Vegetable Gardening (118 page)

The third quarter,
as the moon moves from full back to half again, is best for planting root crops such as beets, carrots, potatoes, radishes, and turnips.

The last quarter,
when the moon goes from half to invisible, is not thought of as a good planting time. Instead, it's a time to prepare the soil and rid the garden of pests and weeds.

You can get even more complicated by factoring in astrological signs, planets, and how they influence plant growth, but I'll leave that up to you and your further research. I haven't tried factoring in these other elements, but I have a friend in India who swears by the results, as do many others. For more on moon gardening, check out this Web site:
www.gardeningbythemoon.com
.

Chapter 17: Keeping Your Plants Healthy

In This Chapter

Controlling insect pests

Preventing plant diseases

Keeping animals out of bounds

Considering how tasty homegrown vegetables are, you shouldn't be too surprised to find that other creatures want to share in your harvest. And, no, I'm not talking about your neighbors. I'm talking about garden pests, insects that want to munch on your tomatoes, and animals, like deer, raccoons, and rabbits, that are just plain hungry. In addition, your plants face the threat of diseases, such as blight, which turns your potatoes to mush. With diseases, prevention is the key; once they take hold, they're almost impossible to eliminate.

Does the thought of all these potential problems make you want to run for cover? Well, you don't need to. It's true that insects, diseases, weeds, and animal pests can be very frustrating, but it's only really bad when the damage gets out of hand. The secret is to nurture a healthy, naturally balanced garden. Every garden can withstand some damage, and you have many weapons in your arsenal to prevent pest problems from getting out of control.

In this chapter, I tell you how to garden to prevent severe pest problems and how to identify the enemies. I also discuss safe ways to deal with these foes.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Controlling Pests

Most gardens are populated by a huge number of insects, most of which are neither good nor bad. They're just hanging out in your garden at no expense to your plants. But some insects are beneficial, waged in a constant battle with the bugs that are harming your plants. In the following sections, I describe both the good and the bad bugs and the safest methods of attack.

My approach to pest control is to have a maximum diversity of bugs in my garden. Despite what you may think, having some bad bugs around is important. Aphids are like hors d'oeuvres for some helpful insects, so it's okay to have a few in your garden. Otherwise, what will the good bugs eat? But accepting the bad bugs also means that you have to accept a little damage once in a while. So just try to manage the pests, not nuke them off the face of the earth. You want to keep them at acceptable levels without letting them get out of control.

In with the good bugs

As you know, some insects are beneficial to the success of your crops. Unfortunately, you won't always automatically attract these buggers to your plot, so sometimes you have to purchase them. Yes, that's right, you have to buy bugs. Following are some beneficial insects that you can buy inexpensively to help control pests that harm vegetables (see the appendix for companies that sell these beneficial insects):

Green lacewings:
These beneficial insects are some of the most effective insects for garden use. Their voracious larvae feed on aphids, mites, thrips, and various insect eggs. Release them into your garden in late spring, after the danger of frost has passed.

Lady beetles:
These insects are your basic ladybugs. Both the adults and the lizardlike larvae are especially good at feeding on small insects like aphids and mites. But releasing adults sometimes isn't very effective because Mother Nature has preprogrammed them to migrate down the road, so they leave your garden quickly.

Try preconditioned lady beetles, which have been deprogrammed (don't worry — the procedure is safe); they're more likely to stick around. Release lady beetles just before sundown; that way, they'll at least spend the night. Release a few thousand of them in spring as soon as you notice the first aphid.

Parasitic nematodes:
These microscopic worms parasitize many types of soil-dwelling and burrowing insects, including cutworms and Japanese beetle grubs. Because grubs usually inhabit lawns, you have to apply these worms there, too, as well as around the bases of your plants. Mix the nematodes with water, and spray them on the soil around the bases of your plants in spring or fall.

Predatory mites:
These types of mites feed on spider mites and other small pests. Add predatory mites to your garden in the spring as soon as the danger of frost has passed.

Trichogramma wasps:
These tiny wasps (which are harmless to humans) attack moth eggs and butterfly larvae (that is, caterpillars). Release these garden good guys when air temperatures are above 72 degree Fahrenheit.