resting the garden a year

[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"

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[flowerbug]

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.

we have several birdbaths around that the bugs can use, but also several ditches which run all season. there's no shortage of water here. almost every night we have dewfall and at times also fogs. it's a low spot where cool air can settle out. i gave up on growing grapes on my grape vine because i didn't have a black rot resistant vine. each year i'd get this great set of grapes to happen and then they'd mostly rot a few weeks later. no i wasn't going to keep spraying for them so i took the vine out and haven't replaced it yet. not sure i will now. i may use the trellis for beans eventually (once i get more fence up to keep the deer/rabbits/etc at bay...).

the most common bug for me to see in the birdbaths are the honey bees. we have a bee farmer/herder that sets a lot of hives back along the property line.