Climate Change: You Can Do Something!

Climate change--there's a lot of talk about climate change these days. And there are many skeptics out there. I'm not a scientist, and in this post I will not pretend to know a lot of facts to either promote or disprove the idea of global warming.

I will say this: we're having some crazy weather! Two and three years ago, Georgia was under a severe drought. Farmers lost their livelihood, garden centers went out of business, and I personally lost most of my bigleaf hydrangeas--shrubs that had been established for several years. Record breaking heat waves and no rain for several weeks at a time is more than many shrubs can tolerate.

This year, on the other hand, Georgia has had more rain than we want! Severe flood damage occurred just a few weeks ago and threatens us again. (Actually, prior to the drought we had a few years ago, we received too much rain. I remember we received so much rain that area creeks and the Chattahoochee River swelled, washing away roads and bridges.) Yes, it's a fact--Weather patterns do change.

And it's that thought that brings me to my favorite topic: native plants! I've written many posts advocating the use of native plants. If you've followed my writings for long, you know that I love native plants for their tolerance to adverse weather conditions including excessive heat, humidity, and drought.

It is for Blog Action Day that I write my thoughts today. Whether you believe our climate is really changing or not, and whether or not you believe Global Warming is a fact or a myth, the right thing for you and me to do is whatever we can to protect our environment. We must protect the environment for our children and for our grandchildren.

These are simple suggestions, and this is what we do here at Shady Gardens to help the environment:

• Plant native plants instead of invasive exotics. In a nutshell, native plants will survive drought causing you to use less water when watering plants is restricted. Please read my previous posts on this topic.
• Use organic pest control methods instead of poisons which can kill more than just the pest you wish to remove. Biological insect control can be something as simple as attracting ladybugs into the garden. 'No kill' rodent traps are available providing good results without the use of dangerous chemicals. (You need the Mice Cube!)
  
• Use organic fertilizers instead of synthetic ones. Chemical fertilizers can be poisonous, and they really are junk food for the plants. Compost and other organic soil amendments make plants healthier and stronger. Some organic fertilizers such as compost tea actually help to ward off plant disease.

We are stewards of this great country we live in--caretakers of all that is around us. As gardeners, we must do our part to protect and preserve nature. I hope you will join me in planting native plants that provide homes, habitat, and food for wildlife. And then do nothing to poison the little creatures!

Beneficial Insects in a Georgia Garden

When many people see an insect, the first impulse is to kill it. But not all insects are pests, and many are beneficial insects, meaning they do good things like eat harmful insects and pollinate flowers. When we use pesticides to control insect pests, we also kill the good bugs. You probably already know Ladybugs are beneficial insects, feeding on aphids, scales, and mealybugs. But did you know that the larvae of ladybugs look like tiny little alligators and eat even more pests than their parents? Lacewings are fragile-looking insects with delicate, lacy green or brown wings, large eyes, and long antennae. Their larvae feed on aphids, scales, mealybugs, whiteflies, and young caterpillars. The Praying Mantis will eat almost any insect (yes, they will eat the good bugs too and will even eat each other!) Parasitic Wasps are usually too small for you to see, but you might spot signs of their presence. If you find a crispy-looking brown, inflated aphid attached to a leaf, it was probably the victim of a parasitic wasp that laid its eggs in the aphid so its offspring would have something to eat when they hatched. You might also see caterpillars, cabbage loopers or hornworms carrying around cocoons of developing wasps. Parasitic Wasps lay their eggs on the back of soft caterpillars so their young will have a convenient food source upon hatching. (Yuck!) It’s almost time to see the Tomato Hornworm eating up the leaves and even the green tomatoes on our tomato plants. The best control is to pick them off and destroy them, but if you see one with loads of small white things that look like clusters of rice, just leave it alone—the white things are eggs of the wasp. Granddaddy Spiders, or you might call them Daddy Longlegs, eat aphids, mites, and other garden pests. These are just a few of the many beneficial insects in our gardens. Beneficial insects can be purchased from mail-order sources, but you can attract them into your garden without purchasing them. The best way to attract these beneficial insects to your garden is to just plant more flowers and herbs!