Mention of specific companies, organizations, or authorities in this book does not imply endorsement by the author or publisher, nor does mention of specific companies, organizations, or authorities imply that they endorse this book, its author, or the publisher.

Internet addresses and phone numbers given in this book were accurate at the time it went to press.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any other information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher.

Photographs pages 1, 41, 182, 325, 333, 363, 390, 500, 611, 632 istockphoto; 206, 234, 315, 405, 520, 577 Rodale Images; 101, 174, 380 Robert Cardillo; 280 Mitch Mandel/Rodale Images

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file with the publisher.

We inspire health, healing, happiness, and love in the world.
Starting with you.

To Robert Rodale, whose ideas and spirit live on in all of our gardens, and to the organic gardeners and farmers who share his vision and continue his work.

J–K

Q–R

U–V

W–Z

Introduction

Well-worn copies of The Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening, edited by J. I. Rodale, are part of gardening book collections in libraries, homes, and garden sheds across North America. In the decades since this remarkable book was published in 1959, organic gardening has changed from a fringe movement to mainstream. True to the vision of J. I. and Robert Rodale, organic gardening is now widely recognized as the safest, most economical, and most practical method for home gardeners.

In 1989, Rodale’s garden book editors launched a project to rejuvenate the encyclopedia, with the goal of creating a resource that would reflect gardeners’ wishes to use organic methods and to learn about breakthroughs in organic pest control. This new encyclopedia would include not only raising food crops but also maintaining perennials, annuals, trees, shrubs, and lawns without chemicals.

To achieve that vision, ideas and input were sought from many gardeners, writers, and editors. Robert Rodale also lent his unique insights, one of his last contributions to a Rodale gardening book before his death. Then a broad range of garden experts and writers was enlisted to draft entries in their areas of interest. A team of editors carefully blended and refined their work to create Rodale’s All-New Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening.

In 2007, Rodale realized that it was time to update this vital reference book yet again, and engaged three members of the 1992 edition’s editorial team—Barbara W. Ellis, Ellen Phillips, and Fern Marshall Bradley. These editors (dedicated organic gardeners all) reread and discussed the entire book, painstakingly choosing outdated entries to remove, adding new entries, and updating plant and organic pest control information throughout. And in light of the vital issues faced by gardeners in an era of climate change and declining natural resources, they added an all-new section on gardening sustainably.

Now a decade later, this essential gardening guide has been updated once more. Information included in the previous edition’s “green gardening” section is now expanded into new entries on topics such as Green Roofs, Invasive Plants, Pollinators, Rain Barrels, and Water Conservation, reflecting issues and interests that have become mainstream, along with organic practices and growing concern for the environment. Plant names have been updated to include the most current determinations made by botanists while also retaining the names most widely used by growers and retail nurseries. Since the previous editions, some popular landscape plants have fallen out of favor as their aggressive habits or other undesirable features have come to light. Many of these remain in this encyclopedia, because they continue to be widely available, but with caveats about their use and suggestions for less troublesome alternatives.

Trends in garden design change as prevailing tastes shift from naturalistic to formal or from modern to traditional. Plants go in and out of fashion, as well. New cultivars are introduced and—if they are good—become widely grown. Historians and fans of beloved heirlooms continue to perpetuate and preserve the plants grown decades, or even centuries, ago. New products for controlling pests or extending the season or cultivating the soil become available. Yet much of the fundamental practice of gardening remains as it was in 1959 when J. I. Rodale published the first edition of this encyclopedia. Plants still need light and water and nutrients. Gardeners still place seeds into the soil and anticipate the moment when those seeds will reward their efforts with beautiful flowers, luscious fruits, crisp vegetables, or welcoming shade. From compost-making to watering, the basics of organic gardening are evergreen and worth incorporating in your own garden practices. The goal with this revised edition, as for all previous editions, was a comprehensive, easy-to-use book that provides practical information on the entire realm of organic gardening.

How to Use This Book

This book is organized to reflect the way you garden. We’ve grouped information into useful, complete entries that will provide all you need to know about a particular topic, rather than spreading out facts in thousands of short entries. For example, the instructions you need to plan, plant, and care for a vegetable garden are in one entry: Vegetable Gardening. The Compost entry tel ls you everything you need to know to make and use compost (and compost tea). Entries on Annuals, Perennials, and Trees describe how to get started, how to use these plants in your landscape, and how to keep them flourishing. Each of these entries includes lists of specific plants for particular environmental conditions and uses.

