As spring unfolds the world starts to wake up and mature. More and more creatures are moving about, the plants are spreading their branches and flowering, and everyone is hungry. In an effort to dissuade some of those hungry creatures from eating my garden, i have undertaken some companion planting. That, however, only has so much affect as I just learned when i found three aphid colonies among my healthy plants.
I am firmly committed to organic gardening and will never add any dangerous chemicals to those things i plan to eat or interact with. That being said, a silent rage builds within me when i see something i have worked hard for go to someone or something else (I'm talking in garden terms here but this goes for people, too). So no, i'm not above squeezing an aphid between my fingers or roughly ripping out 'weeds'. But I am willing to try to share my garden a little better and have more compassion toward other beings who are just trying to survive.
Here are some of the garden visitors I encountered today:
This spider has set a web in the pea thicket and has already caught a yummy wasp, which is nearly twice its size. Spiders are generally considered to be 'good' garden inhabitants because they eat insects. This one, however, chose to eat someone that could have potentially benefited my plants by predating on other insects. The spider: predator of predators.
Usually we think of flies as 'dirty' because they tend to be in smelly places where they lay their eggs. And we gardeners tend to elevate bees to a level of importance usually reserved for our family members. However, bees are not the only pollinators! The fly pictured above is providing a service for the chive blossoms. I also saw a honey bee and an ichneumon wasp buzzing around the chives. Wasps are sometimes pollinators themselves by virtue of the fact that they are predatory insects looking for larvae (aka caterpillars) in which to lay their eggs. In their search for larvae, they travel from plant to plant and spread pollen.
Ever seen spit on your plants? That's from a spittle bug, either a larvae or an adult. The bug uses its biting mouth parts to hold on to a plant and create a foam around itself while it develops from a larvae into an adult. There are lots of different spittle bug varieties and they really don't hurt the plant, although both the larval and adult form feed on plant juices. Does that fit them into the 'good' or 'bad' category? I don't know. I extracted the above nearly-adult larvae from its spittle home on the French tarragon to photograph it. Don't worry, i put it back after the photo shoot.
So next time you see someone in your tomatoes that you didn't invite to the party, think twice before you judge them. Good or bad are relative terms, especially in nature. Everything is connected! Spend more time in your garden and you can catch an infestation before it becomes a real infestation. That way you only have to kill 12 aphids instead of 1,012. I'm just saying. You'll also get to witness those beneficial interactions which make the whole system work.
I pledge not that I will not kill 'pests' right away but that I will consider their plight calmly before I decide how to proceed. After all, I can't blame them for liking my garden - i like it here, too.
Enjoy the next couple of weeks, I'm off to North Carolina to do battle with and be appreciative of some southern creatures.
Grow on,
Tyler
No comments:
Post a Comment