resting the garden a year

[Chic Rustler]

this year the bugs are BAD. idk if it the weather or what. maybe bugs laid eggs in the garden last year and they all woke up to a feast?

its got me thinking about not planting next year and just letting the chickens run the garden all year. do you guys think that would help? i know the chickens would love it

 

[cabinguy]

A copy of a companion planting chart, for my bush beans when they are just sprouting and eggplant I use diatomaceous earth.

 

[cabinguy]

Try companion planting garlic, basil and marigolds deter bugs to name a few. Make sure to rotate your plants. I use three different beds and plant two each year and rest one. Good Luck

 

[LadyBugg]

When I plant a garden, I companion plant as well. I didn't plant a full garden this year as I am having issues with the squash borer. So, thought, I would bypass a full garden. Also, I am trying to figure out easier ways to go about gardening as my body is aging and not liking all the "work"

 

[Britesea]

Something I didn't know before is that the predator insects, like ladybugs will eat the pollen from flowers if there aren't enough of their prey available. So if you want to keep them around all the time, make sure there are plenty of pollen sources. But they need to be small flowers so it's easy for them to get at the pollen. Yarrow is particularly popular. Make sure there is plenty of water available too. I use an old chicken waterer filled with pebbles so that they don't drown. I've seen bees and wasps, ladybugs and mantises at mine, as well as yellow jackets which I'm not thrilled with, although they are a beneficial insect.

 

[milkmansdaughter]

Here are a few more ideas:
https://learn.eartheasy.com/guides/natural-garden-pest-control/

Is there a way you can order some praying mantises or ladybugs online? Or a garder snake?

And maybe someone else would know, but now that your garden is well established, maybe allowing the chickens in for an hour or two now would help? They'd have plenty of shade now, and wouldn't be as visible to hawks.I think they're less likely to go after the full grown plants than they would the seeds, and maybe they'd do a good job of cleaning up some bugs? I'd rather lose a few plants than the whole garden. I'm sure others would have more input. You could put them in for a while, and have you and the kids just keep them away from actual food. Of course, you'd have to have a way to catch them afterwards.
@Beekissed uses lime in her yard every spring and fall to cut down on bugs.
I'd definitely let the chickens in after harvest, but you'd then have to watch for hawks.

 

[milkmansdaughter]

@sumi when we moved in here, there were already roses. Guess what I found growing next to them? Garlic! I didn't know they were there, and probably mowed them all down last year.

Welcome to the group, @cabinguy! Great suggestions!

 

[sumi]

Letting the chickens loose in the garden would help some with the bugs, but the problem is, there are bugs everywhere and they'll just move in again next year… What I'd do if they are really big problem, is get some natural or organic pesticide or insect repellent and use that on and around the plants to keep them at bay. I've used Neem the one time I managed to get my hands on some, and it was fantastic. We diluted and sprayed it over the plants that were the most popular with the bugs and they ran.

 

[sumi]

Try companion planting garlic, basil and marigolds deter bugs to name a few. Make sure to rotate your plants. I use three different beds and plant two each year and rest one. Good Luck

Welcome to SufficientSelf @cabinguy! That is a good idea, companion planting. I was thinking yesterday of a tip an old lady gave me once, to place a clove of garlic under rose bushes when I plant them. She said the garlic will deter bugs.

 

[flowerbug]

birds, frogs, toads, snakes, lizards, lady bugs, mantises, ducks, guinea hens, quail, chickens, raccoons, possums, skunks, ...

usually when i'm faced with a bug problem i look at which bug it is, learn about the life cycle of that bug and then figure out what i need to do to reduce that population by interfering at the right times or if i need to add predators that like that bug in particular.

as of yet, the bug problems we have are squash bugs, i grow a few types of squash that resist them enough and i rotate plant to try to keep the population of bugs in check. borers we have too but the plants seem to do ok enough so far that i'm not doing anything specific for controlling these. japanese beetles i pick off by hand and drown them once they're dead (after a few days) i put them someplace so they can be worm food.

i also have other bugs around that do some damage to crops, but nothing bad enough i feel like i have to do anything about it. in the past 15 years i've pulled out one plant that had some aphids on it that the lady bugs weren't doing anything about - buried the plant and that was that. it wasn't the right plant anyways...

one thing that helps a lot too is to leave a perennial garden every here or there so that during the off season and through the late fall/winter and early spring that the beneficial bugs have a place to hide so that once the other gardens get planted there are good bugs around to help balance out the bad bugs. these gardens are also habitat for flowers, bees, frogs, etc.