These gardening tips first appeared in the Van Bakel Garden Center monthly newsletter - full of climate specific gardening advice for the Newmarket area.   Scan the index to the right for particular topics.

Insect pests in your garden   
(from August 2010 newsletter)

We’ll start out with a simple gardening quiz.   When is the best time to take action against garden pest insects?
            a)      when you can see them eating the leaves of your plants in mid summer.
            b)      in fall after the adults are ready to lay eggs for overwinter.

            c)      in spring when it’s not only the beginning of your plants’ seasonal cycle, but also the beginning of insects’ seasonal cycle.
            d)      never – they’re part of a garden’s life. 
 

More and more gardeners are choosing “D” in this era of environmental conscientiousness.  But what if there was a truly safe option?  A product that not only doesn’t harm the environment or ourselves, but actually adds to the vibrant microscopic life essential for a healthy garden?    We’re really pleased to have found such a product!  Bio-Desolve, a 100% natural product teaming with soil food producing microorganisms;  zero harmful chemicals;  and chases away problem insects and nibbling critters without killing them – even mosquitoes!  Easy and safe to apply, it is a product developed primarily for large scale use in agriculture, but we’ve secured a reliable supply in a smaller, residential use bottle size. 

Prevention, not reaction, is the key though so application timing is important.  Let’s look at the quiz’s options.   

a) When you see insects eating the leaves of your plants it’s basically too late.  Many of the worst garden pests have lots of survival techniques at their disposal, from hard outer skeletons that prevent insecticides from being absorbed to little waxy tents that protect them.  And, for every one you see eating your plants there’s probably dozens more hatching, hiding, or busy laying eggs for another generation to plague your plants. 

b) In fall it’s also too late.  There are many life phases of the problem insect in your garden by then - eggs laid for hatching in spring and/or adults that have burrowed deep in preparation for winter dormancy.  Often neither will be chased away or vulnerable to insecticides since they aren’t in an active, above ground feeding phase. 

That leaves us with “C” – in spring, at the beginning of the active part of their life cycle as the correct answer.  Many of the worst insect pests start their seasonal cycle hatching from eggs or emerging as overwintered adults from the soil in spring.  Even insects that don’t show their dark side until mid summer when their favourite food – your garden plants – are “suddenly” attacked, have an early phase that’s harmless but then go through their metamorphosis into a more adult phase in summer and start nibbling away at your plants.  From caterpillar pests to slugs, beetles, rabbits, or lawn grubs, spring is the time to address the garden pest problem. 

Bio-Desolve works simply – it supports and feeds microscopic soil life for healthier and more disease resistant plants, while at the same time introducing a powerful natural substance – garlic– in a high enough concentration to make your garden an uninviting place for insects and other nibbling critters like rabbits to stay.  It doesn’t kill them, it chases them away, so it’s a repellant rather than an insecticide.  Simple, yet effective, it’s a plant-based brew that is basically a rich compost tea, fine-tuned with particular nutrients and minerals, with garlic concentrate added as the insect repellant.  Apply it to your lawn and garden in spring when soil temperature is warming, and again a month later to deal with hatching or adult emerging insects.  If you have a grub problem, in May when lawn grubs are high in the soil nibbling at the roots of lawn grass, apply a good soak of Bio-Desolve. Grubs rise up to the surface of the lawn in an attempt to escape and the birds then make quick work of them as their tasty next meal. 

The second way Bio-Desolve works is to give your plants a boost of micronutrients for optimal growth and disease resistance – kind of like a vitamin rich spring tonic.  This all natural brew also kick-starts the rich life of underground microorganisms to speed up breakdown of organics like lawn thatch.  The mineral compounds in the brew also have an effect on the soil helping to break up heavy clay soil to improve drainage.

