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Beyond organic works, if you're patient enough

 
gardener
Posts: 2068
Location: N. California
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I call my garden style beyond organic because If I add, or use something in my garden, with the exception of seeds, ( I prefer organic seeds, but sometimes they are not readily available, or affordable) it's organic. I don't use any pesticides at all, not even the Organic options. This is harder than it sounds at times. When my beans are covered in aphids, or the kale is crawling with Harlequin bugs there's that human part of me that thinks I need to fix this and get the Neem oil, diatomaceous earth, or Castile soap, something to kill the evil bugs. Oh man there are times I want to so bad. Times I'm freaking out thinking all my hard work is going to be for nothing if I don't do something!!!  Then I get ahold of myself, take a breath and wait. I don't have the time or inclination to be mother nature. I know if I interfere even a little I compromise the whole system. So I wait. When the aphids were totally covering the yard long beans I did spray them off a few times with high pressure water, but only a few times. I thought about buying ladybugs, but then I started to see not only ladybugs, but their babies ( I can't think of what they are called at the moment, but you know what I mean). Then more, and more, the point where I'm seeing ladybugs, and not seeing aphids.  It's hard, but most of the time it works. I think it's important to mention I'm not a farmer, and I won't go hungry if my crops fail. I'm not judging people who can't do this.
The Harlequin bugs are another matter unfortunately. They have no natural predators ( according to Google) my chickens won't even eat them. Fortunately, and unfortunately if I'm being honest my son has decided to help me with them this year.  I'm lucky in this case anyway to have a lousy sense of smell, so it doesn't bother me to kill them. I usually cut them in half and dump them in a bucket of soapy water we are just keeping in the garden. The good thing about Harlequin bugs is they are bright orange and pretty easy to see. The bad thing is there seems to be massive amounts of them. My son defoliates the entire plant and putting the leaves in soapy water. Thanks goodness kale is so hardy. Mt purple tree kale was recovering nicely, only to be stripped bare again. I know he is helping, but wow, a bit extreme. I'm sure he has been on the Internet, and is convinced it must be done. I get it, but man it's a bummer. At one point we even had Harlequin bugs on the beans, I guess if they can't find brassica's, they will settle for beans. Even with the many Harlequin bugs we have battled, we haven't lost any plants because of them, some sad leaves, (which the chickens enjoy) but the plants survives. I do plan to make some insect netting covers to put over the brassica's I will start this fall.
If it won't interfere with your health, or wealth, leaving mother nature to do what she does best makes for a productive garden. Happy gardening everyone.
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pollinator
Posts: 1033
Location: Illinois
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I do see some of those bugs, but have not noticed a problem. Just lucky?
 
I agree. Here's the link: http://stoves2.com
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