Individual food crops and ornamentals entries provide additional specialized information. For example, the Tomato entry offers lots of tips for growing the biggest, best, earliest tomatoes. Dozens of special entries—including Cut Flower Gardening, Edible Landscaping, Habitat Gardening, Rock Gardens, Weather and Weather Lore, and Wildlife Gardening—will stimulate your gardening imagination and curiosity.

How to Find It

Scan the table of contents to get a general picture of the encyclopedia’s range and focus. Under each letter is a list of the entries that begin with that letter. It’s fun and informative to flip to interesting entries that catch your eye. We’ve included illustrations as well as lots of tips and unusual topics that we hope will liven up your browsing sessions.

If you want information on a particular subject, such as how to control Japanese beetles, turn to the back pages to a vital, if often unappreciated part of a book: the index. Flip to the Japanese beetle listing in the index, find the subentry for “control of,” and you’ll be referred directly to The Top 10 Garden Insect Pests, where you’ll find a description of the beetles and the damage they cause and a list of the best organic control methods. You’ll find the index is an important tool in getting the most from your encyclopedia.

There are other special features to help you find the information you need. Throughout the book, you’ll see cross-references to other entries that contain information related to the subject you’re reading about. You can also flip to the Quick Reference Guide for a mini-index of major gardening topics, such as Landscaping or Perennials. For each topic, you’ll find a list of all entries in the book that include information on that topic.

The “Key Words” heading in entries is your cue to look for essential gardening terms that will aid in your understanding. More terms are included in the book’s glossary.

Plant Names

All plants have a botanical name and a common name. Scientists create botanical names, usually derived from Latin words, to help categorize plants. Common names are the ones we use in casual speech or writing about plants.

This book lists food plants—fruits, herbs, nuts, and vegetables—by common name, so you can look up the Apple, Peach, Pepper, or Tomato entries and find just what you’re looking for. However, ornamental plant entries are organized by botanical names. This eliminates possible confusion when plants have multiple common names. For example, if you turn to the Heuchera entry, you’ll learn that these beautiful spring- and summer-blooming perennials have several common names, including heuchera, coralbells, and alum-root. For more information on how plants are named, see the Botanical Nomenclature entry.

If you’re not familiar with the botanical names of ornamentals, look in the index for the common name of the plant that interests you. The index listing will refer you to the correct botanical name. We’ve also included cross-reference entries with common names of highly popular ornamentals, such as maples and marigolds, right in the body of the encyclopedia. For example, if you turn to “Maple”, you’ll find the instructions to “see Acer”; Acer is the botanical name for maples.

The Heart of the Matter

Of the 314 entries in this book, 28 form the core of the encyclopedia. Together, they are a handbook of organic gardening basics. When you read an entry about a specific plant, you may need to refer to core entries, where we’ve compiled lots of basic information that applies to specific plants. Core entries fall into four categories:

Gardening techniques: Garden Design, Landscaping, Planting, Propagation, Pruning and Training, Seed Starting and Seed Saving

Organic garden management: Animal Pests, Beneficial Insects, Compost, Cover Crops, Fertilizers, Mulch, Pests, Plant Diseases and Disorders, Pollinators, Soil, Water Conservation, Watering, Weeds

Food crops: Brambles, Edible Landscaping, Fruit Trees, Herbs, Nut Trees, Vegetable Gardening

Ornamental plants: Annuals, Biennials, Bulbs, Groundcovers, Perennials, Shrubs, Trees

You may find it valuable to read most of these entries soon after getting this book. If you’re an experienced gardener, it will be an interesting refresher course. If you’re a beginner, the core entries are a great first step to a lifelong enjoyment of your organic garden.

ACER

Description: Acer floridanum, Florida maple, southern sugar maple, is a small (to 25 feet in the landscape) tree with a single-trunked, rounded habit. This native of the southeastern United States deserves to be used more widely there for its reliable fall color and heat tolerance. Zones 7–9.

A. buergerianum, trident maple, can have single or multiple trunks supporting an oval or rounded crown. It normally attains a height of 20 to 25 feet in the landscape but can grow twice as tall. Like many maples, it has three-lobed leaves borne in pairs; the lobes all point in the same direction, away from the base of the leaf. Red or orange fall color may develop in some years. The bark of trident maple is gray and brown, sometimes with orange tones, becoming scaly with age. Zones 6–7.

A. ginnala, Amur maple, grows 15 to 20 feet tall in the landscape. While most maples’ flowers are neither fragrant nor showy, Amur maple bears highly fragrant blooms in early spring. The three-lobed leaves have an extended center lobe and may turn scarlet in fall. An introduction from Asia, Amur maple is listed as weedy or invasive in some states but its use is not restricted. Zones 3–7.

