Wonderful weeds, Beautiful Bugs

Bugs and other critters eating up your fruits and veggies? No need to apply expensive (and harmful – even if it’s “organic”) pesticides. Let nature help! Whether you have a small backyard garden, a community garden plot, or a full-scale farm, working with nature always leads to healthier crops than does working against nature.

One of the most important (and, for many people, most difficult) way to do this is to let the weeds grow in your beds along side your crops. Just make sure to care for all the weeds as you would your own crops (making sure they've enough water, soil, sunlight, etc.) and you can't go too wrong. Rarely you might be faced with the challenge of thinning: you might have to thin your crops and the weeds if they begin overcrowding the space and suffering the effects of lack of sunlight or lack of food. If you do have to thin, we recommend aiming for the following ratios of plants: no more than 80% of one type (your favorite crop), 16% of another type (16% = 20% x 80%...notice the ratio is expanded beyond one iteration), 3.7% of another type (3.7% = 4% x 80%), and so on. Or, if you don't want to survey the plants in your plot for exactness, aim for 80% your crops (total of whatever variety or varieties) and 20% weeds (of whatever is growing there naturally).

Be sure to retain those weeds and crops that service the local flora and fauna especially well. For example, we never destroy a sunflower under cultivation by our fellow farmers, the ants: we can share the same garden and they're going to protect our crops if we protect theirs. We preserved an alfalfa bush from harvest because it was providing necessary shade shelter to various insects. We also preserve crops that are necessary to the local ecology. Keystone creatures are very important and should not be killed.

Only rarely have we considered a particular species of weed “bad,” and even then we tried to leave as many as we could tolerate. “Bad” weeds are those that were hazardous to our own health; thinning them was done only to the extent when we could work carefully among them without being injured. For example, we had a lot of thistles in our bean and lettuce patch. We only cut back (and rarely pulled out fully) a few thistles closest to those crops we wanted to harvest, so that we could do so without being cut by the thistle’s spiny leaves. Even those vicious plants were not all bad, though: they also kept other critters from eating our crops, because they both hid the crops and deterred deer and other critters since they did not want to be cut either! (And most thistles are tasty, too).

Do not kill the animal life in your garden (and yes, insects are animals too!). We once had a small problem with leafhoppers, but within two weeks (we were patient) their prosperity attracted predators and their populations were controlled, our lettuce recovered and we earned a full profit on it. If a particular insect or other critter is not improving, consider your entire garden: is there enough habitat for predators? (this is usually the key to most predation problems). Predators like to have a nearby place to sleep safely, as well as good plants to hide behind/under/on when hunting, and also often another plant that is good for raising baby predators. While you don’t need to know every predator’s preferences, with enough variety in plants in your garden (especially by letting the native plants – weeds – live, since these are the plants most predators prefer) it will usually be sufficient to provide all of these basis needs.

The more biodiversity in your field, the better your yield!

We plant sometimes 25 things per bed at a time to increase biodiversity. Usually, we plant only 2-3 things per bed. It doesn't matter so much what you plant next to each other, more that you have biodiversity in the bed. For example, sometimes we plant corn with our tomatoes, sometimes onions, sometimes potatoes, sometimes lettuce, sometimes something else (but always weeds!).

One of the hardest parts about letting your weeds grow is fielding complaints from neighbors. If your neighbors complain, challenge them to a competition to see who can grow the most for least cost. Make sure to wager something big because you'll win. Offer them some of the tasty weeds you're growing. Show them the nice creatures in your plot. Many gardeners are religious, but can do with a reminder that God made all creatures good, and for the service of humanity, and that we have an obligation to care for all creatures on our land. If they're not religious, show them the importance of life to humanity, and your crops: you can't stay there all day and night to defend your crops, but your small plant, animal, fungal, bacterial, viral and protoviral friends can.

And always remember: there is no such thing as a bad bug or a bad weed. All of life has a purpose, and even if it’s purpose is not obvious it can still be a benefit to your garden. The sharp-leafed thistle of spring turns into the delicious “wild artichoke” of summer; what was once a hungry caterpillar will become a beautiful butterfly to pollinate your crops. If a particular critter is becoming a “pest” do not blame it for trying to survive in a harsh world – take a closer look at your garden to see how you can work with the pest for the betterment of you both.
Topics: bugs , predators , weeds