Reduce your plant risk

To reduce the risk of plant problems, one must practice good garden hygiene. Providing the right amount of water and maintaining the right levels of nutrients in the soil will keep your plants growing, healthy and strong; but to keep them growing that way, maintaining your garden throughout the season is required. Annual or biannual rotation of planting materials can lessen the buildup of pests and diseases.

Controlling weeds

Most weeds produce seed, freely or reproduce from bits of roots left in the ground, tubers, rhizomes. Controlling weeds requires the use of hand pulling, hoeing, mulching, or planting specimens close enough together to prevent weeds from growing. The use

of herbicides can be tricky to use in a vegetable or prized flower garden and must be used with great caution and is not really recommended. A far better way would be the use of mulch, laying down a fresh layer every four months, as a very effective way to keep weeds down; if you use organic mulch you will be adding nutrients to the soil as it breaks down.

Any plant can become a weed, yes, even your most prized specimens. A plant is considered a weed when it becomes invasive and starts taking over your garden or area that you do not wish it to; there are several very well known invasive plants that one would not consider a weed in most cases; Norway maple, some varieties of honeysuckle, purple loosestrife, ostrich fern, to name a few. These types of invasive plants should be identified early on in the growing season in order to prevent them from taking over any or all areas.

Pests

Pests can devour any part and in some cases the entire plant. You have your insect group, such as sowbugs, mites, millipedes, and nematodes. In your larger animal group-rabbits, deers, raccoons, and squirrels. Once again, prevention is the key. There are many organic controls one can use to reduce the risk to plants. You can handpick eggs or slugs from the soil, there are also sticky paper, collars and other easily constructed organic traps. Remedies also include biodegradable soaps, dormant oils, diatonaceous earth and pepper-garlic solutions. Organic solutions for larger animals include fencing off the area, don't plant any plant they would desire or use automatic deterrents as solar powered water spray or sound with a motion detector.

To maintain a healthy garden always remove dead and/or diseased plants and debris. It is important to evaluate any garden problems and effectively take care of the problem in a timely manner. Whether you use biological or chemical solutions always read the instructions before using and always take all necessary precautions as per instructions.