A. japonicum, full-moon maple, is another small (20 to 30 feet) Asian maple with considerable landscape value. Full-moon maple’s leaves are palmately compound and nearly circular in outline. Flowers are purplish or red. Fall color is crimson and/or yellow in most years and appears more reliably in northern areas. Zones 5–8.

A. negundo, box elder, is a northern American native often disdained for its weediness and soft wood, yet it grows in poor soil and difficult sites where many other trees can’t. It has multiple stems, a rounded crown, and a mature height of 50 to 70 feet. Yellow-green flowers appear in early spring before its compound leaves unfold; fall color is a soft yellow. Abundant winged fruits can be messy and lead to numerous seedlings. Zones 2–9.

A. palmatum, Japanese maple, normally grows 15 to 20 feet tall; its branches may spread as wide as the tree is tall, creating a layered appearance unlike the more upright form of other maples. The many cultivars offer countless options of twig and leaf color, gnarled or mounded habits, plus lacy threadleaf forms. Protect from direct wind in the North and direct sun in the South. Zones 5–8.

A. pensylvanicum is known as moosewood or striped maple. The green chalk-striped bark of this 15- to 20-foot northeastern woodland native has considerable landscape interest. Look for yellow fall color. Striped maple performs best in cool climates under partial shade. Zones 3–6.

A. platanoides, Norway maple, is a widely planted street tree with a round, dense crown and tolerance for difficult urban conditions, such as air pollution and poor soil. It grows 40 to 50 feet tall and holds its broadly palmate leaves late into fall. Norway maples cast deep shade, making it difficult to grow turf-grass beneath them. This maple’s abundant, shade-tolerant seedlings allow it to colonize native woodlands, earning it classification as invasive in parts of the Northeast and central United States. Zones 4–6.

A. rubrum, red or swamp maple, is a North American native that reaches heights of 40 to 60 feet. Pyramidal in youth, red maple sprawls and arches with age. The smooth gray trunk and branches are distinctive, particularly when trees are grouped. Red flowers open before the leaves and are a softly colorful sign of spring. Fall color is bright red and/or orange. Hardiness and heat tolerance vary within the species; choose a cultivar suited to your location. Zones 3–8.

A. saccharinum, silver maple, is touted for its fast growth, but it’s also weedy and weak wooded and may be prone to breakage. Growing 50 to 70 feet high, silver maple is upright, with spreading branches and a rounded crown; its leaves are deeply lobed and silvery beneath. The pale pink flowers appear before the leaves in spring. Look for yellows or reds in fall foliage and a gray, furrowed trunk. Zones 3–8.

A. saccharum, sugar, rock, or hard maple, gets its names from the maple sugar derived from its rising spring sap and from the durability of its wood. It has a single trunk and a rounded crown, gray-black furrowed bark, and a mature height of 50 to 70 feet. Sugar maple’s fall color is legendary; in good years the leaves turn gold, orange, and scarlet. Zones 3–7.

How to grow: With the exception of large maples, like red, sugar, silver, and Norway, used as shade trees, most maples benefit from light shade. Generous mulch and a shaded root zone are also advantages. Most maples require acid soils that are evenly moist but well drained, although red maple and box elder occur naturally on swampy sites. Grown in their preferred conditions, maples are relatively problem-free trees. Scorched leaf margins may occur on trees suffering from drought or reflected heat from pavement or cars. Red and silver maples growing in high-pH soil may develop yellowed foliage caused by manganese deficiency. Box elders attract box elder bugs, which like to overwinter indoors. In fall, groups of these black-and-orange insects move into buildings and become household pests.

Landscape uses: Japanese, full-moon, and Amur maples make fine focal points in small-scale settings; larger areas might call for trident maple or sugar maple. Red, striped, and sugar maples are good choices for naturalizing; Norway maple, although tough, is overplanted. Use box elders to supply shade on difficult sites.

ACHILLEA

Yarrow. Summer- and sometimes fall-blooming perennials; herbs; dried flowers.

Description: Yarrow bears profuse 2- to 6-inch flattopped heads of tiny flowers in shades of white, yellow, gold, pink, salmon, rust-orange, purple, and red on 2- to 5-foot stems. Soft, finely cut, aromatic foliage is green or gray.

Achillea ‘Moonshine’ bears 3-inch soft yellow clusters on 1- to 2-foot stems atop striking, gray-green, dense leaves. Zones 3–8.

A. ‘Coronation Gold’ holds its stately 3- to 4-inch golden blooms on stems 3 feet or taller over silvery green, loosely ferny foliage. Zones 3–8.

