It’s summertime, the birds are chirping, flowers blossoming…until golf-ball size hail clobbers your roses, baby bunnies bounce into your vegetable garden and those aphids – ooh those tiny, sap-sucking aphids – munch on every single nasturtium, rose, mum and geranium. It’s time for war!

Sorry to disappoint here, but there’s nothing much to do about Mother Nature and her hailstorms. Fortunately though, we do have a few all-natural methods for repelling both big and small garden pests:

Let’s tackle the cute and cuddly, err highly destructive, critters first.

• A product such as Plantskydd non-toxic, organic, animal repellent; an organic, non-toxic, biodegradable product perfectly safe to sprinkle around fruit trees and vegetable gardens and it happens to keep voles, squirrels, nutria, rabbits and opossum at bay (and it won’t hurt them either).

But, sometimes it’s the smallest pests causing the most frustration.

Most gardeners regularly inspect leaves for discoloration or damage, and pinch-off any diseased leaves. This helps a lot, as does providing plenty of water and keeping weeds from growing into a pest-safe haven.

• Aromatic herbs – yarrow, citronella, mint, fennel, catnip, basil, and lemongrass – are wonderful additions to gardens and horribly disgusting plants to our foes, the aphids.

Speaking of aphids, they have another enemy – the ladybug. One ladybug can, and will, eat over 5,000 of those sap-suckers during a ladybug-lifespan (or 50 buggers in one day!)

So why not enlist an army of ladybugs to protect your plants by adding to your garden (Ace carries pre-fed ladybugs!)?

• Ladybugs come in a jar that you can store in your refrigerator. After you’ve watered, you can release a few at a time, preferably during the morning or evening. Repeat twice a week and let your ladybug artillery go to battle.

Then sit back, watch the flowers grow, and know your garden is well defended.