I knew that botany class in my degree program would come in handy some day. I was more interested in physiology, anatomy, microbiology and genetics. Who would have thought that the cause and effect could become so complicated?
(plug for the country song, the head-shaking one about human nature to create and repeat mistakes – all of the Chaos makes perfect sense.)
So, as you know, we live in a rural area, and we use practices that support nature on our farm. We also have a small garden, small because we have little flat surface with more than an inch of topsoil. The bulls contribute to our gardening resources, in the off-breeding season, and when we finish rebuilding and reorganizing fencing, there will be a little more flat space for a real garden. I will always try organic gardening methods first, and for foods, exclusively – so far. I regularly lose the battle for squash and melons to squash bugs. This year I used a garden fabric with a soaker hose underneath. At first, you can keep up by scraping the eggs daily and killing any bugs. The warmer it gets, the less effective this becomes, and by then, the early squash is dead. The bug damage allows disease to begin. Diatomaceous earth also helps, and with landscape fabric, it works well so far, but there are still squash bugs one and two days later, and you have to reapply after rain. Then there are the tomato hornworms and others. Biodiversity is essential, but the squash bugs are the perfect example of how excessive harvesting self-destructively eliminates a food source. I can’t figure out how these bugs survive, because who wants to grow squash or melons to grow squash bugs? But they appear every year, jumping from one food source to another over the course of the growing season. There will probably be no pie pumpkins for us this year except for what may appear at a Farmers’ Market.
The tangled web of life is only glimpsed from experience with vegetable gardening. The roses have their struggles, and the dahlias. And the apple tree. And the pines. Even the walnut tree. Each pest that arrives, drawn to whatever you want to grow, requires that you examine how to curtail its food sources, add its predators, or back further up or down the chain to find ways to deal with the web of nature.
We keep a few outdoor cats, who help control rodents, but who also occasionally feast on birds that you wish they wouldn’t. We feed the cats, and wildlife that figure out the feeding schedule are drawn to the cat food, or to hearing the call of “Kitty, kitty”. These wildlife carry ticks into the yard. (Good luck keeping wildlife out of the yard, but there are some limited ways to treat wildlife.) Rodents can carry ticks, but the cats help with this, along with the raptors on fence posts and power poles. Loose dogs belonging to inconsiderate neighbors may also bring ticks, and these are usually male, so they pee on things. The Mugho pine was finally done in, not by Parker as it was moved to a new location near the road after he was gone and it was doing well. This is how I knew male dogs were present. Crossing fingers, this isn’t frequent now, and there is now a county animal control officer.
I am considering a couple of additional steps in our tick control efforts. First, I am trying to figure out how to construct a cat station that lets cats in and can be used on the exit side to trap unwanted guests. This will be fun. (tic) And I’m working on plans for a barrier area that will include tick control tools. Mowing helps, but an extra measure in the perimeter would be good. The recommended width for a barrier is 3 feet. This will be a lot more gardening, and while I enjoy a little gardening, it is not my primary interest. There must be biocompatibility, mainly for dogs and cats, but also for birds. And the plants must tolerate freezing conditions, dry conditions and rocky soil. Lavender is looking good as a main component. I’ve set out three varieties in the yard this year, one that is thriving, one that is doing well and one that is staying small, which is good for some areas. Winter will be another test. I like fragrance plants, and the dried flowers can hang off the mantel during fall and winter. It may be interesting to experiment with extracting oils, too.
For the want of a nail, the shoe was lost (etc.), so backing up the chain means garden efforts too, along with pest control efforts for pests such as aphids that damage the plants and set them up for disease. I don’t want to build another garden to feed bugs. But I would like to feed pollinators and hummingbirds. All of the chaos makes perfect sense? We will see.
For anyone who is interested, there is a lot of information online about tick controls for your yard, plants that deter ticks and don’t harm mammals, and how to grow plants – and some of this is reliable. There is a good resource on growing lavender: https://gardenerspath.com/plants/herbs/grow-lavender/