March / April 2000

Community Gardens A Place for Roses Selecting Soil Mix News of Note Gardeners on the Go Native Texas Plants Herb - Basil Veggie - Cantaloupe Pests! Product Profile Books Home Cooking Great Garden Junk Resources Close to Home   Gleanings from the Editor Beck on Nature Notes from the Brazos (greyed articles available in printed version - subscribe now!)

Gleanings from the Editor      Everything I learn about gardening just reinforces my belief that Nature is perfectly capable of taking care of things, and the best we can do is try to undo the mistakes of the past. So many dedicated and sincere gardeners feel it is their responsibility to "control" pests, to treat black spot on the roses, to spray aphids, to dust for caterpillars. We somehow got the impression that to be good gardeners, we have to take action.    But it turns out, that most often the best we can do is let Nature take its course. There is simply no justification for pouring toxic chemicals onto the earth, into the water, and into the air. There is no justification for it. No matter how many aphids or grasshoppers or ants or fleas you have, the problem is not severe enough to justify poisoning our rare and irreplaceable natural resources.    Sometimes there is justification for using organic pest controls. Fire ants and fleas need to be routed because they cause pain and are nasty little critters, but they can be managed with nontoxic methods - molasses, orange oil, beneficial nematodes, diatomaceous earth, and other things.    Usually, though, even organic pest controls are unnecessary. And remember, organically derived poisons are just as poisonous as chemically derived poisons. They just aren't quite as long-lasting and harmful. A recent report found that even that old standby, homemade soap sprays, are toxic to plants. Studies at the Colorado State University have shown that plants were susceptible to damage due to detergent sprays, AND they didn't do much good in controlling the white flies they were being used to control. Usually, though, if you seek a balance of predator to pest insects in your garden, the pests will be taken care of without any intervention on your part at all.    I have a small cluster of tropical butterfly weed in my garden. It is bright orange and yellow and right after the flowers open in the late spring, the aphids arrive. They are obviously tropical-butterfly-weed aphids. They are the same bright yellow as the flowers and they cluster right under the flower buds. Lots of them. The first few years I got nervous. "Too many aphids," I thought. "Got to do something." But I didn't, and sure enough just as I got really tense the lady bugs arrived and ate most of the aphids. Not all of them, of course, since lady bugs are smart enough to know that they'll be wanting dinner tomorrow as well as today, but most of them. And at no time is the plant in danger. The flowers don't wilt. There is no loss of vigor or enthusiasm for bloom. The bugs and the plants have a symbiotic relationship that I need to keep my nose out of!    I do, of course, intervene in some cases. I squash tomato hornworms. I don't care if they do make nice moths. I want lots and lots of tomatoes. On the other hand, I let the caterpillars eat the dill after I get what I want, and I let them munch away on the passion flower. If they seem to be getting greedy, I smush a few and let the rest live. I enjoy playing God on a very small scale.    What I have learned, however, is that whenever I exercise that tendency, it is usually a mistake. There are just so many relationships going on out there that I cannot see or imagine that I can't begin to know how my interference effects them.    Every time we try something new, it leads to more problems. Obviously bringing in fire ants and Africanized bees were big mistakes. But even good bugs like lady beetles can be overdone. The lady bugs from the Far East that were imported several years ago by the USDA to control pests have a habit of coming in the house in the winter. Lots of people find that habit irritating, so a new problem is born.    The best we can do, I think, is just to feed the soil. Give the microscopic creatures that live there and the earthworms that work there all the encouragement we can in the form of compost, manure, mulch, and other natural amendments. We are learning more and more that healthy plants grow in healthy soil and healthy plants are resistant to disease and pests. The pests will always go for the plants under stress first. It is Nature's way of cleaning up the messes.    We want lovely lawns, beautiful gardens, flawless plants. Well, we can have almost all that (nothing is flawless) and still keep the world clean. Lovely lawns and beautiful gardens are the result of healthy soil, rich in organic matter and busy with tiny wildlife hard at work. This spring and summer, start a Back to Nature Campaign. We'll all benefit.