I am indebted to so many gardeners who have shared their collective wisdom and experience with me over the years. They are family members, neighbors, master gardeners, garden writers, bloggers and gardeners on social media. Sharing this knowledge motivated me to begin my blog, eleven years ago and now over 1400 posts later. I’m offering occasional posts of garden hacks I use. Some I’ve learned from others. Some I’ve developed to solve a problem.

See the nibbling on the lettuce in the thumbnail photo? This spring many of the outermost leaves of my lettuce plants were damaged. Here’s a garden hack I just learned from David Newsom at Wild Yards Project in Los Angeles.

Who knew that sow bugs find cooking oil with a dash of soy sauce for flavor irresistible? This was the catch after one night.

Just bury a tuna can level with the soil, fill with oil and add a splash of soy sauce.

Night-time marauders ravage my strawberries, surfacing from below the pine needle mulch for a snack.

Pincher bugs also dined on the oil and soy sauce concoction. Give it a try and leave a comment to let me know what you trap. Or share another organic control you use for garden pests.