 ello fellow Earthlings and welcome to
our second installment on cool season vegetable gardens. We last discussed
varieties of plants that you can add to a cool season vegetable plot and
soil preparation and fertilization. This discussion will be on keeping those
precious veggies free of pests and disease with natural/organic solutions.
So let's take a walk in the garden...
 Most vegetable plants are fast growing
with an abundance of tasty leaves, flowers that are rich in pollen and nectar,
and soft fruits that are easily attacked by many different insect pests.
Because these plants are so hardy and produce so much food, insect infestations
can often get out of hand before they are even noticed by the gardener.
This is the primary reason that the
manufacturers of dangerous chemical pesticides sell so much toxic material
to the public each year. Chemical makers are very clever people. They make
their products easy to use so that poisoning your environment is a very
simple thing to do.
A word of warning from this goddess
is that once you begin using "Rescue Chemistry" to control pest
populations in the garden, you actually compound the problem. After spraying
poison on your food, you not only create toxic food but you also create
an environment where the target pest can mutate and become resistant to
further sprayings. You then are forced to use a more toxic substance to
eliminate a pest population that is slowly becoming a super bug population.
I have a way to keep insect pest
populations at a controlled level without ever using any harmful substances
in your prized veggie plot. My way also requires that you do less work.
How's that for fair?
When planting your vegetable garden,
always leave a little room for a couple of "companion plantings".
Companion planting is a practice by which you include plant types that draw
or lure beneficial insects into your vegetable garden. Companion plantings
can also include plants that are repellent to pest insects and therefore
make your vegetable plot an inhospitable environment for them to live in.
A companion plant can also be something useful for culinary purposes or
just a way to add pretty flowers into the vegetable garden, making it an
aesthetically pleasing as well as tasty place to garden.
The following list of just a few
types of plants that you can include into your garden to lure beneficial
insects is provided for your information. A more detailed list may be obtained
by calling my toll-free garden help line or sending me an e-mail request
for the list. I am always happy to respond to your gardening questions.
Here's the list:
- Sweet Alyssum. This plant is very attractive when in
bloom and provides a good nectar source for many adult beneficial insect
species.
- Basil. It's always a good idea to include basil in the
vegetable garden at any time of year. The flowers are a rich source of
pollen and nectar and you can use the leaves in the kitchen.
- Dill. This is one of the best plants for luring beneficial
insects into the garden. Dill flowers are very high in nectar and it is
also one of the most useful of seasonings for cooking.
- Mint. Any member of this family of plants is very useful
in drawing good guys into the garden. Use your imagination and plant a
couple of varieties so that you have some interesting flavored leaves to
add to beverages and food.
This brief list is just the tip of
the iceberg when it comes to useful plants to include into the vegetable
garden for pest control. I love to have beneficial insects working in the
garden, because that means I can have more time to do other things in the
garden than fight off bad guys all of the time. You will also be grateful
to have these good guys working to keep your pest populations in check.
Pest insects cannot develop a resistance to something that eats them, so
you and your environment are the winners with more nutritious food and a
cleaner and healthier habitat for future garden projects.
Next month we will be discussing
planting vegetables and some really great shortcuts and tips on growing
beautiful, tasty nutritious food with a minimum of effort and, of course,
no chemical pesticides or fertilizers. Come up and see me sometime.  | 
mill.net. The Garden Goddess is a trademark of The Organic Gardener's Resource and Design Centre of Encinitas, 293 Neptune Ave. Encinitas, CA. 92024. D.W. Trotter is a consulting horticulturist and an award winning garden designer