A. millefolium, common yarrow, produces small white flower clusters rising 1 to 2 feet above mats of ferny green leaves and is the parent of many colorful cultivars and hybrids. Zones 3–8.

How to grow: Plant or divide yarrows in spring or fall. Divide every 2 to 3 years to keep plants vigorous and less likely to lean over when in bloom. Plant in full sun in average, well-drained soil. Generally tough and adaptable, yarrows tolerate poor soil and drought well. In very humid regions, yarrows with gray or silvery leaves may succumb to leaf diseases within a year or two, so grow green-leaved yarrows in those areas. You may want to stake the taller cultivars, especially if you grow them in fertile garden soil.

Landscape uses: The flat flower heads of yarrows provide a pleasing contrast to mounded or upright, spiky plants in a border. Try them alone in a hot, dry area. Fresh or dried, yarrows are wonderful as cut flowers. For long-lasting dried flowers, cut the heads before they shed pollen and hang them upside down in a warm, well-ventilated, sunless room to dry.

AGERATUM

Description: Ageratums bear clouds of small, fuzzy, blue, pink, or white flowers on 1-foot mounds of rather large, rough, dark green leaves. Dwarf varieties grow to only 6 inches.

How to grow: Start from seed 8 weeks before the last spring frost or buy transplants. After all danger of frost is past, set out transplants in full sun or partial shade and average soil. Space dwarf cultivars about 6 inches apart; taller ones need 10 inches.

Landscape uses: Ageratums look best massed in beds and borders or as an edging for taller plants. The blue cultivars combine beautifully with yellow marigolds.

AJUGA

Description: Ajuga reptans, ajuga or common bugleweed, forms attractive dark green rosettes 2 to 3 inches wide and spreads by runners 3 to 10 inches long. Cultivars may have bronze, purple, or variegated foliage. Sturdy blue, white, or pink flower spikes bloom in May and June, reaching 4 to 6 inches tall. Zones 4–8.

How to grow: In spring, set young plants 6 to 12 inches apart in moist, well-drained soil in full sun or partial shade. Ajugas will tolerate heavy shade but not heat or drought. Fertilize lightly—overfeeding encourages diseases.

Landscape uses: Use this groundcover to provide carpets of spring color. It is attractive planted under trees or along borders. Don’t plant ajuga next to your lawn unless you use a sturdy edging; ajuga readily spreads into and overtakes turfgrass.

ALCEA

Description: Alcea rosea, hollyhock, is an old-fashioned favorite that bears its 3- to 5-inch rounded blooms in two forms: saucerlike singles with a central, knobby yellow column, or double puffs strongly reminiscent of tissue-paper flowers. Colors include shades of white, pink, red (sometimes so dark it appears almost black), and yellow. The blooms decorate much of the 2- to 9-foot, upright, leafy stems that rise above large masses of rounded or scalloped, rough leaves. Zones 3–8.

How to grow: Set out larger, nursery-grown plants in spring for summer bloom or smaller ones in fall for bloom next year. You can also start them from seed. Sow in midwinter for possible bloom the same year, or start them after the hottest part of summer for planting out in fall. Most hollyhocks self-sow readily if you let a few flowers mature and produce seeds. They prefer full sun to light shade in average to rich, well-drained, moist soil. Water during dry spells, and stake the taller cultivars.

Hose off spider mites and handpick Japanese beetles, which eat both flowers and leaves. Aptly named rust disease shows up as reddish spots on the leaves and stems and can quickly disfigure or destroy a planting. Removing infected leaves and all dead leaves may help, or grow plants in out-of-the-way spots where the damage is less noticeable.

Landscape uses: Hollyhocks look their best in informal areas such as cottage gardens, along fences and foundations of farm buildings, and on the edges of fields. Try a small group at the rear of a border.

ALL-AMERICA SELECTIONS

Since 1932, the nonprofit organization All-America Selections (AAS) has tested and evaluated vegetables and flowers to select superior cultivars that will perform well in home gardens. AAS tests new cultivars each year at more than 30 flower and 20 vegetable test gardens at universities, botanical gardens, and other horticultural facilities throughout the United States and Canada.

Each year’s new entries are grown next to past winners and standard cultivars. Those that earn the judges’ approval display the All-America Selections Winner symbol on seed packets, plant labels, and in garden catalogs, alerting home gardeners to plants that are practically guaranteed to perform well in their gardens.

The AAS judges look for flowers with attractive, long-lasting blossoms. They also consider uniformity, fragrance, and resistance to disease, insects, and weather stress. Vegetables are evaluated for yield, flavor, texture, pest resistance, space efficiency, nutritional value, and novelty effect.

