Suzy's Gardening Tips

Most people hate bugs. Bugs are creepy. They have too many legs. What’s more, they can eat your garden to the ground. However, to enjoy a successful gardening experience, you need to learn to love certain bugs in your garden. Here’s why.

When you choose to grow organic plants, you also chose to grow plants without man-made pesticides. Doing so leaves your garden vulnerable to creepy, crawly predators ready to devour your plants. These insects can be prolific and will take over your garden quickly if you‘re not cautious. It’s not personal. This is what God intended them to do!

Of course, there are natural pesticides as well. Their success rate is okay, but they rarely stop the plant-eating bugs. Consequently, your best defense is to manifest more ‘good’ bugs. Encouraging insects that eat each other will help control their population. Sometimes, the more bugs the better.

Not all bugs should be welcome in your garden. You need to familiarize yourself with the insect inhabitants of your garden. The better you know them, the greater your chance of controlling them.

An organic gardening book can help you recognize the presence of the different types of bugs in your garden. Entomology research can help too. (Entomology is the study of bugs.) How and what you plant in your garden determines which bugs will take up residence in your garden.

Let’s talk of some specific bugs. Both ladybug and lacewing larvae love to eat aphids. Aphids can suck the life out of your plants. Parasitoid wasps eat aphids as well as grubs and caterpillars. Hover flies eat caterpillars and leafhoppers. The ground beetle will feed on any pests that are at ground level. Whether full grown adults or still in the larvae stage, there are plenty of bugs you want in your garden.

Spiders and praying mantis, for example, are the great hunters. They will eat just about any insect, including their own species. Both of these creatures are typically shy around humans. Aren’t you happy about that?

You may not like bugs, but some bugs can be your friend. Organic gardeners chose not to use chemical pesticides to kill the life-sucking pests in the garden. With a bit of simple research and planning, you can manifest very own natural bug eating police force.