Fight Pests Without Chemicals

If you build it, they will come. That was written about gardens and pests, I'm pretty sure.

If you've ever tried to grow some lettuce or tomatoes, you know that gardening can feel like a constant battle between you and wildlife. From aphids to squirrels to deer, there are hundreds of animals that are dying to get to your harvest before you do.

But gardening does not have to feel like a war. I'm going to share with you 10 ways that you can organically control pests in your garden — no chemical pesticides or sprays required.

In my opinion, organic gardening is the only way to go, but you have to be willing to coexist with nature. I'm not promising you a pest-free garden. But if you adopt my methods in the garden, you're going to have a productive, healthy, and beautiful garden with all the pests under control.

Let's explore 10 organic methods to control garden pests.

Practice Companion Planting

Plant a wider variety of plants in every single garden bed. One of the worst things you can do in the garden when it comes to pest prevention is plant an entire bed with nothing but cabbages or tomatoes.

Planting a mix of plants, or companion planting, is a chemical-free solution to keeping pests at bay and having an overall healthier, more balanced garden.

Some of the best plants to combine with your must-grow vegetables are alliums, fragrant herbs, and flowers. Alliums like garlic, chives, onions, and scallions actually repel pests with their strong smell. Fragrant herbs are great for masking the smell of your most enticing veggies (and some herbs can also repel pests).

And flowers, of course, attract all kinds of beneficial insects, including predatory bugs that will take care of pests for you. There are tons of nectar-rich flowers that attract all kinds of good bugs, but one study found sweet alyssum to be the most effective. Its beneficial effect (more ladybugs, fewer aphids) spread as far as 50 feet!

Companion planting is a wonderful way to reduce the number of pests that ever come into your garden in the first place and then keep them in check once they're there.

Learn more about the best herbs to plant to deter pests in your garden.

Use Physical Barriers

After gardening for a couple seasons, I began to imagine all the pests in nearby counties receiving little popup notifications whenever I planted something new. "Alert: Nicole has lettuce seedlings. Act fast!"

One way or another, pests are going to find their way to your garden. But you can use simple physical barriers to deny them access to your plants once they arrive.

Effective physical barriers include squirrel cages, deer fences, hardware cloth underneath your bed (to keep out animals that burrow), and even just some simple garden mesh. The best type of barrier for your space will depend on which pests you most want to keep out. Deer fences can keep out deer (as long as they're at least 8 feet tall), but cabbage moths can fly right through or over them.

My physical barrier of choice is agfabric, super fine mesh created for pest protection. The fabric lets in air, sunlight, and water, but it keeps pests ranging from aphids to caterpillars out. I've even found it to be effective against larger pests like squirrels and bunnies.

Agfabric works best when used preventatively (in other words, before the pests ever have access). The day you plant something new, install some garden mesh by stretching hoops across your beds, draping the fabric over the hoops, and securing the sides with landscaping pins.

If you're growing leafy greens and root crops, the mesh can stay in place at all times. You'll simply lift it up to tend or harvest, then put it right back. If you're growing fruiting plants, you'll have to uncover the bed during the day, when pollinators are active, and then put the mesh back in place at night, before the majority of pests come out.

Learn more about using garden covers to protect your veggies from pests.

Prune and Harvest Regularly

There's an old saying that the best form of pest control is the gardener's shadow. Stepping out to your garden every single day is the best way to notice the very first sign of pests so that you can stop a minor issue before it becomes a major problem.

My gardening philosophy is to not stress about pests. So I'm not very motivated to go outside every day to check for them. What does motivate me to go outside? Knowing that there's something yummy and nutritious I can cut for my next meal. While I'm grabbing some kale leaves for a healthy green smoothie or some lemon balm to dry for tea, I check over some plants for pests. It's easy enough to remove large pests like caterpillars by hand while you're harvesting.

If you notice leaves in your garden that are visibly damaged by pests, take a couple seconds to prune those leaves. The culprits are often still hanging out on the leaves, so now you're thinning their numbers. Regular pruning of the older, outer leaves of each plant is also great for overall garden health because those are often the leaves more vulnerable to pest pressure.

So get out there with your pruners every single day. You'll be able to cut a few things to bring into your kitchen, and you'll find that as you're harvesting your breakfast, you're also controlling the pests in your garden at the same time.

Invite Natural Predators (or Just Suggest Their Presence)

Every single creature that preys on your plants has something bigger that hunts and eats it, too. It's called the food chain.

So do a little research to identify your pest and then the natural predator that feeds on your pest in the wild. Then, you can either welcome that predator into your garden or pretend it's already there.