Gold Medal winners are flowers and vegetables that represent a breeding breakthrough, such as ‘Sugar Snap’ pea, the first edible-podded shell pea, and ‘Profusion White’ zinnia, a long-blooming, mildew-resistant cultivar that doesn’t need dead-heading to continue blooming. A second tier of awards recognizes outstanding flowers and vegetables as AAS Flower, Bedding Plant, or Vegetable Award Winners.

In addition to the AAS test gardens, there are more than 200 AAS display gardens in North America. These gardens showcase past, present, and future AAS winners in a landscape setting. Visiting a display garden near you is a great way to see these plants in a garden setting and to get ideas for using them in your garden and landscape.

The American Rose Society (ARS) publishes the Handbook for Selecting Roses, updated every year, with a listing of rose cultivars rated for quality. The ARS awards the American Garden Rose Selections designation to rose introductions recognized for their desirable qualities.

The All-American Daylily Selections Council (AADSC) is a nonprofit organization that evaluates daylily cultivars at test sites across North America. Since 1985, its experts have evaluated nearly 6,000 cultivars. Winners of the All-American Daylilies designation have performed excellently across at least five hardiness zones.

For more information on AAS, ARS, or AADSC, call or write to the organizations or visit their Web sites (see Resources).

ALLIUM

Description: Don’t let the “onion” in “ornamental onion” keep you from growing these showy cousins of garlic and leeks. Their beautiful flowers more than make up for the oniony aroma they give off when bruised or cut. All bear spherical or nearly round heads of loosely to densely packed starry flowers on wiry to thick, stiffly upright stems. The grassy or straplike leaves are of little interest. In fact, the foliage on most ornamental onions starts dying back before, during, or soon after bloom and can detract from the display.

A. aflatunense, Persian onion, bears 4-inch-wide, tightly packed, lilac globes on 2½- to 3-foot stems in mid-spring. Zones 4–8.

A. caeruleum, blue globe onion, azure-flowered garlic, produces 2-inch, medium blue balls on stems that rise up to 2½ feet above grassy leaves in late spring; it multiplies quickly. Zones 2–7.

A. christophii, star of Persia, bears spidery lilac flowers in spectacular globes to 1 foot wide on 1- to 2-foot stiff stems in late spring to early summer. Dried seed heads are also showy. Zones 4–8.

A. giganteum, giant onion, lifts its 4- to 6-inch crowded spheres of bright lilac flowers 3 to 4 feet or more above large, rather broad and flat leaves in late spring. Zones 4–8.

A. moly, lily leek or golden garlic, bears its sunny yellow blooms in 2- to 3-inch clusters on slightly curving, 10-inch stems in late spring. Zones 3–9.

A. oreophilum, pink lily leek, bears loose, 2-inch clusters of rose-red blooms on 6- to 8-inch stems in late spring. Zones 4–9.

A. sphaerocephalon, drumstick chives, roundheaded leek, blooms in midsummer with tiny, purple-red flowers in 2-inch oval heads on stems up to 2 feet tall above grassy foliage. Zones 4–9.

How to grow: Alliums are easy to grow in full sun or very light shade. Site them in average, well-drained soil that you can allow to become completely dry when the alliums are dormant in summer. Plant them with their tops at a depth roughly three times their width. Don’t try to grow alliums in heavy clay soil. Give Persian onions, stars of Persia, and giant onions a few inches of loose winter mulch.

Landscape uses: Plant alliums in borders, cottage gardens, and among rocks. Grow them with low- or open-growing annuals and perennials, which will disguise the unsightly leaves as they die down. Combine star of Persia with tall bearded irises and old-fashioned roses for a spectacular show. Small masses of giant onion blooming among green clouds of asparagus foliage make an unforgettable and unusual picture. All alliums last a long time as cut flowers; many also dry well in silica gel. Harvest the seed heads for arrangements before they become completely dry and brown.

Chives in the Flower Bed

Two alliums normally confined to the herb garden make great choices for borders. Clumps of common chives (Allium schoenoprasum) add grasslike foliage and bright cotton balls of light violet flowers in Zones 3–9. Try garlic chives (A. tuberosum) in a sunny or partly shady border in Zones 4–8. Lovely 2- to 3-inch heads of white, rose-scented flowers bloom on 2-foot stems above handsome, dark green, narrow, strappy leaves in dense clumps. Cut flowerstalks before garlic chives produce seed or the plants will self-sow and become weedy.