And there’s yet a third way Bio-Desolve helps with your garden problems.  Garlic is mildly sulphuric. That means that while chasing away insects, feeding your plants, and improving your soil, it is also killing the disease spores that cause Phlox mildew and Rose black spot.  If you have these mildew problems it’s important to remember that prevention is the only way to control the problem – once leaves are infected there’s no fixing them.  You can spray the uninfected leaves to prevent the mildew from spreading though.  Spraying the ground around Phlox and Roses in spring kills the overwintered spores.

Garlic has been used effectively for decades in home brew insecticide recipes, and compost is also available with just a phone call, but Bio-Desolve’s fine-tuned formula and ease of use makes the benefits of both of these powerful garden tools no muss, no fuss, no delivery fees, etc.  Just dilute the liquid concentrate with water in a spray canister and spray your plants and soil each month, starting in April for best effect. It’s safe and easy to use at any time of the season.  Since it is absorbed into the leaves of plants it will also discourage rabbits from nibbling for up to 4 weeks and, sprayed liberally around your yard once a month also keeps mosquitoes away!  The only time it isn’t wise to use it is around fruit and vegetable plants while they’re in flower since you don’t want to chase away all the pollinators you need to turn all those flowers into yummy fruits & vegetables.

Garden Insects – both friend and foe. 
(from July 2009 newsletter's "Gardening Tips")

As we all adjust to the new pesticide ban, you may feel a bit panic stricken as insect pests start their work.  While there are many insects that disfigure garden plants, there’s very few that do significant enough damage to kill them.  Keeping plants strong through good soil maintenance and keeping pests to a manageable level is the goal.  It’s only when chewing insects are in significant enough numbers to defoliate a plant more than 50% that the plant is at risk of becoming seriously weak.  It comes down to the basic reigning law of plant life – they need lots of green leaves to transform the sun’s energy into food.  Don’t wait until you see lots of leaf damage - get ahead of problems and monitor your pest susceptible plants regularly.   

Here’s two of the most destructive pests to watch for right now –  

1)  Last week that pesky little green caterpillar that chews rose leaves down to a skeleton started showing themselves.  They’ll munch away like crazy for a couple of weeks and then seemingly disappear.  They disappear to mate though, and if you don't keep on top of them when they first show themselves in late June, you may have another onslaught later in the season just when your rose bush has just recovered with new growth.  Try to check roses daily for the coming week and with a gloved hand simply crush all the little caterpillars you find. They are well camouflaged though so look carefully.  If you see chewed leaf edges the caterpillars are there somewhere!  During the heat of the day you’ll often find them curled up on the underside of the leaves or tucked into a leaf joint.  They most often start at the top leaves so check there first.  Right now they are very small, but if you have a Rose, it’s almost guaranteed that you have this caterpillar.  If you monitor this pest and crush the ones you find for even just a few days at this time of year it will go a long way to keeping their population under control and your roses healthy and strong.

2)  Another very destructive pest that needs monitoring is Brown Scale.  Sandcherry, Crabapples, Yew, Euonymous, and Magnolia, are particularly susceptible.  (I’ve seldom seen an established Sandcherry that DOESN’T have brown scale!).  In early spring, again in early July, and in September, inspect all the stems closely, the older ones in particular, and look for brown shiny bumps that look like a collection of warts.  When the problem is in its early stage you may just find a few, but they will quickly multiply.  You're not actually seeing the insect itself, but their little brown wax tents that are housing the plant sucking adult insect and some new eggs that hatch some time in late June / early July.  The wax tent effectively protects them from predatory insects and any insecticide spray which makes it a particularly tough problem to deal with since the ONLY time they are vulnerable to spray treatment is just a week or so in late spring when the eggs hatch and the babies leave the protective wax tent.  The hatchlings crawl along the stem a few inches and within a week make their own wax tent to live under.  The best solution is, again, simply a gloved hand.  Inspect all the stems and just crush them.  Don’t just knock them off – crush them.  In a badly infested shrub it will look as though the bumps are a natural part of the bark since there's so many.  A badly infested shrub will push out leaves in the first half of the season and then simply collapse and drop leaves once the heat of summer arrives.  Once the infestation is at that point the shrub is already pretty far gone and is best just chopped down and replaced, but burn the infected branches. If it's a lovely specimen that you want to rescue, it will take vigilance, but it's possible.

