Smart Gardening Tips

Garden insects: know your friends & foes

Learn to identify and manage three basic types of garden pests

Why is it when 97% of the world’s insects are considered to be either beneficial or harmless, your garden attracts only the remaining 3%  that are considered PESTS? Although it may seem this way, there are both “good” and “bad” insects in your yard.

There is a constant battle going on to maintain a balance between these two groups. Toleration of some pests should be allowed as they provide a food source for the beneficial insects, allowing them to thrive in your yard and keep the pests in check. However, even in the best of gardens, uncontrolled outbreaks do occur. Preventing an infestation of bugs is an important part of gardening. By taking several precautions and putting forth a little bit of effort in the beginning, you will hopefully be rewarded with (almost) pest-free veggies and flowers.

Why are some bugs in your yard a good thing? A vast majority of the insects in your yard provide many services that improve your garden and lawn. Insects help pollinate the blossoms, which lead to more fruit, vegetables, flowers, and seeds. Insects improve the soil condition by crawling through the surface layer. Droppings and dead bugs increase the fertility of the soil. Earthworms and centipedes also help aerate the soil during their travels. Insects keep the numbers of bugs in line by capturing and eating other types of insects

Learn to identify and manage three basic types of garden pests:

Soil Insects: This type of pest feeds on the seed in the ground or small tender vegetation. They will also attack larger, established root crops (such as potatoes and carrots). Examples of soil insects include cutworms, white grubs, slugs, and mole crickets.

Sucking Insects: These insects have a mouth type to pierce the skin and to suck the sap from the plant. Sometimes the hole made by these critters is so small that it is unable to be seen without a magnifying glass. Severe injury or even death can occur once your plant has fallen victim to these sucking insects. A badly infested plant will become yellowed, wilted, stunted or deformed. Examples of sucking insects include aphids, leafhoppers, stinkbugs, spider mites, and squash bugs.

Chewing Insects: This group causes the greatest amount of damage to gardens and yards. They chew off all parts of the plant including leaves, fruits, vegetables and flowers. Chewing insects include Colorado potato beetles, tomato hornworm, cabbage looper, webworms, leaf miners and various caterpillars

There are even parasitic insects that live off “bad” bugs, eventually killing them! The braconid wasp larvae infests the tomato hornworm and uses it as a food source. Insects act as janitors for your yard. They search out any dead plants or animals and feast on them, which provides a cleaning service for you. Most important of all is the insect population control created through fighting among themselves.

Surveillance of your garden

Plant your garden in a location so you can constantly see it. If an insect attack occurs you can take care of it early.

Choose resistant plants

Your local nursery or Extension Office can help you select some plants that are less tempting to the pests in your area. Other information sources are seed catalogs and plant reference books at the library.

Proper conditions

Plowing and cultivating you garden brings soil insects to the surface. Birds and other predators can then feast on them as a snack.

Fertilize

Follow an organic fertilizing program and provide the proper amount of water. Strong and healthy plants will be less likely to come under attack by pests.

Practice “clean culture”

Remove debris, including old or dead fruit and veggies, before planting the next season’s crops. By either burning, burying or removing the debris, you will rid the area of insect infestation or disease. Keep surrounding weeds under control.

Encourage beneficial bugs

Do not use an indiscriminate insecticide. Try to use target-specific sprays.

Rotate crops

By moving your plants around yearly, any bugs specific to certain crops will be forced to relocate. Garden pests can be placed into three separate groups: soil insects, sucking insects, and chewing insects.

Be sure to check out Spray-N-Grow’s organic and environmentally friendly insecticides

Bonide Bon-Neem Insecticidal Soap Concentrate

Bonide Rotenone-Pyrethrins Concentrate

Sluggo Snail and Slug Killer



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It’s time we started showing some respect and gratitude for the underappreciated earthworm and his boy back-up band, fungi & bacteria. They are the true humble heroes and workhorses who do the necessary dirty work to keep your soil full of nutrients.

Yet, in our home gardens, we’re constantly killing earthworms with synthetic fertilizers. We’re baking them to a crisp with unnatural, high-levels of nitrogen and salts. Worms don’t want to see any neon colored manmade crystals.

Remember, earthworms are garden superstars, but they don’t insist on the center-stage spotlight! They thrive in moisture and dark. All they require is some good old fungi, bacteria, a banana peel or two and yesterday’s sports page to create nature’s best fertilizer in their castings, for free!

5 Dirt Diva Reasons Why Gardeners Should Love Earthworms (Eisenia foetida)

1. Worms help air and water enter and circulate through soil. As they crawl underground they loosen the soil so plant roots have plenty of oxygen and room to spread.

2. They break down organic matter, such as leaves, into nutrients plants can use. Earthworms transport minerals from the subsoil to the topsoil, and they keep the soil’s pH level and organic matter content just right.

3. Worms secrete slime, which contains nitrogen, one of the most important elements for healthy plants. Nitrogen gives the dark green color to plants and increases the growth of leaves and stems.

4. They eat and dump, and leave behind those precious worm castings or pure fertilizer. Their castings are rich in trace minerals, plant nutrients and plant growth enhancers. In fact, a recent study by the Rodale Institute showed that worm castings have growth benefits that exceed even those of plain compost.

5. Castings have a NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorous, potassium) ratio of 3.2-1.1-1.5. These nutrients are readily available to the plants and will never ever burn your plants.

These five dirty diva reasons are exactly why you should build a worm bin for your garden.

How to Create a Worm Bin So Your Flowers Stay Beautiful All Year Long:

1. Get yourself an opaque 10-14 gallon plastic storage bin at least 12 to 16 inches deep, with a tight fitting lid. Drill a dozen pencil sized holes in the top and sides for ventilation.

2. Tear your newspapers into 1inch strips lengthwise for bedding or use your shredded documents that you neglected to show the IRS. No color or glossy paper. Wet the bedding with a garden hose and wring it out like a moist sponge.

3. Buy some red wigglers! You can find it at Suburbanhabitat.com, or check with your local plant nursery. Start with 1 pound. (Eight adult red worms can produce 1500 babies in 6 months!)

4. Fill your bin with the wet newspaper and 2 big handfuls of garden soil. Mix it up and gently add the worms in, covering them in the paper. Add a handful of food scraps under the newspaper. Cover the bin and keep it sheltered from heat or cold. You could keep the bin under your sink or in the garage shed.

5. Feed them fruit, vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, tea bags, eggshells, leaves, grass clippings, yard waste. No meat or dairy. Chop up food items into smaller pieces.

6. Check on your earthworms once a week to make sure the bedding is still damp. Don’t feed them more food till they finish everything on their plate! They will eventually eat the bedding so add more as needed.

7. In 3 months you will have rich crumbly soil-like material. These are worm castings! To harvest, move all of the bedding and castings to one side of the bin. Put fresh bedding and food on the empty side of the bin. Give the worms a few days to move on over to the new side. You can then harvest the old side of the bin. Dig the castings into garden beds or sprinkle them on top of your soil.

For those organic gardeners and divas who don’t have the time, space or guts to build and maintain your own worm bin, products like TerraCycle Worm Poop can become your new best friend. It’s all natural, eco-friendly plant food made from organic garbage.

Fertilize your yard with worm poop each season and I guarantee your flowers will stay healthy all year long. Try it! It’s fun.



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