AMARYLLIS

ANEMONE

Anemone, windflower, pasqueflower. Spring-blooming and late-summer- to fall-blooming tubers and perennials.

Description: Anemone blanda, Grecian windflower, produces cheerful daisylike flowers to 2 inches wide in shades of white, pink, red-violet, and blue on 3- to 6-inch plants with ferny leaves. Once established, they multiply to form low-spreading carpets. They die back completely several weeks after blooming stops in spring. Zones 4–8.

A. × hybrida, Japanese anemone, also sold as A. hupehensis var. japonica, blooms in late summer and fall with 2- to 3-inch single, semidouble, or double blooms in white or shades of pink. The flowers appear on leafless stems 2 to 5 feet above mounded, cut leaves. Zones 4 (with protection) and 5–8.

A. tomentosa ‘Robustissima’ is another Japanese anemone, also sold as A. vitifolia, grapeleaf anemone. Plants bear silvery pink flowers 2 feet above the foliage and are hardier than hybrids. Zones 3–8.

How to grow: In mid-fall, before planting the barklike, dead-looking tubers of Grecian wind-flowers, soak them in warm water overnight to plump them up. Place the tubers on their sides about 2 inches deep and no more than 4 inches apart. Choose a site where the foliage of other plants will hide the yellowing leaves in summer. Grecian windflowers thrive in sun to part shade with average, well-drained soil containing some organic matter. Water in spring if the weather is dry. Mulch with compost or leaf mold to hold moisture in the soil and encourage self-sown seedlings to grow and produce colonies.

Divide or plant the creeping underground stems of Japanese anemones in spring. Give them partial shade, or full sun if the soil is quite moist. They thrive in deep, fertile, moist but well-drained soils enriched with plenty of organic matter. Poorly drained sites, which promote rot, can be fatal in winter. Water during drought. Keep plants out of strong wind, or be prepared to stake them. Cover with several inches of oak leaves or other light mulch for the first winter after planting in northern zones.

Landscape uses: Grow Grecian windflowers in masses in the light shade of tall trees or with other woodland plants and bulbs. Also try them toward the front of borders (sow sweet alyssum on top of them to hide the dying leaves) or among rocks or paving stones. Japanese anemones are glorious in borders and woodland plantings, where they will form colonies of long-stemmed flowers to cut.

ANIMAL PESTS

Four-footed creatures can cause much more damage than insect pests in many suburban and rural gardens. They may ruin your garden or landscape overnight, eating anything from apples to zinnias. Most animal pests feed at night, making it tricky to figure out who the culprits are.

Identify the pests. Ask your neighbors what kinds of wildlife are common garden marauders in your neighborhood. Sit quietly looking out a window toward your garden at dawn or dusk, when animals tend to become active. Check for droppings or tracks around your garden, and consult a wildlife guide to identify them.

Assess the damage. If it’s only cosmetic, you may decide your plants can tolerate it. If the damage threatens harvest or plant health, control is necessary. If damage to ornamental plants is limited to one plant type, consider removing it and replacing it with plants that are less appealing to animal pests.

Take action. A combination of several tactics to deter animal pests often gives the best results. For a vegetable or kitchen garden, a sturdy fence may be the only effective choice. Barriers, like nylon netting, can work well to protect individual plants. Homemade or commercial repellents give inconsistent results, so experiment with them to find what works in your gardens. Scare tactics such as scarecrows and models of predator animals may frighten pest animals and birds. In extreme cases, you may choose to kill the pests by flooding their underground tunnels or by trapping or shooting. It’s up to the individual to decide if the damage is severe enough to warrant these methods. If you decide to shoot or trap any animals, check first with your state Department of Environmental Resources to learn about regulations and required permits.

Deer

Deer have a taste for a wide range of garden and landscape plants. A few deer are a gentle nuisance; in areas with high deer pressure, they can be the worst garden pest you’ll ever encounter. Deer are nocturnal but may be active at any time. Where deer have grown accustomed to humans, you may spot them browsing in your garden even in the middle of the afternoon.

Barriers: If deer are damaging a few select trees or shrubs, enclose individual plants with cages made from galvanized hardware cloth, placed so tender branch tips and buds are shielded from browsing.

Fences: Fencing is the most reliable way to keep deer out of a large garden or an entire home landscape, but it can be quite costly, especially if you have it professionally installed. Consider these effective options for deer fencing.

Conventional wire-mesh fences should be 8 feet high for best protection. A second, inner fence of about 3 feet high and placed 3 to 4 feet from the outer fence will increase effectiveness because double obstacles confuse deer and impede their ability to jump the taller barrier.

