Perhaps you’ve considered building a home garden on your property. Without a doubt, it would be an excellent addition to your property. You can grow hundreds of different fruits, vegetables, flowers, and other plants in a garden. It’s possible to choose every detail of the garden before it’s built, and you can get suggestions from experts that put you in control of how it appears and what grows inside it. Of course, you’ll need to create a garden that repels pests. Nothing is worse than watching flies, birds, or even rodents pick away at things you have grown from seed.
Pests: The Destroyers of Gardens Large and Small
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Pests come in countless forms, ranging from insects to rodents and birds. Each type of pest invades a garden and starts destroying one plant or another. Unfortunately, each pest requires a different approach to repel or eliminate the threat. If you build a garden that’s not well-suited to keep pests at bay you’ll spend a lot more time defending your garden than watching it thrive. It doesn’t help that you’re probably not thinking about one of the most serious pests that could target your garden or even your home…. Termites.
Termites Love a Good Garden!
Termites love wood, and they’re prepared to invade your garden before moving onto your home. Even a small wooden garden bed can attract termites. From there, they’ll start eating away at the garden enclosure as well as other wooden objects. A family of termites could then move onto your home’s foundation and start causing incredible amounts of damage. You don’t want termites to invade your garden or home, so you’ll want to build a garden that keeps them at bay at all costs.
Building A Garden To Keep The Termites Away
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Termites exist in countless areas across the globe, so they’re a threat for many homeowners – especially in warmer climes. When you build your outdoor garden, you’ll want to take a few cautionary steps to repel them. Typically, individuals build a garden bed from one type of untreated wood or another. Such types of wood often attract termites, so you’ll want to treat the wood and provide it with a protective coating. Varnishing the wood results in fewer termites coming around looking for their next meal. In other words: it makes sense for you to treat the wood at the outset of building your garden, to keep them at bay.
Otherwise, you might consider building a garden bed out of nontraditional materials. You could try out alternatives such as stone or concrete blocks. A garden bed can be surrounded by whatever materials you prefer, and wood isn’t the only option that exists. You’ll want to use as little untreated wood in the garden as possible, and it never hurts to grow plants or fruits and vegetables that termites don’t go after. In building a garden, every little step can help keep termites (and other pests) away from the area.
Building The Garden In The Right Place On Your Property
As you design your home garden, you’ll get to choose where the garden is laid. This decision shouldn’t be taken lightly, as garden placement affects whether pests are attracted there or not. Termites ruining your garden is a nasty thought, but it’s even worse if they reach your home’s foundation. For that reason, you’ll want to place the garden at least six feet away from the home’s foundation. Do so ensures a buffer area exists between your garden and your home, should the termites come into the garden.
Speaking of this buffer area, you’ll want to have a professional pest control company like Responsible Pest Control to treat the buffer area. For most homes, this involves injecting a chemical into the ground that prevents termites from digging through and getting at the foundation. The chemical treatment is safe for homeowners as it’s held underground, and the treatment often lasts for months before needing retreatment. You shouldn’t do any digging after treatment because you could disturb its protective barrier in the process.
Your Garden Doesn’t Have To Invite Termites In
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The experts point out that this repellent treatment is perhaps the most vital key for keeping termites away from your home. Fortunately, a barrier treatment like this isn’t necessary for the garden itself, but you should look into your treatment options right away. Your home garden should be built from materials that don’t attract termites, and then you’ll want to keep a close eye on the garden for signs of pests. Separate treatments may be applied to most gardens as an extra level of caution.
Natural Termite Repellents
We mentioned briefly earlier that some plants are a natural repellant to the termites. Whether it be the smell or the feel, for whatever reason, they will avoid them like the plague. Planting a few of these in your garden is sure to help keep those pesky pests at bay.
To keep termites away from your garden in a more natural way, try the following:
Plant strong-smelling herbs. Mint, Garlic, and Catnip are all known to actively keep termites at bay.
Plant Vetiver Grass. This stuff repels them as surely as if you had used a spray
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Strategically place marigolds, daisies, and/or geraniums in your garden to keep termites away from your wood.
Don’t forget that you should plan the layout of your garden so that your home and any untreated wood are far apart. This way, if you get a termite infection in your garden you have time to treat the issue before it spreads to your home.
By protecting your garden, you’re also taking steps to protect your home. Then you can watch your beautiful garden flourish throughout the year and produce incredible yields. Nothing is more satisfying than watching flowers, fruits, or vegetable sprout and grow throughout the year. You can spend far more time tending to your garden rather than worrying about termites and other pests. Taking these steps now can prevent so many potential issues in the future.
