CookieCows

Alot of great information! Thank you! I'm willing to try some of the natural bug repellants this year and see how it goes. I think our main problem is keeping the weeds down. The pest problem (except for japanese beetles) would be managable if the weeds were gone. It's a huge garden as our goal is always to put up enough to last through the winter. Last year we were able to get enough newspaper layed down with bark over top around all the peppers and tomatoes and that really worked out great. If we could do that with everything else it would be awesome. Especially the large areas between the squash and melon mounds. The only companion plants we've tried is a row of marigolds one year. I like the website with all the different plants that go together and will try more of that this year.

Compost we don't have a problem with. We have mounds of steer/horse manure mixed with hay in various stages of decomposition and we use that and lime on the pastures and garden.

Well it's taken me over an hour to get this much of a response done as I have grown children coming in and out of the house and I'm recovering from major dental work.

Note on Japanese Beetles: We've tried the traps and they didn't work. The only thing that has worked for us is to put grub killer on the lawn to prevent them from turning into beetles but now that we have moved out of a residential area and onto a farm it's not possible to do that anymore. So the only thing that we have found that kills the beetles when they come out is 7-dust and I know ya'll are gasping and gaging over that and the grub killer also ... but that's the way it is until we can find something else that works. I'll look more in depth at the natural bug repellent website a little later.
Thanks,
Deb

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