Farming for change. A lot of good information
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.This is going to require a lot of viewing. Thanks for the post. I've gold starred it and am giving it a #MyFav.
FrayedBear
Level 9
Apr 2, 2018
0
I utilize most of my growing season concentrating on Monarch Butterflies and other declining pollinators. I say NO to pesticides! Gardens are ecosystems as well and should be treated as such.
Too many people and complexes strive for that sterile, formal look when they should be incorporating host plants for butterflies in out of the way places, and using native plants, bushes and trees that benefit not only insects, but birds and other wildlife as well. Berries, fuits, flowers and edible leaves all are inviting to a garden's other half, Native fauna.
Use of pesticides, herbicides and fungicides is detrimental. They affect a garden like drugs, killing off good with bad. Only 1% of all bugs are detrimental. The rest are beneficial, neutral or just plain fascinating. Any healthy garden is apt to be good and buggy. And that's not as bad as it sounds.
Leafhead
Level 8
Apr 1, 2018
2
Yep, couldn't agree more, sadly I am on sand so it has been a lot of work, but after 5 years the soil is alive with worms and isopods as well as various tubers, and it goes up from there. I do have occasionally grasshoppers but the chooks and tree snakes get them. Aphids are a problem when I don't have garlic around my citrus trees.
@Rugglesby
Chooks?
Try planting members of the Dill family, esp Fennell and let it bloom. This will attract beneficial insects which feed their young on aphids.
Large aphid loads are themselves a beacon for good bugs. Every butterfly garden goes through the buggy stage. But just wait. No matter how bad things seem, the "Calvary" will show up sooner or later.
Good bugs include:
Lady birds Beetles, Lacewings, Braconids and Hover flies, to name a few. Hover Flies are gaga over both nectar and aphids.
@Leafhead yes, we have chooks, I will try the fennel. I have just planted garlic for the next season so the aphids will reduce now. It is those damn black ants that move the aphids around. We harvest our garlic in December and don't plant until April, so it is only end of February when we notice the aphids, and yes, they get eaten a lot.
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