Calgarians wage war on garden pests
Calgary gardener Anne McWhir is waging an ongoing battle against aphids and rabbits in her northwest Calgary yard. So far, it seems to be a draw. “I’ve been buying perennials and shrubs, and I don’t want them to be eaten up,” says McWhir, whose favourite new plant, a Golden Globe flower, has been “turned into salad for rabbits.”
To discourage rabbits, she has been using blood meal, “which has been recommended by various people as a good thing.”
As for aphids, she’s been blasting them off her plants with the garden hose. “It’s remarkably effective, but you have to keep at it.”
Calgary horticulturalist Donna Balzer recommends buying chicken wire or hardware wire to protect young trees from rabbits and wild hares, as well as voles and moles. Hardware wire is much stiffer than chicken wire, and comes in different diameters. “Get quarter-inch hardware wire,” she says.
Another option would be to put up a short fence around your garden, since rabbits don’t hop very high.
For those who are plagued by aphids, the problem might be due to over-fertilizing, Balzer says. Instead of using fertilizer, she suggests going the natural route and using organic matter (compost). When you do this, “you start to get a very nice system going where you don’t have too much nitrogen, so you don’t get too many aphids. It becomes a nice, self-sustaining system.”
If you’re worried about birds, you can put fine bird mesh or netting over your vegetables. “It’s a very simple covering of vegetables,” Balzer says, noting that covering a plant with bird netting is a good idea if you have a really nice shrub you want to be able to harvest.
If you are growing anything in the cabbage family, like kale, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kohlrabi or brussels sprouts, you’ll need to watch out for the cabbage white butterfly.
“All of these things attract the cabbage white butterfly, because they are so darn tasty,” Balzer says.
To keep white butterflies away from your veggies, she recommends putting Reemay (spunbond polyester), or a very fine insect netting or garden mesh over your plants.
Another option is Bacillus thuringiensis, known as Bt, a naturally occurring bacteria from the soil that will kill butterflies that like to feed on vegetables.