Keeping the garden healthy

Best organic practice - the first choice

• Create a fertile, biologically active soil. Composted organic materials can help reduce soil pests and diseases, and increase plant resistance.

  See also:

  • Guidelines on Soil care
  
  
• Use a Crop Rotation, minimum four year, for annual vegetables

  See also:

  • Our Crop rotation factsheet
• Grow plants that suit the location and soil type
• Start with healthy seeds, tubers, plants, fruit bushes, shrubs and other planting material, certified disease free where possible.
• Grow pest and disease resistant varieties
• Choose sowing and planting dates to avoid specific pests
• Prune trees and bushes, design plantings and keep greenhouses and other protective structures well ventilated to allow a good airflow to reduce disease risk.
• When watering, apply water to the soil rather than the plant foliage
• Ensure plants have an appropriate supply of water

  See also:

  • Water in the garden factsheet

Best organic practice - the first choice

• Provide a diversity of food, shelter and habitats for predators, parasites, and other wildlife

  See also:

  • The 'Wildlife gardening' section of our factsheets
• Leave some 'relaxed' areas - leaves under a hedge, some weeds, an area of longer grass and so on - to feed and shelter wildlife.
• There will always be 'pests' present, but they do not always create a problem. They are also a necessary source of food for valuable predators and parasites.
• Learn to recognise the many creatures, from hedgehogs to hoverflies, that consume pests and disease causing organisms as part of their diet.
• Where practical, grow a mix of types and varieties of plant to reduce risk of pest and disease infestation and spread. This includes companion planting