If we could garden without any interference from the pests which attack plants, then indeed gardening would a much simpler matter.

Earthworms open the earthBto air and water. Birds feed upon insects. Some insects feed on other and harmful insects. And toads are wonders in the number of insects they can consume at one meal. (Which is why there IS a market for toad houses for the garden!)

Each gardener should try to make her or his garden into a place attractive to birds and toads. A good birdhouse, grain sprinkled about in early spring, water, are invitations for birds to stay a while in your garden. During a hot summer day a toad likes to rest in the shade. By night he is ready to go forth to eat. How can one “fix up” for toads? Well, one thing to do is to prepare a retreat, quiet, dark and damp. A few stones of some size underneath the shade of a shrub with perhaps a carpeting of damp leaves, would appear very fine to a toad as would a chipped and overturned clay pot.

There are two general classes of insects known by the way they do their work. One kind gnaws at the plant really taking pieces of it into its system. This kind of insect has a mouth fitted to do this work. Grasshoppers and caterpillars are of this sort. The other kind sucks the juices from a plant. This, in some ways, is the worst sort. All the scale insects fasten themselves on plants, and suck out the life of the plants. Where DO squash bugs come from?

There are pests which attack many kinds of plants (aka the dreaded squash or pumpkin bug.) Discouraging, is it not? Beans have pests of their own; so have potatoes and cabbages. In fact, the vegetable garden has many inhabitants. The tomato hornworm. Yucky looking thing. Best hand picked off. (Got chickens? They love these buggers!)

I’ve heard ducks make a great garden defender as they go for bugs, where chickens tend to scratch up the plants.

grasshopper_on_rose