A GROWING CONCERN: Don’t let garden pests bug you

Published 1:30 am Saturday, April 25, 2026

I KNOW, I wrote about this a few weeks ago — but it is still way too early to plant many botanical wonders like tomatoes, peppers, geraniums, impatience and begonias.

Therefore, I do not want to waste any time not immediately getting to my great concern and worry because the implications could ruin your garden.

Every year in mid- to late April, it happens.

Vendors put out certain plants with no warnings or instructions. Ten days ago, I was aghast at marigolds, zinnias, geraniums and begonias already being put on racks for sale without a disclaimer saying “do not plant outside until May or beyond June 1.”

Then yesterday, I was in a greenhouse buying onion starts (perfect time of year), and there were tomatoes, basil, squash, even peppers out for sale — and people were buying them!

Let me make this crystal clear: Unless you have a greenhouse, do not plant any of these outside for a month. No! Nada! No way, Jose, don’t even think about it!

Repeat after me, “the first of June is none too soon!”

We have plenty of work to do and numerous things to plant now, so please, if you want to throw your money away, do not buy “warm soil” plants for a month. And if your money is burning a hole in your pocket, send it to me. At least I will buy something useful like beer.

But with that said, what I did buy Wednesday — I was so pleased that they were available — was sweet alyssum. We talked about flowers in the garden to attract the pollinators and how beneficial it is to crops like peas and beans, and, planted early, alyssum flowers now bring in bees to help with the orchards and berries as well.

Well, we are also fortunate enough here on the Peninsula to have our very own indigenous and useful “alien predator.” There is a local, tiny parasitic wasp that is attracted to the honeydew secretions of aphids. Once it hones in on the scent, it then lays its eggs in the body of said aphids. The egg hatches and the larvae eats its way out.

It just so happens that this wasp feeds on nectar from flowers, and the fragrance of sweet alyssum is an ideal smorgasbord. Planting now before aphids are present brings in the predator before the prey numbers start to explode. It’s all about flattening the “pestilence curve.”

In fact, in your vegetable garden, flower beds, roses and landscaping, it is all about sound cultural practices. If you follow a best-practices approach, then you can eliminate 80 percent or more (most often way more) of the habitat, food and conditions necessary for insects, mold and diseases to flourish.

I’m sure most all of you have read last week about watering early in the morning and not at night. By watering early in the morning, not only are moisture and nutrients available at the peak requirement for the day, but the soil, come our cool evenings, is dry. Almost all plant diseases and most bugs really need damp conditions to multiply, so dry plants and soil by noon, along with the sun and wind, really suppresses their reproduction and establishment.

Next in eliminating habitat is to always be on the lookout not only for dead plant parts, but those that are dying (think yellowing). Many diseases enter a plant through dead or dying material and the decomposing process feeds them.

By eliminating all old, dead, yellow, sickly leaves, you dry up that source. Also, flower tissue is very fragile and rots and slimes away quickly, so always remove dead flowers — always.

In fact, it benefits your plants as well. All living things exist to reproduce, and when you remove flower heads before they make seed pods, the plant responds by growing more vigorously. A healthy plant, growing very well with no old flower heads or dead/dying foliage and stems, is a plant far better able to resist problems that the natural world will throw at them.

Next, cultivate your soil regularly and weed. Breaking up the soil crust greatly improves the soil fertility, and weeds are a major source of insects and diseases because they grow thick, and thus are damp all day. A dry soil is a real problem killer.

And finally, do not marry your plants. The runt of the litter is always the runt, and there is always a reason why. Weak, yellow-looking plants should be trashed. If one plant develops bugs, trim it down or throw it away because that alone will save you 50 percent of gardening problems.

Well, enjoy the week, I am glad I can give you some chores to stay busy — and stay well all.

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Andrew May is a freelance writer and ornamental horticulturist who dreams of having Clallam and Jefferson counties nationally recognized as “Flower Peninsula USA.” Send him questions c/o Peninsula Daily News, P.O. Box 1330, Port Angeles, WA 98362, or email news@peninsuladailynews.com (subject line: Andrew May).