Slanted fences constructed with electrified wire are an excellent deer barrier. Installing this type of fence is a job for a professional.

Deer are not likely to jump a high, solid fence, such as one made of stone or wood.

Polypropylene (plastic) mesh deer fencing is costly but easier to install on your own than an electric fence.

For small gardens, up to 40 by 60 feet, a low enclosure made of snow fencing or woven-wire fencing may be effective, because deer tend to avoid jumping into a confined space.

Repellents: For minor deer-damage problems, repellents may give temporary protection until the deer grow accustomed to the repellent and resume browsing. When food is scarce, deer may even learn to use the odor of repellents to guide them to choice food sources. Periodically changing from one type of repellent to another can increase your chances for success. You can make your own or buy a commercial repellent. Keep in mind that scent-based repellents may keep you out of the garden, too!

Hang bars of highly fragrant soap from strings in trees and shrubs. Or nail each bar to a 4-foot stake and drive the stakes at 15-foot intervals along the perimeter of the area.

Try using human hair. Ask your hairdresser to save hair for you to collect each week. Put a handful of hair in a net or mesh bag (you can use squares of cheesecloth to make bags) and hang bags 3 feet above the ground and 3 feet apart. Pet hair collected from your dog’s or cat’s brush also may be used this way.

Farmers and foresters repel deer by spraying trees or crops with an egg-water mixture. Mix 5 eggs with 5 quarts of water for enough solution to treat ¼ acre. Spray plants thoroughly. You may need to repeat the application after a rain.

Commercial repellents are available at garden centers. Read labels to see if a product contains only organic ingredients and to find out if it is safe for use on food crops. You may have to experiment to find one that offers good control. Watch for new products coming on the market, too.

Experiment with homemade repellents by mixing bloodmeal, bonemeal, hot sauce, or garlic oil with water. There are many recipes for concocting repellents, and results are variable. Taste repellents, such as hot sauce, require that deer take at least one bite of your plants. Saturate rags or string with odor-repellent mixtures, and place them around areas that need protection.

Gardeners who have canine companions that regularly patrol their yards report that they have few deer problems, even in the absence of a fence or repellents. It seems that the scent of the dogs is enough to discourage deer from spending much time in the area.

“Deer-proof” plants: If fencing your yard is beyond your budget, and repellents aren’t doing the trick, try renovating your landscape with plants that deer don’t like to eat. Over time, remove plants that routinely suffer deer damage. Replace them with shrubs, vines, and perennials with a reputation for being deer-proof. What deer will and won’t eat tends to vary widely from one region to the next and depending on how hungry the deer are. Ask your Cooperative Extension Service for a list of plants that gardeners have found to be locally deer-proof, and consult the Resources for books on the topic.

Ground Squirrels and Chipmunks

Ground squirrels and chipmunks are burrowing rodents that eat seeds, nuts, fruits, roots, bulbs, and other foods. They are similar, and both are closely related to squirrels. They tunnel in soil and uproot newly planted bulbs, plants, and seeds. Ground squirrel burrows run horizontally; chipmunk burrows run almost vertically.

Traps: Bait live traps with peanut butter, oats, or nut meats. Check traps daily.

Habitat modification: Ground squirrels and chipmunks prefer to scout for enemies from the protection of their burrow entrance. A tall ground-cover that blocks the view at ground level may deter their attacks on your garden.

Other methods: Place screen or hardware cloth over plants, or lay wire poultry netting atop the soil over bulbs and seeds. Try spraying repellents on newly planted beds of bulbs and seeds.

Mice and Voles

Mice and voles look alike and cause similar damage, but they are only distantly related. Both are active year-round. They eat almost any green vegetation, including tubers and bulbs, and tend to cause the most harm in winter and early spring when natural foods are scarce. When unable to find other foods, mice and voles will eat the bark and roots of fruit trees. They can do severe damage to young apple trees.

Barriers: Sink cylinders of hardware cloth, heavy plastic, or sheet metal several inches into the soil around the bases of trees. You may be able to protect bulbs and vegetable beds by mixing a product containing slate particles into the soil, or plant bulbs within a loose “basket” of poultry netting.

Traps and baits: Some orchardists place snap traps baited with peanut butter, nut meats, or rolled oats along mouse runways to catch and kill them. A bait of vitamin D is available. It causes a calcium imbalance in the animals, and they will die several days after eating the bait.

Other methods: Repellents such as those described for deer may control damage. You can also modify habitat to discourage mice and voles by removing vegetative cover around tree and shrub trunks. Keep mulch a few inches away from tree trunks to avoid providing hiding places where mice and voles can nest and feed.

