Keep Mother Nature in mind when maintaining a garden

Gardens can be wonderful to soothe the soul and provide many therapeutic benefits. The physical benefits may be getting some fresh air and exercise. A garden brings together the wholeness of mind, body and spirit which is essential for well-being and healing. Along with having a wonderful garden and creating that backyard sanctuary, comes planning and maintenance.

Just as Mother Nature is there to help us, it is important to be aware of what we are doing in our environment and to learn ways that we can help Mother Nature. We are all personally accountable for our actions, including what chemicals we are putting into our environment. You may feel that you are only one person and what you do does not make that much difference on the environment, but it does when you see the cumulative effect that it has.

A few simple things that you may do to keep chemicals to a minimum in your garden is to let the birds help by hanging some nesting boxes or bird feeders in your yard. You will not only be feeding our fine feathered friends, but the birds may decide to nest in an area near your garden. What a perfect exchange. You provide them food and shelter and they eat the pests in your garden like snails and slugs.

Speaking of slugs,did you know that you can put out a small container of beer and the slugs will be attracted to it? They manage to get inside the container, but do not make it out, for whatever reason. Maybe they are too tipsy to make it out the container!

Attracting beneficial insects is another way to “Go Green” in your garden. Mulching with leaves keeps nice earth worms that are beneficial to the soil. Leaving mulch in a pile near your garden encourages ground beetles to nest unde
eath it, which eat many other gardening pests. Also, learn what how beneficial insects can help your garden.

Allowing some of your vegetables to go to flowers will attract more bumble bees to your yard. The pollination process will begin as the bumble bees will be attracted to the flowers.

Rain water is great for watering your plants. You can use a large container, preferably one with a lid to keep mosquitoes out. Be careful not to keep standing water in containers as this will attract mosquitoes.

And on the subject of real pests;what about fire ants? Not only are the bites painful, they can form extensive colonies and even invade your house and make nests inside your walls. Although there are many chemicals to destroy the colony along with the queen, try eco-friendly things first to help the environment. Don’t disturb the nest by poking it. Use boiling water (2-3 gallons) to be sure to completely saturate and flood the fire ants nest. Dump the boiling water onto the nest. Not only will it kill the ants, it will also kill the queen. There are also fire ant sticky traps that can be spread around the trunk or stem of a plant.

Using diatomaceous earth around your home or garden is very effective for ants and other insects. This powdery substance damages insect exoskeletons and kills them, but is earth friendly.

"If nature is your teacher, your soul will awaken."
-Goethe

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