3)  Another insect you'll often see is a very good friend and ally.  You'll see them scurrying around under patio and garden stones - a shiny dark brown beetle called simply Ground Beetle.  They are your first offense in the battle for your Hostas since their diet is mainly slug eggs!  Lay out a few stones in your shady areas to encourage lots of them to live in your garden - ground beetles that is, not slugs.  They may be ugly and a bit menacing looking, but they are completely harmless to plants and are an important beneficial insect to attract. 

There’s a few trends in the gardening scene the past few years that are at times in conflict.  One trend is toward gardeners inviting birds and butterflies to their garden by planting lots of nectar flowers and native plants in their ornamental garden.  Another trend is an increase in vegetable gardening. 

How do these two trends sometimes conflict?  Well…to enjoy the fluttering of a beautiful butterfly in your garden, you must also be willing to feed them in all phases of their life!   If you’d like to see lots of the classic Monarch butterfly, you need to also contend with the aggressive rooted Milkweed plant where their larvae feed.  The larvae phase of the gorgeous Swallowtail butterfly will devour your entire parsley plant in the short time it will take you to finish a cool Marguerita on a hot day.   (Here’s a link to a really neat video that shows just how quickly your parsley plant can be turned into a weird skeleton.  Black Swallowtail Larvae).

 What’s the gardening tip in this?  This year in particular when we must all make adjustments to our gardening habits because of the new pesticide by-laws, it’s perhaps time for us to sit back and take a larger view of our small patch of ground and try to connect the dots.  As the saying goes, “we can’t have our cake and eat it too”.  The translation for gardeners is that we can’t expect to have beautiful birds and butterflies without also adjusting our plant damage tolerance level.  We can’t eliminate our use of pesticides and still expect hole-free Hostas, aphid free roses, or a perfect lawn, or without donating a parsley plant or two to the Swallowtail larvae.  As Joni Mitchell so aptly put it a couple of decades ago – “give me spots on my apples, but leave me the birds and the bees”.   

 There are lots of earth-friendly methods of controlling problem insects but there’s no getting around the fact that it requires a bit more research time on our part to find the solutions that work for what you’re trying to achieve in your garden.  There’s a tremendous amount of good information available to us all with the click of our mouse.  However, simply searching out “green” alternatives to chemical pesticides misses the point.  “Green” alternatives are often natural based products, but the point is they are still pesticides.  Pyrethrum and Rotenone for example are the ground roots of plants and are therefore “natural” and can be marketed as “green” products and miss the targeting of the pesticide by-law.  The problem?  They are still highly toxic and will kill good insects along with bad ones.  They may be “green”, but that doesn’t mean they’re safe.  Another example that I’ve heard a lot about this spring is a “green” herbicide based on vinegar.  The problem?  Vinegar is highly acidic and will make it impossible to grow ANYTHING in the ground it seeps into.  Fine for hardscape areas, but if it leaches into your garden soil…

 As you make your own way through the maze of information and alternative products this year, first take the time to research the life cycle of the pests you’re trying to get rid of, the birds and butterflies you’d like to invite, and how the two may be interconnected.  Consider your damage tolerance level if you’d like to primarily create a haven for beautiful insects.  Target pest insects in your vegetable garden armed with knowledge of where or how they lay their eggs and then perhaps just the swipe of a gloved hand at the right time of year is all that’s needed.  Horticultural oil is very effective when used correctly and at the right time to battle scale on your ornamental shrubs, but used at the wrong time of year may harm beneficial insects.  There’s no easy solution to garden problems, but the first step towards solution instead of just transferring the problem elsewhere, is based on deeper research and a holistic approach.