Need some assistance with my garden

[cb10]

Hello everyone. My name is Chris. I would like to kill all the insects in my raised bed garden. But not with a pesticide. What can I use to completely wipe out the garden and hopefully start fresh again for the spring time? Living in Florida is horrible for insects and bugs, and I feel as if there are bugs that are living in the soil and when I plant anything they decimate the garden. I have naturally occurring pumpkins that like to grow in the garden, and every time they start growing, they will die. One year I had over 20 pumpkins grow with no problems. I wasn't trying to grow them, they just grew from throwing halloween pumpkins into it. But something is killing the pumpkin vines from the inside out. I would appreciate any help. Thanks.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

It won't work, the nature of pests is they reproduce in large numbers and spread, you would have to sterilise the whole surrounding area, regularly.
My advise is first to identify your pests, then you can make the appropriate moves to make your area less attractive. For example, with slugs they like to shelter in particular dark, damp places. If you border your garden with boards you are putting a slug hotel around it. If you put down boards to walk at the points you cross the garden you can regularly turn them and get rid of new arrivals.
Nature is going to happen, trying to stop it is pretty destructive even though it doesn't work. Creating good conditions for what you want nudges it to favour you though. If it were England I might suggest a good clean up, some sharp edges, and a hedgehog box might improve a slug infestation, and keep composting well away, but you are not in the UK and it might be anything from pigeons to cut worms rather than slugs. What are the symptoms leading to death? Have you seen anything? If not have you tried taking a torch out at night? Vegetable eaters are slow on the whole, predators fast, If you don't see them they are usually either well disguised or nocturnal.

 

[Anniekay]

Hello everyone. My name is Chris. I would like to kill all the insects in my raised bed garden. But not with a pesticide. What can I use to completely wipe out the garden and hopefully start fresh again for the spring time? Living in Florida is horrible for insects and bugs, and I feel as if there are bugs that are living in the soil and when I plant anything they decimate the garden. I have naturally occurring pumpkins that like to grow in the garden, and every time they start growing, they will die. One year I had over 20 pumpkins grow with no problems. I wasn't trying to grow them, they just grew from throwing halloween pumpkins into it. But something is killing the pumpkin vines from the inside out. I would appreciate any help. Thanks.

You NEED bugs, the good ones kill the bad ones.

You have pumpkins growing in the same place every year. You can't do that. You need to rotate crops out to a different bed because bugs and diseases build up . They say: "Ough googie!! We can sit right here and raise families because we have our favorite food growing here every year !"

I live in S. Georgia 12 miles north of the Florida line. I have the same bugs you do. Rotate your crops, read up on what veg you are growing, what diseases and bugs eat them and grow varieties that are resistant to those. Resort to natural bug repellants when necessary but you need to have knowledge of what bug eats what first.

Basically, just study up on gardening more and hold yourself back from going on a murderous rampage killing all you see. Even if you were to "neutralize" ( as the Cops say) the threat from bugs, they'd just fly or crawl right back.

 

[RamblingChicken]

There's really no way to kill all the insects, at least without endangering yourself.

The best pumpkin crop of my gardening career happened when I covered the planting area with insect netting, tucked into the soil, and only removed the netting (because I eventually had to let pollinators have access) when I had big enthusiastically flowering seedlings. At that point, they had the strength to survive bug damage.

I also planted them in soil that hadn't had any squash family crops for years (so the bugs would have to travel there, and they couldn't due to the insect netting) and amended the soil fairly heavily with a manure-containing amendment.

I confess that this was in the Pacific Northwest, but insect netting might still be worth trying.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Random seeds from discarded pumpkins may not be the best either if you actually want to grow a crop of them. I have never grown pumpkins and plants vary, but only some seeds grow true to type, usually described as 'heirloom varieties'. A lot of plants are grown from seeds with two different parents that confer different qualities on the plant, described as F1 varieties, these can show up very differently in succeeding generations.
If you are worried about bugs in the soil regular hoeing can help. In the UK I get a European Robin sitting on a raised spot watching as I hoe and darting down every so often to pick up insects, but even without that the regular disturbance of the soil will do more than just stop weeds.

 

[GFTL]

Lay a tarp over your garden during warmer weather for a few weeks, the longer the better. That should cook anything in the first few inches of soil. Or borrow some chickens and fence them in your garden. They'll not only eat the bugs but will loosen and fertilize your soil.