Guest Blog: How to control weeds and pests in your garden through the seasons

Whether the sun is shining or there's snow on the ground, weeds and pests behave differently from season to season. This can make it even trickier to know what to do to ensure your garden is in tip-top condition all year round. To help make it a little easier, PestSmart ambassador and BBC Radio 2 gardening expert Terry Walton shares his tips and tricks through the seasons for managing weeds and pests no matter the time of year.

Preparing for Autumn/Winter

Weeds

When the weather begins to cool, most weeds tend to stop growing which is one positive to take away from the colder weather. This is an excellent time to pull or dig out any weeds left in the garden from the summer months. It is best to do this a day after rain, with softer soil and roots making it easier for the weed to be removed. If it hasn't been raining, you could use a little bit of water from your water butt and pour it onto the weed. It’s important to remove the roots of weed and not just cut off the top because if you leave the roots, they will more than likely resprout. By removing all the weeds, your garden should remain relatively weed-free until spring.

Pests

Like many other animals, pests hibernate during the winter months, leaving your plants and produce a little safer. However, before slugs and snails hibernate, they lay eggs ready to hatch in the spring. If you want to reduce the pests in your garden for the next year, this is a good time to go on a slug and snail hunt. To find them, look under stones, planters, pots, woods and shrubs. Unprotected eggs are unlikely to survive the winter, so you don't need to worry about removing the eggs, just the snails and slugs. Move them away from your plants or outside of your garden altogether.

Preparing for Spring/Summer

Weeds

As the weather warms, the weeds begin to show their heads. Nobody wants their garden to be overrun by weeds, so it is important to keep on top of them in spring. Otherwise, they will run wild until they die off again in the Autumn. To help stop weeds from growing in the first place, run a hoe over your soil on a dry day so that the seedlings will dry out on the surface of the bed rather than re-rooting into moist soil.

Pests

After hibernating during the winter, any pests or eggs left in your garden will begin to appear in spring. An easy and eco-friendly way to get rid of slugs is by putting out nematodes. Nematodes are microscopic worms naturally present in soil in low quantities. They act like a parasite on other pests, like slugs. The best approach to using them is to buy a trusted proprietary brand and follow the instructions to add them to your soil. You’d usually apply nematodes at least a week before planting anything. Unfortunately, nematodes can’t be used to treat snails which won’t go into the soil, so hunt these out in damp areas under old pots and trays.

About the author

Terry Walton is from the Rhondda Valleys has been gardening since the age of four. He is best known for giving gardening tips to listeners on BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio Wales. Terry is PestSmart’s ambassador.