Gardening to Relieve Stress: Great Therapy

In my desire to rid my body of stress, I put on my gardening gloves and went outdoors to do some hand-pulling of weeds in the flower garden.  Being outdoors and being productive is a good way to cleanse your body of any negative energy and anxiousness.

While I was gardening I could watch the birds at the ground feeder and in the distance I saw a groundhog posing on the river rock.   The garden was alive with wildlife and biting bugs which I found took away from the good feelings I was getting from the garden.

My garden after a day of removing weeds

Whenever I perspire it seems the gnats go for my eyes and they are aggravating.  I sprayed myself with deep woods off before going outdoors but I do not spray my face.  So I went and got the protective glasses that I wear when I am painting or doing other home improvement projects.  The glasses worked but then my ankle felt itchy and sure enough there was a tick crawling on me.

The bugs in the garden were going against my stress-free therapy so I went to the shed to look for the natural pest control that I got at amazon.com and found that the mosquito and other biting insects barrier was empty so I went inside and put some diatomaceous earth food grade in a powder sugar shaker and then went back to the garden to dust the gardens with the natural pest control.

Diatomaceous earth food grade safely rids garden of biting bugs

 

Normally it takes 20 minutes for the DE food grade to kill any ticks, fleas, chiggers, mites, and ants that may be lurking in the garden.   By tomorrow morning the garden pest will be gone and I can resume my gardening therapy to get rid of stress.

I really love gardening especially when I need to overcome stress or feeling of anxiousness but hate when the bugs bite me and make me feel itchy.

Preventing Bug Bites While Gardening

If I was ever going to enjoy the garden again I knew I would have to take steps to prevent the bugs from biting me.  This year the biting bugs; mosquitoes, chiggers, ticks, and fleas have taken the fun out of gardening. Two days ago while doing a hand pull in my hosta garden I was bitten by, several bugs.

I was so itchy that I stopped what I was doing and ran inside to take a hot shower with Yardley of London antibacterial hand soap, flowering English lavender herbal scent.  The hot soapy shower killed the germs and safely removed the roaming chiggers from my skin and lessened itchy mosquito and other bug bites.

Normally I spray myself before going out to the garden with deep woods off but I know that with the wildlife; deer, raccoon, skunk, wild turkey, groundhog, coyote, and bobcat coming into my yard that there are probably other biting bugs lurking.

I decided to address the bugs in my yard and garden by treating my entire yard with a concentrated garlic formula that will safely kill and repel mosquitoes, fleas, ticks, chiggers, and some wildlife from my yard. I found an all-natural product at amazon.com MOSQUITO BARRIER – LIQUID SPRAY REPELLENT -1 GALLON.  I read the reviews and they were favorable plus I liked that it was natural 100% garlic and would not harm my family or my pets.

Granted this organic pest control costs more but I will tell you it is worth it.  There is a garlic smell and it is potent but the smell is what repels and kills the biting bugs and you get used to it.

Diatomaceous Earth Pest Control for Irises

Treat your iris garden with diatomaceous earth food grade and you will control the borer pests and also grow healthy plants that will produce beautiful blooms.  

For healthy irises with beautiful blooms follow my pest control tips.
photo of my garden..Sgolis

For the past week, I have been cleaning up my gardens by removing the oak leaves that fell from the trees at the end of March, the first week of April.  When I got to my iris gardens I noticed that the wet leaves that covered the tubers had attracted borers.   

The borers will eat the tubers and weaken the health of the plant and if the iris is left untreated the borers will eventually kill the irises.  I acted quickly to this infestation of pests by treating the garden with diatomaceous earth food grade.

When it comes to treating my garden for pests I prefer to use a natural substance that will not harm humans, wildlife, and pets.  Over the years I have had excellent results with diatomaceous earth when I use it for yard and garden pest control.

Instructions

Remove the leaf debris or mulch from your iris bed on a day when there is no wind. 

Fill a powder sugar shaker with diatomaceous earth food grade and take safety steps to protect yourself from inhaling the dust by wearing a fine particle ventilator mask.

Loosen the dirt that surrounds your iris tuber and then shake the diatomaceous into the loosened soil. Cover the dust with soil. This treatment will kill the pests in the soil also. 

Shake the diatomaceous earth food grade all over your iris garden. This treatment will prevent above-the-surface garden pests from eating your tuber or iris leaves.  

Spring showers will cause the diatomaceous earth to enter the soil that surrounds the irises. This is good as it will continue to kill off pests in the soil that feed on iris tubers.  

Watch your garden for any signs of borers.  If you view a yellow streak in your iris leaf or insects crawling on or around your iris tubers then retreat the garden with the diatomaceous earth food grade.  

Notes from Sgolis

Keep your iris garden free of weeds and debris.  As this will enable the iris plants to take in the nutrients from the sun and your plants will be healthy and produce large flowers.