I knew about planting aliums around delicate things, and also hot peppers. I have to wonder about the ones in this article whether they're tested or folklore. Did it say? A lot of herbalism is like Language of the Flowers, traditional and poetic but not scientific.

It does make your yummy plants harder for insects to find if you mix them in with not yummy ones. Works same way with deer. But that doesn't mean it will be impossible for the varmits to find them, just less likely.

It's all folk lore....but a lot of folk lore is based on long years of observation....like..you eat datura....you die! You eat larkspur...AKA belladonna you'r heart will beat out of your chest

I wish it were as easy as all that. Unfortunately, I have found that gophers will eat alliums underground and grasshoppers will eat it all above ground.

Read "the One Straw Revolution". Plant many varieties. Enjoy what is given any year as all growing seasons will be different. Enjoy the flowers, especially the edible ones. Keep a balance of seed variety. Pay attention and don't sweat the failures. After thirty years i have never been disappointed with harvest by following acceptance. Most often many surprises.

Thanks, Diane, I'm going to at least try a couple of these, since I don't like all the chemical sprays and various insecticide/fungicide/pesticide/othercide. I remember Grandma always planted marigolds around the perimeter of the garden, she said it would keep rabbits out. I don't remember if it worked, because Mother sprinkled the cabbage leaves with red pepper to keep the rabbits from eating them. I guess I should have tried both and I wouldn't have had to buy cabbage from the local Amish farms to make sauerkraut, since rabbits ate all my cabbage, including the dozen head of red cabbage I planted for Peppi. (sigh)

I always plant a row of flowers in the garden to attract and keep my pollinators. Last year it was cosmos, sunflowers, zinnia and asters. I should probably pay closer attention to what I plant, I just plant something that blooms, LOL, but pollinators might like others better.

Like sleevendog, I have years where I get a lot of beans but no potatoes. Some years I get buckets of cucumbers but no turnips. I celebrate the things that did well and figure maybe I'll get the others next year. It doesn't stop me from at least trying to keep the pests out of the garden, though.

I have found that the only thing that really repels deer is about 9,000 volts running through a couple of strands of electric fence. The first year I smeared a little peanut butter on the wire, when they sniffed they got one heckuva poke. After that, they stayed away. Instead they went and ate my 3 newly planted pear tree seedlings. (sigh)

I hate 'em. I'm learning to feel the same way about the geese that ate the blueberries as fast as they ripened.

Annie

"Drop a castor bean (Ricinus communis) into mole holes, it poisons the moles. "

No, it doesn't. It's a myth. Moles are insectivores, which means they eat soil insects and worms. They never, ever eat plant material. And they are extremely suspicious of strange things in their tunnels. Nor would a castor bean poison the soil insects. It might, however, poison a vole if it ate it.

I know it's "folk lore" but makes interesting reading-- and was probably proven methods given the time frame & conditions. And there may be some science behind it. Gram & Dad always reminded me that anyone doing any "gardening" had to understand they were feeding all the "critters" as well as themselves.

A few methods I've found work half way decent :

Grandkids young enough to enjoy helping u hand pick the Japanese beetles & dropping them in soapy water.

A great MaMa cat that hunts

A good 22-- and decent aim-- tried everything else to rid the yard of a peaky woodchuck--even humane traps one summer ( putting up with DH laughing at me the whole time when each morning I had to open that D---- trap to let one of the neighborhood cats out !

Diane, I had to pay the kids a penny per bug to get them to pick potato beetles, and I give them a quarter just to spot a tomato worm, those I have to pick off myself, none of the kids will touch 'em, LOL. Now the price has gone up to 2 cents per bug! You're kind with soapy water, I have the kids take those cans full of potato beetles and dump them over the fence into the chicken run. Same with the big fat tomato worms. The chickens love them and the kids think it's gross. (grin)

Annie

I didn't mean that I thought it was bad if it was folklore. It was a very interesting read! It's fun imagining the gardens by the items listed. Perhaps I should say that I'm not much of a gardener and don't have much knowledge to apply. I don't always express myself well. Since there wasn't any introduction, I just wanted to know.

Laceyvail, I bet the castor bean thing started with vole and morphed!

Yes, it probably did. Many people have both and don't know it and blame the moles for the plant damage. It's ALWAYS the voles. Ask me how I know :).

I don't have too many pests in my yard (mainly squirrels) - I guess it's too urban, and I am one of the few in the neighborhood who has planted much in the back yard. Most of the neighbors have pretty front yards and deserts in the back, to save water, or because they are not interested. I've noticed this by climbing on ladders.

I have also noticed that mosquitoes do not like rosemary, or at least it seems that they do not. I have several somewhat poisonous plants in my back yard - the cherimoya leaves are poisonous to insects (and animals), as well as the peeling of the fruit, but once the fruit is peeled, it is fine. I have lizards in my back yard, but they know to avoid the poisonous plants. I've never seen a mole or a vole. I did see deer in people's yards in Paso Robles, but they do not make it into my neighborhood.

In Venice I planted cholla and other cactus to keep dogs and children out of my front yard. I do not have that issue in my current neighborhood. In Mexico people sometimes plant walls of cactus instead of building walls.