Do you recognize the beneficial insects in your garden and distinguish them from the plant-loving varieties that harm your fruits, vegetables, and flowers? Tammi Hartung, author of The Wildlife-Friendly Vegetable Gardener, explains how the presence of good bugs can minimize the impact of the bad, and offers planting strategies for attracting the right species to your garden plot.
Today was a warm sunny day for
wintertime and I was walking through the garden just to have a look-about. I noticed
the web of a monkey face spider left from last summer still clinging to the
post of our back porch.
Beneficial insects and spiders are wonderful helpers in the garden landscape because they make small work of managing pest insects. It is well worth a bit of time to learn which insects are beneficial predators, like orb spiders, of which the monkey face spider is a member, and which are pest insects that can cause a great deal of damage to your vegetables, fruits, and flowers. Welcoming the beneficials into the garden can be really good, especially when those pesky aphids or flea beetles show up on your lettuces and broccoli.
Many folks know that lady beetles (aka ladybugs) eat pests like aphids, but there are other insects to welcome, like tachinid flies, which lay their eggs inside pest bugs like beetles and earwigs. Spined soldier bugs eat large pests like caterpillars, as do praying mantises, which are large enough themselves to take on a grasshopper. There are even tiny wasps, so small that you need a magnifying glass to see them well, but they are fierce to white flies because they sting the white fly larvae and parasitize it.
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Illustration by © Holly Ward Bimba |
Beneficial insects and spiders are wonderful helpers in the garden landscape because they make small work of managing pest insects. It is well worth a bit of time to learn which insects are beneficial predators, like orb spiders, of which the monkey face spider is a member, and which are pest insects that can cause a great deal of damage to your vegetables, fruits, and flowers. Welcoming the beneficials into the garden can be really good, especially when those pesky aphids or flea beetles show up on your lettuces and broccoli.
Many folks know that lady beetles (aka ladybugs) eat pests like aphids, but there are other insects to welcome, like tachinid flies, which lay their eggs inside pest bugs like beetles and earwigs. Spined soldier bugs eat large pests like caterpillars, as do praying mantises, which are large enough themselves to take on a grasshopper. There are even tiny wasps, so small that you need a magnifying glass to see them well, but they are fierce to white flies because they sting the white fly larvae and parasitize it.
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Illustration by © Holly Ward Bimba |
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Illustration by © Holly Ward Bimba |
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Illustration by © Holly Ward Bimba |
If you would like some additional ideas, I
hope you will check out my new book, The Wildlife-Friendly Vegetable Gardener, or visit my blog at
DesertCanyonFarm.wordpress.com. Enjoy!
With Green Thoughts,
Tammi Hartung
Illustrations by © Holly Ward Bimba, from The Wildlife-Friendly Vegetable Gardener.
A medical herbalist and certified organic grower, Tammi Hartung is the author of The Wildlife-Friendly Vegetable Gardener and Homegrown Herbs. She and her husband operate Desert Canyon Farm in Colorado, where they grow more than 175 medicinal, rare, and native plants. For more ideas, visit Tammi’s blog, Desert Canyon Farm Green Thoughts.
Read Tammi’s recent blog post on creating a wildlife-friendly hedgerow to protect your garden while attracting beneficial pollinators.
The Wildlife-Friendly Vegetable Gardener is available wherever books are sold. Pick up your copy today!
For a more in-depth look at this new title, visit Storey’s Fresh Picks page to download a free Wildlife-Friendly Vegetable Gardener Sampler, available through the month of February!
Illustrations by © Holly Ward Bimba, from The Wildlife-Friendly Vegetable Gardener.
A medical herbalist and certified organic grower, Tammi Hartung is the author of The Wildlife-Friendly Vegetable Gardener and Homegrown Herbs. She and her husband operate Desert Canyon Farm in Colorado, where they grow more than 175 medicinal, rare, and native plants. For more ideas, visit Tammi’s blog, Desert Canyon Farm Green Thoughts.
Read Tammi’s recent blog post on creating a wildlife-friendly hedgerow to protect your garden while attracting beneficial pollinators.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
The Wildlife-Friendly Vegetable Gardener is available wherever books are sold. Pick up your copy today!
For a more in-depth look at this new title, visit Storey’s Fresh Picks page to download a free Wildlife-Friendly Vegetable Gardener Sampler, available through the month of February!
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