Welcoming predators might mean you plant lots of nectar-rich flowers to attract beneficial insects like ladybugs and lacewings if you have an aphid problem. Or maybe you add a bird fountain or feeder to draw in more birds to take care of slugs, snails, and caterpillars. When squirrels were a major problem in my Houston garden, we installed an owl box to invite those predatory birds to our yard. (And it worked... eventually!)

But here's the thing: you don't necessarily need an actual owl to scare away squirrels. You might install a plastic owl in your garden (and move it around regularly so the squirrels don't figure out it's fake). Or maybe you add a rubber snake or even a good ol' fashioned scarecrow.

Rabbits, squirrels, and deer are often scared of coyotes and wolves. You can suggest there's a coyote nearby by letting your neighbor's dog pee around your garden beds. (Some garden centers even sell coyote urine! Yes, really.)

There are lots of different ways to signal to pests that something much larger than them (and scarier than you) is lurking nearby. If you need some inspiration, I highly recommend watching the documentary Biggest Little Farm. It's a great depiction of the idea of turning to natural predators for organic pest control.

Rotate Your Crops

A lot of gardeners recommend rotating crops every year, but I say do this every single season. One of the biggest attractors of pests is old plants. As your plants near the end of their growing season, they're the most susceptible to pests. That's why it's ideal to get these plants out of the garden as soon as their production slows. Go ahead and plant for next season.

Rotating your plants seasonally confuses pests and keeps your garden super healthy.

Learn more about the Gardenary way of planting seasonally.

Create a Native Habitat Next to Your Vegetable Garden

My entire kitchen garden is surrounded by a 3-foot-wide native plant and pollinator space. This has several advantages. First, it creates a living barrier between my vegetables and the wildlife that hang out in my unfenced yard, which backs up to a wooded area. I've found this living border to be particularly effective at keeping out deer. Sure, they could walk through it or jump over it to get to my vegetables, but they'd rather hang out in a more open area so they can see predators coming.

Secondly, this space feeds smaller pests that would come into my garden if the in-ground space weren't there. Squirrels, bunnies, and other creatures, you see, don't necessarily need to eat the same vegetables as you, but they do need to eat. If you create a little habitat that's filled with berries and seeds and grasses — all kinds of things that wildlife are accustomed to eating already — you'll feed hungry visitors without sacrificing any of the plants you're growing to feed yourself.

Learn how to create your own native habitat.

Plant Trap Crops

The idea of trap cropping is to plant something that's super desirable to pests next to vegetables that you don't want to be touched. It may seem counterintuitive to attract pests to your garden, but hear me out. These trap crops are so attractive to pests that the pests will congregate on those plants... and leave the rest of your plants alone.

Some of my favorite trap crops are nasturtiums, mustard greens, and calendula. They're so effective that my calendula stems will be covered in aphids, while my tender lettuce plants right next door are completely pest-free. I'm willing to sacrifice a couple plants to keep the rest of my vegetable garden healthy.

Learn more about using trap crops.

Add Compost to Soil Throughout Growing Season

Every couple of months, add some fresh organic compost around the base of your plants. Think about what you need when you're sick. You might be tempted to take something strong like an antibiotic to knock it out, but in most cases, all your body really needs is rest, plenty of fluids, and some nutrient-rich foods to rejuvenate and take care of itself.

Plants are the same way. Give them some time, water, and compost (plant vitamins), and they'll have all the nutrients they need to fight off pests and disease on their own.

Use Pest Disruptors

There are tons of disruptors you can use in the garden, especially if you're willing to get creative. One of my favorites is copper tape around the base of my plants to deter snails and slugs. You can also just use eggshells or something else really hard and crunchy that their soft little bodies won't want to slither over.

Another effective disruptor is spreading gravel between your beds. Creepy crawlies don't like moving over gravel.

There are all kinds of ways you can make accessing your garden and getting close to your plants a little less comfortable for the pests that want to eat from them.

Use Better Timing

Timing in the garden is one of the biggest factors of success (or failure). Young plants are in their most vulnerable state shortly after being transplanted to your garden. That's why you want to avoid planting them if it's really hot outside or already at the height of pest season. Otherwise, you're just setting yourself up for disaster.

The key is to start as early in the season as possible. You want to get plants well established before pests arrive and before the weather heats up. This is why I love planning my garden way in advance, so I know what to put in the garden each and every week of the year. I made a 2025 Garden Planner to make planning super easy for gardeners of all levels.

That's How You Work with Nature to Control Pests

Remember, we're not talking about a pest-free garden here. That's an impossibility in organic gardening. But we are talking about a pest-controlled garden, one where we're working with nature instead of fighting against it.

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Sources

UCDAVIS, "Aphid Relief from Sweet Alyssum"

WSU, "Trap Cropping"