Here's how:

Pests and diseases rarely attack plants in the peak of health. But sickly, stressed plants attract every pest in the neighborhood. As a gardener, your job is to provide ideal growing conditions, so the plants in your garden are more like Arnold Schwarzenegger than Tiny Tim.

This spring, before you put in your seeds or plants, take the time to enrich the planting area with compost and an all-purpose fertilizer. Don't have enough of your own compost to go around? Check with a local garden center. These days, most of them carry some kind of bagged compost. The trace nutrients, vitamins, natural antibiotics and beneficial soil organisms in compost play a critical role in promoting pest and disease resistance.

As you're mixing in the compost and fertilizer, take some time to loosen the soil with a garden fork down to about 12 inches deep. Doing this will open up channels for air and moisture, and make it much easier for roots to penetrate the soil.

Plant Health Care , a liquid fertilizer that can be mixed up at half strength and used on new transplants.

It takes young plants several weeks to establish an effective root system. Until they do so, it's difficult for them to absorb the moisture and nutrients they need from the soil. It's up to you to provide easy access to moisture, protection from wind and scorching sunlight, and a ready source of easy-to-absorb nutrients. Thirsty, wind-battered seedlings sound the dinner bell to flea beetles and other pests. I water my young plants once a week with a dilute liquid fertilizer solution and find that seaweed-based fertilizers are especially effective at this stage. To protect new transplants from the weather, I keep them covered for several weeks under garden fabric, such as our All-Purpose Garden Fabric.

The healthiest, most productive ecosystems on earth are also the most diverse. Another way to minimize pest and disease problems in your garden is to plant a wide range of plant material. Even if your garden is small—a few tomato plants, some peppers and beans—you can tuck in a marigold here, some sweet alyssum there, and add an herb or two, maybe basil or dill. Your little garden will look much more interesting to you and will also be far more attractive to beneficial insects, who will reward you by helping to control pests.

Why does a garden filled with lots of different kinds of plants experience less insect and disease damage than a garden with only two types of crops? I wish I had an answer for you. I have just found it to be true. The more colors and shapes and textures and heights, the better.

I plant an incredible diversity of plants in my gardens—primarily because I lack the willpower to leave any variety out. This makes for a visually exciting garden that's probably far too confusing for most pests. My vegetable garden looks like a patchwork quilt. The beds are 2 feet wide, and I plant in 2- to 3-foot blocks. Peppers, then leeks, then carrots, and so forth down the row. To attract beneficial insects, I plant dill and cilantro in several spots throughout the garden. Bees love the sunflowers that I plant in the asparagus bed. And I usually let a few broccoli plants go to flower. Bees and other tiny insects keep the broccoli flowers abuzz from dawn to dusk. In the cutting garden, I interplant everything: zinnias with snapdragons, bachelor buttons with phlox, sweet peas with morning glories.

If you're going to have a garden filled with "Arnold-like" plants, you'll need to provide these superstars with proper accommodations. First, make sure to give them plenty of room so they can develop to their full potential without crowding. This means thinning your lettuce and carrots, and allowing more than 12" between your broccoli seedlings. When the garden is overcrowded, there's not enough air circulation or light to go around. Crowded plants then become easy targets for slugs and diseases.

You also want to keep your garden tidy. That means cleaning up and removing crops as they go by, keeping weeds under control , and keeping the soil covered with some kind of mulch. Mulch keeps the place looking neat, and it also plays a critical role in retaining soil moisture and reducing the wet/dry cycles that stress most plants.

Scientific testing has proven that stressed plants actually send out "come hither" messages that bugs can't resist. Take the time now to create a happy and healthy home for your plants, and you'll have far fewer problems with pests and diseases this summer.

Kathy LaLiberte has worked for Gardener's Supply since it began more than 25 years ago. She lives and gardens in Richmond, Vt. Click here to read more of her Innovative Gardener essays.