Your garden needs some pests!

Garden pests aren't as bad as you think. In fact, you need some pests in the garden to keep the predators around.

We don't spray pests in our gardens, and we let sick plants die. What we want is a working ecosystem!

[EdimentalGardens]

Wholeheartedly agree. I’ve found that once pests arrive, the plant is usually close to end of life anyway. Not always, but typically

[jacob]

This is the reason I have a ton of nettles in the garden, ladybugs lay eggs on them.

[naturallyAshley]

Love your statue of our Blessed Mother!

[nayelizombie]

I always like to have "volunteer" plants for the pests and birds 😊

[barbaradoye]

Finally, someone is saying this on a big platform! Thank you! ❤😀

[troylange]

I'm 60 and I remember as a child it was normal to watch out for pests on your food and we ate the odd bug. I also remember seeing my first box of perfectly shaped vegetables. I didn't understand because I knew they grow in all shapes. I thought what will happen to all the irregular ones? Now if you find a bug in your organic salad it ends up in the news lol

[DebRoo]

I have a small garden set up. I need what I'm growing and can't afford to share. Pests can go bless the neighbor'syard 😅
In seriousness though, I do use a lot of row cover for specific crops. Not the nicest looking but at least I can eat my brassicas

[JustSumGuy]

4th year gardener, second year organic spray free. This year a large group of Golden Orbweavers moved in. It can make harvesting a little more tricky but they are my new favorite garden friends among a large group. Thank you David for spreading this idea. It's truly God system.

[ericlotze]

It might be more of an “ask an extension agent” type thing, but monitoring pest-eater populations for knowing when you have a safe margin and/or methods to track when it is a healthy amount of pests vs “biblical-esque swarms of locusts are coming SEND HELP” levels of pests would be interesting to look into.

[bsdnfraje]

It's nice, seeing the Theotokos in your garden.

[MrRemakes]

If you're worried about pests, like aphids on brassicas, it's probably better to intersperse them with other plants that aren't susceptible to the pest rather than planting them all in a group. Monocropping is still a problem on the garden scale.

[breaking_bear]

So true. Thank you for teaching me this.

[xbsjuku]

Actually had a dragonfly stopping by this afternoon. The cat wanted to eat it but we got it away from her before she did. It flew off to somewhere else in the neighborhood after. it's welcome back anytime.

[ValerieLopez-ru]

I agree with you, let’s have healthy, not toxic gardens.

[roserainy]

Yeah im so cheap. I buy seeds, but try to stretch them. I hate buying soil. Refuse to buy anything beyond that. Compost everything, even really annoying things. We're nowhere near productive, but we're getting there. Feel like patience, letting things settle in due course, makes sense. Still very new property for us, 3 yrs. Despite what visitors may think, it feels like we're on a timeline that makes sense, in terms of building a sustainable system. Also, my latest random chick purchase resulted in my first ever silkie! Omg she is such a fussy baby, but also hilarious looking. Love my compost raptors ❤

[mikeprobst]

Happy to see a statue of Our Lady in the garden, my garden has one too.

[WhalerSailor]

Figure out a way for me to grow cabbage or Califlower naturally please. I cannot do it without a spray

[janinevegan]

I started a permaculture garden last year, I have black widows !! I’m stumped!

[AlvinKazu]

For sure, this is good advice to keep a well balanced ecosystem, but you seem to have a very established food forest. Many of us are just starting out and have limited plants. My cucumbers are being decimated by worms/moths and I need to spray some stuff. I make my own fertilizers, and I'm still figuring out what works best for it, but if I don't do anything, they wont srvive. They were fine in the cooler months here in FL 9B, but as it got hotter and closer to the summer.... The plants were just eaten.

[SouthFloridaSunshineTropicals]

Amen, knocked down Papaya trees here due to the unrelenting papaya fruit fly. 😂🤢Opening up a worm nursery sounds like a huge let down. Plus Papaya is not one of my favorite fruits.