Springtime marks the beginning of another gardening season. You are out and about planting, pruning and making sure that every inch of your garden looks just perfect. You are just admiring your flower garden, when a cat runs right through the flowers and rips them to shreds. And cats are not the only animals that can ruin your garden. Many types of animals come out during the spring, so here are some ways in which you can defend yourself.

Mole repellents

All the tips here are going to be humane, telling you simply how to keep the animals away, rather than kill or harm them. The best way to get rid of moles is to simply plant the right things in your garden. Plants like daffodils, marigolds and alliums have contents that are natural mole repellents, and will surely keep those pesky moles out if planted around the perimeter of your yard.

Keeping your plants safe

Plant-eating animals are mostly small and not really easy to catch, so you have to protect your plants in a different way. A popular remedy is chopping up and boiling some hot peppers, then pouring the water into a spray bottle and spraying it over your plants. This is safe for your plants and will keep any bugs off. Still, this is not a good solution when it comes to edible plants – imagine putting fresh mint in your lemonade and tasting a hot pepper! For an alternative, you can use turmeric. Grate it and infuse it with some water, then repeat the spraying tactic on all of your plants!  If spider mites are your problem, a mixture of flour, water and buttermilk sprayed on your trees once a week will keep the mites at bay!

Recycling food scraps

Organic scraps are not only good for compost, but also great for many other things. You can bury banana peels two inches in the ground next to the plants that are attacked by ants or aphids to make sure your plants will be safe. And if your problem is more of the slimier kind, use crushed eggshells to form a fence against any snails and slugs that want to enter the forbidden territory.

How to repel bigger animals

If you have a problem with raccoons, remember that they do not go well with dogs. If you don’t have a dog of your own, fake it by placing some dog hair around your yard and kiss the raccoon problem goodbye.  For cats or squirrels, flour mustard and cayenne pepper is your solution. Place the mixture around the perimeter of your yard, or mix it with water to make a spray.  Another option that requires much less effort is using high tech defence. Having an ultrasonic pest repellent, like the one from Bird Control Australia, will make your life a lot easier. You won’t notice it, but potential intruders of the animal kind definitely will! It can keep away insects or any animals, depending on how you set it up.

You are now ready to continue with your daily gardening activities without worrying about any pests, big or small, ruining all your hard work. Try and be as humane as possible with all of the animals, because there are always ways to simply drive them away without exterminating them – and placing various poisons around your garden can also be dangerous if you have kids or pets, not to mention make all of your produce less enjoyable. After all, a few birds chirping around your garden might just be that special touch that is missing for a real fairytale garden!