Cottage Garden Update: How to Manage Garden Pests

Gardening is much like life. Sometimes you walk through the garden and everything is perfect. But other times you’re walking through the garden and realize some of the plants aren’t behaving the way you expected them to.

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I’ve been asked about our garden a lot lately. With good reason! It’s been forever since I’ve shared an update on our garden. Generally, I’d say the garden is doing well! We have produce for sure. Although at this point it’s not piling up on my counters out of control. On one hand, I’m happy about this, but on the other hand, I’m kind of sad. After a few strolls through the garden, we noticed our zucchini plants were looking limp and wilted. It literally happened overnight! Then we noticed out cucumbers did the same thing. Then we saw all kinds of holes in our cabbage and cauliflower. We did some research and learned we had a garden pest problem.

Garden Pests Eating Our Plants

Squash Bug

This nasty little guy has officially killed our zucchini plants and is trying to kill our pumpkin. The zucchini were the first sign that there was a problem, but we were slow to figure it out. The first thing we noticed was wilted zucchini. When the plant wilted we thought the issue was related to water. We didn’t realize what the problem was until we saw these pests on the pumpkin plant actively laying eggs EVERYWHERE and decided to check them out. Once we found out what they were and how quickly they could destroy our plants we started fighting back!

Cucumber Beetle

This was a strange discovery. We usually get cucumbers pretty early in the season. But for some reason this year we weren’t. Well, we got one cucumber early, but then they suddenly they quit producing. I started looking at the vines and noticed the baby cucumbers were yellow and looked rotten. Not much longer after I noticed that the leaves started to wilt just like the zucchini plants.

Again, we did some research to figure out what was happening. Turns out we have cucumber beetles and these garden pests actually give the cucumbers a bacterial infections that kills the plant. After the plant receives this infection its pretty much a lost cause to try to save the current plant. But we planted 6 cucumber plants, so I started fighting the cucumber beetles as soon as we figured out what they look like too.

Cabbage Worms

This was more of a slow progression. I noticed that the cabbage and cauliflower were beginning to become “holey”. But I didn’t do too much about it. Well, I didn’t do anything about it. It wasn’t until the other bugs started hurting our garden that we decided to start going after these guys too.

The truth is, although these guys completely wiped out our cabbage and cauliflower, I’m not as mad at them. I’m glad for them to go away, but I didn’t get emotional with these little caterpillars like I did with the squash bugs and the cucumber beetles. Maybe it’s because these little guys turn into pretty pollinating partners?!

Organic Remedies For Garden Pests

Soapy Water and A Butter Knife

You guys! It’s literally been a battle over here. With these nasty garden pests hurting my beautiful green babies I’ve gone full throttle trying to rid the garden of them. After we realized we had a pest problem we did what we could with what we had in the house immediately.

I took a cup of soapy water and a butter knife outside and started scraping eggs and young and adult bugs into the cup of soapy water. The soap helps keep them from being able to get out of the cup of water. I think it works much like that bowl of soapy vinegar for gnats in the kitchen. Regardless, I would go out in the morning, afternoon, and right before bed to hunt these pests. It never failed. Every time I went out I found something.

Helpful Hint: For the young squash bugs I would get some of the bubbles on the tip of the knife and when I found a cluster of them I’d cover them in bubbles. This made it easier to collect them all into the cup of water. It prevented them from running away while I was collecting their other siblings.

Neem Oil

While, hunting for eggs, and bugs is oh so fun, I really would rather stop the problem altogether. After doing a little research we landed on using neem oil to help rid the garden of these nasty pests. It disrupts the bugs’ lifecycle by prevents eggs from hatching and larva from growing with adults.

The best part about this solution is it’s organic and safe. It’s safe for us, our chickens, dogs, and beneficial bugs! As long as you don’t spray the oil directly on butterflies and bees, once it is dry it will have no impact on them! We waited until the evening to spray because our garden is busiest with pollinators in the morning. We also added some peppermint essential oil to our mixture to help deter pests.

From what we learned neem oil isn’t a one and done solution. But spraying the garden with this organic oil every year isn’t something we’re opposed to. Also, I think next year if we start spraying the plants and checking for these pests earlier in the season we can save our plants and help them produce more.

Conclusion

This year has definitely been the year of garden pests. But with a little bit of research and work, we’ve been able to save some of our plants and we are prepared for next year. If your struggling with pests in your garden check out neem oil! It might be the organic solution to your pest struggles too! Did I mention it also fights against powdery mildew for your zucchini?! I’m so excited for next year!! This year has increased our garden knowledge so much! I feel like I’m going to be a better gardener next year!

If you missed any of our 2020 garden adventures, go check them out! We planned the garden, started seedlings indoors and decided to put our chicks in the garden! So much garden fun!

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Open Your Doors,
Aliya