How to Keep Uninvited Animals away from Your Garden

If you don’t want anyone to destroy your front yard lawn, then you put up a “don’t walk on the grass” sign. However, when it comes to your beautiful flower or vegetable garden out in the back, signs won’t at all against “second kind encounters”, to put in those words.

Yes, are speaking of all the uninvited animals that visit your garden and leave behind quite a mess. From the playful neighbor’s dog, across moles, all the way to pesky flying insects, all these animals ruin your gardening efforts.

However, you cannot blame them for this because it’s in their nature. It is actually up to you to stop them and do so using nonlethal methods. Ideally, you shouldn’t any animal, yet manage to fend them of your petunia or cabbage. Here are 7 eco-friendly ways in which you can achieve this.

Spraying plants with soapy water

An almost miraculous mixture for fighting off spider mites and aphids is soapy water. You create the mixture by adding 5 tablespoons of dish soap to half a liter of water. Once you attach the spray pump on top of the bottle with the solution, spray the plants with it. The soap will effectively dehydrate all the small pests, many of which are hard to spot with the naked eye.

Herbs protecting other plants

If you have a couple of herbs planted in your garden, you can use them to protect the rest of the plant life. An herbal concoction consisting of basil, rosemary, rue, mint, sage, thyme, and lavender is quite effective in repelling many insect species.

In order to make the mixture, soak overnight the aforementioned herbs, all or some of them, depending on what you grow in your garden. Then you mixed them up with water and preferably an essential oil and spray the plants. In fact, just by planting herbs across your garden, you are effectively preventing insects from invading it because the natural fragrance of these herbs acts as a repellent.

Beer is not only used for drinking

An even better solution than an eco-friendly solution to pests is a method that involves zero investment. Such home remedies don’t cost anything because you probably already have the ingredients. For instance, we all have a can of beer or two tucked in our refrigerator door.

Yes, you’ve read it correctly, beer can be used to save vegetation from slugs and snails. Since they are attracted to beer, you can fill up saucers with the beverage to attract and trap them. An alternative to beer is fruit juice; orange or grapefruit will do the job the best.

Using nicotine to your advantage

To repel leaf-chewing insects, make a nicotine tea by soaking 1 cup of dried, crushed tobacco leaves in 1 gallon of warm water and one-fourth teaspoon of dish soap. Strain after 30 minutes, and spray the mixture directly on the repel common garden pests that like to nibble on leaves, you can create a nicotine tea.

Namely, nicotine found in cigarettes doesn’t have to be that bad if you put it to good use. A nicotine tea is prepared by soaking one cup of dried and then crushed tobacco leaves in three and a half liters of warm water. Once you add some dish soap to the mixture and strain it, a nicotine tea is ready to be sprayed directly onto the leaves.

Water the plants using a spray gun

One of the simplest ways to wash down any bugs from your plants is by using a spray gun. Unlike the mixtures mentioned earlier, watering your garden using pressurized water can physically remove pesky bugs from the leaves. All you need is a water hose and a spray gun and you’re good to go.

Try to aim just above the surface of leaves because if you point the gun directly at them, you can rip of leaves and even damage plants’ root systems.

Take out the trash regularly

For hygienic reasons, most homeowners keep their trash bins outside the house, most often near the garden. There is nothing inherently wrong with this method of waste disposal but it attracts wild animals to your property. In some cases, even bears find your trash bins tempting, as their natural instinct sees your trash as an open invitation to a free buffet.

In most cases, you won’t have to worry about such large predators but rats, mice, raccoons, and all sorts of other critters are attracted to the smell of food leftovers. For this reason, taking the trash out every morning is essential. Since animals have a highly acute sense of smell, you can use double bags for organic waste so the smell doesn’t spread around too much.

Don’t rely on the fence to keep the wild animals out

Although a galloping deer or a rabbit can jump high, they stand little chance of getting over a 2-meter fence. However, the animals aren’t going to get access to your garden by jumping over it by but by burrowing under it. If you see a burrow hole in your garden, be certain that a skunk, rabbit, or a groundhog is to blame.

In this sense, erecting high fencing is futile. Even if you invest in deep foundations of the fence and extend it underground, animals such as a mole can easily dig under it, regardless of its depth. That’s why our noninvasive fight against uninvited animals should not be centered on better fencing.

A strong fence will not only make you waste hundreds, if not thousands of dollars but it will give you a false sense of security that your garden is well-protected against animal invaders.

The key to protecting your garden from all sorts of uninvited animals is not is preventing them from accessing your garden but rather making them not want to penetrate the perimeter in the first place.

There are so many herbal mixtures you can spray your plants with that all animals, big and small, will be repelled from the garden. The best thing about these eco-friendly and nonlethal deterrents is that no animals will be hurt in the process.