Day 5: The Inevitable Pests

We spent a few hours this morning investigating how to control/eliminate the inevitable pests that will soon be invading The Mayne Garden. The Mayne Garden is our first attempt at vegetable gardening in thirty years, so when it comes to pest control we are admittedly out of touch. Back in the “olden days”, Diazinon was the product of choice for home gardeners. But today, Diazinon is no longer used residentially.

   It is important to us to keep The Mayne Garden organic. We began our search for a pest control product by asking other novice gardeners (like us) what worked for them. The first suggestion came from a friend who uses Neem. Neem “is a vegetable oil pressed from the fruits and seeds of the neem (Azadirachta indica), an evergreen tree which is endemic to the Indian subcontinent” (this explanation came from Wikipedia. We don’t even know what half of it means). 

       Another friend mentioned lime-sulfur as a control substance. Finally, we googled the phase “organic pest control in a vegetable garden. Through this search we found information on Thurcide, Dipel and Pyrethrins.

   We still don’t feel completely comfortable with our choices. It looks like we need a trip to local nursery here in Wells.