Catherine The Grateful - not permaculture farm, lessons from the field (BEL)

Ants: Friend or Foe in the Garden?

Today while planting, I ran into a familiar surprise—ants. Lots of them. It made me stop and wonder: are these tiny garden guests a Friend or Foe?

The answer? Both

Friend
Apparently Ants are useful in the garden:

1. Soil aeration
As ants tunnel, they naturally loosen the soil, helping water and oxygen reach plant roots.

2. Pest patrol
Some ants prey on soft-bodied pests like caterpillars and termites. They’re especially good at cleaning up dead insects.

3.Seed spreaders
Certain ant species actually help disperse seeds—a process called *myrmecochory*.

Foe
Not all ants play nice. Some signs they’re more foe than friend:

1.Farming aphids
Many ants protect aphids in exchange for the sweet honeydew they produce. This can lead to aphid explosions on your veggies or roses.

2. Nesting in roots or containers
Ant colonies can displace soil, dry out roots, or even damage seedlings.

3. Bites and stings
Fire ants and other aggressive types can make gardening unpleasant and painful. I have hands on experience of this.

What You Can Do
I was told, it’s best to leave them alone. If you smash them they will send out more. You can try diatomaceous earth. It's safe for plants, tough on ants.

What are your thoughts? Are ants in your garden a friend of foe?

Proverbs 6:6-9
New Living Translation
6 Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and become wise! 7 Though they have no prince or governor or ruler to make them work,
8 they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter. 9 But you, lazybones, how long will you sleep? When will you wake up?

P.S. I had a video of the Ants; however, an mp4 video is not accepted. I've provided a photo instead.

Timothy Norton wrote:Glad to see there is another boot at Wheaton Labs!

I hope to learn a bunch, I can't wait to see more of your journey.

Thanks for the encouragement. Blessings.

Jeremy VanGelder wrote:Wow, that's a blast from the past. It is good to see that all of those structures are holding up.

Glad you enjoyed the time travel. Blessings.

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:Hi Catherine. Happy to see several boots have threads on Permies. Most happy to see there's a female boot again.

Yes, we are all sharing our experience here at Wheaton Lab. There will be 2 more females arriving on Sunday. Hopefully they will join in on the fun. Blessings.

Nicole Alderman wrote:Hi Catherine!

It looks like you might be having an issue replying to this thread, rather than making a new thread with each post. Please click the button that says, "Post reply," rather than the one that says, "New Topic." That will keep all your awesome posts in one easy-to-find place! This will also help keep people engaged with your activity, because they'll get notifications every time you post a reply to this thread--but they won't get notifications if you make a new thread.

Both Timothy and I have spent a bit of time trying to find all your Catherine The Grateful threads and merge them into this one. It would be super helpful if you could use the "post reply" button to post more updates.

I truly love seeing all the pictures you've posted--especially of the old buildings that I loved watching get built years ago. Thank you so much for your posts!

Thank you. I think I've got this sorted out now. And I now know how to reply Blessings.

Timothy Norton wrote:Glad to see there is another boot at Wheaton Labs!

I hope to learn a bunch, I can't wait to see more of your journey.

Thanks for the welcome. There are 3 of us here along with 2 woofers who've decided to be boots. We'll have 4 more boots arriving on Sunday. It will be a full house. I am definitely learning something new day. Blessings.

Benjamin Dinkel wrote:This is what it looks like on my mobile, all the way at the bottom of the thread.

Thank you. I'm learning how to use the site. I now know to reply. And I know how to respond to comments now as well. Blessings.

Nancy Reading wrote:

Catherine Barnes wrote:The dance of clothes

That's beautiful Catherine! Your poetry?

Thanks for posting about what you are getting up to there. I think Paul has big ideas (!) but only one pair of hands. It's lovely to see some of the ideas taking shape.

Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed my poem. Yes, many hands make light the work. Blessings.

Rhubarb soup and Abuelo

Rhubarb is everywhere you turn here at Wheaton Labs. Today we harvested 10 lbs. of Rhubarb. I have a sneaking suspicion there is as much Rhubarb as there is due to Paul's childhood memory of Rhubarb soup with his Abuelo. He has shared a story or two about his Abuelos's Rhubarb soup.

Since this is a lab, I'll share how to harvest Rhubarb.

Find a Rhubarb plant.

It's suggested you only harvest 1/3 of the plant.

Take a good look at the plant. You are not choosing the largest leaf, you are looking for the largest stalks.
Choose firm, brightly colored stalks. The stalks are green and red.

Pull, don't cut
Grasp the stalk near the base and give it a gentle twist and pull. You will find that there is a scoop at the base, similar to celery.

Remove the leaves
Please so not eat, Rhubarb leaves are toxic. Take the leaves and tuck them back under the plant.

Wash the stacks, cut, and cook or freeze.

What is your favorite Rhubarb recipe?

Buen provecho

I have some rhubarb plants too. They are of two (at least) varieties. Two plants grow early and large, I already harvested 1/3 of those red-and-green stems. I used them to make some jars of 'rabarbermoes' (maybe you'd call that 'rhubarb butter', or 'rhubarb jam'), and a large 'upside-down rhubarb cake'.

The other variety grows much later, it just started. The stalks are thinner and deep red, the taste is sweeter (I know from past years).