Moles

In some ways, moles are a gardener’s allies. They aerate soil and eat insects, including beetle grubs and other plant pests. However, they also eat earthworms. Their tunnels may uproot desirable plants in the garden and create tripping hazards in your lawn. Mice and other small animals may use the tunnels and eat the plants that moles have left behind.

Traps: Harpoon traps placed along main runs will kill the moles as they travel through their tunnels.

Barriers: To prevent moles from invading an area, dig a trench about 6 inches wide and 2 feet deep. Fill it with stones, coarse gravel, or dry, compacted material such as crushed shells. Cover the barrier material with a thin layer of soil.

Habitat modification: In lawns, insects such as soil-dwelling Japanese beetle grubs may be the moles’ main food source. If you’re patient, you can solve your mole (and your grub) problem by applying milky disease spores, a biological control agent that infects grubs, to your lawn. This is more effective in the South than in the North, because the disease may not overwinter well in cold conditions. However, if you have healthy organic soil, the moles may stick around to feed on earthworms once the grubs are gone.

Other methods: You can flood mole tunnels and kill the moles with a shovel as they come to the surface to escape the water. Repellents such as those used to control deer may be effective. Unfortunately, repellents often merely divert the moles to an area that is unprotected by repellents.

Pocket Gophers

These thick-bodied rodents tunnel through soil, eating bulbs, tubers, roots, seeds, and woody plants. Fan- or crescent-shaped mounds of soil at tunnel entrances are signs of pocket gopher activity.

Fences and barriers: Exclude gophers from your yard with an underground fence. Bury a strip of ¼- to ½-inch mesh hardware cloth so that it extends 2 feet below and at least 2 feet above the soil surface around your garden or around individual trees.

Flooding: You can kill pocket gophers as you would moles, by flooding them out of their tunnels. Bear in mind that this method may require a substantial amount of water—running a hose for 15 minutes or longer—to drive the rodents into the open.

Rabbits

Rabbits can damage vegetables, flowers, and trees at any time of year in any setting. They also eat spring tulip shoots, tree bark, and buds and stems of woody plants.

Fences: The best way to keep rabbits out of a garden is to erect a chicken-wire fence. Be sure the mesh is 1 inch or smaller so that young rabbits can’t get through. You’ll find instructions for constructing a chicken-wire fence in the Fencing entry.

Barriers: Erect cylinders made of ¼-inch hardware cloth around young trees or valuable plants. The cages should be 1½ to 2 feet high, or higher if you live in an area with deep snowfall, and should be sunk 2 to 3 inches below the soil surface. Leave a gap of 1 to 2 inches between the mesh barrier and the trunk it protects to keep rabbits from nibbling the bark through holes in the mesh. Commercial tree guards are also available.

Other methods: Repellents such as those used for deer may be effective. Commercial inflatable snakes and owl replicas may discourage rabbits from frequenting your garden.

Raccoons

Raccoons prefer a meal of fresh crayfish but will settle for a nighttime feast in your sweet corn patch. Signs that they have dined include broken stalks, shredded husks, scattered kernels, and gnawed cob ends—raccoons tend to be destructive in their quest for tasty treats and enjoy (and destroy) fresh tomatoes, grapes, and other garden delicacies besides sweet corn.

Fences and habitat modification: A fence made of electrified netting attached to fiberglass posts will keep out raccoons, rabbits, and woodchucks. Or if you have a conventional fence, add a single strand of electric wire or polytape around the outside to prevent raccoons from climbing the fence. Try lighting the garden at night or planting squash among the corn—the vines may provide some deterrence to raccoons moving among the corn. Motion-activated lights or water sprayers may also discourage raccoons and other nocturnal garden raiders.

Barriers: Protect small plantings of sweet corn by wrapping ears at top and bottom with strong tape. Loop the tape around the tip, then around the stalk, then around the base of each ear. This prevents raccoons from pulling the ears off the plants. Or try covering each ear with a paper bag secured with a rubber band.

Contents

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J–K

L

M

N

O

P

Q–R

S

T

U–V

W–Z

Introduction

How to Use This Book

How to Find It

Plant Names

The Heart of the Matter

A

ACER

ACHILLEA

AGERATUM

AJUGA

ALCEA

ALL-AMERICA SELECTIONS

ALLIUM

Chives in the Flower Bed

AMARYLLIS

ANEMONE

ANIMAL PESTS

Deer

Ground Squirrels and Chipmunks

Mice and Voles

Moles

Pocket Gophers

Rabbits

Raccoons

Look, Don’t Touch