Spring Gardening: Birds, Bugs, and Natural Balance

Now that the temperatures are warming up and Spring is in the air, bird activity is increasing. 😊

This means they are looking for a good location for a source of food for their young and if they find it, they will nest and raise their young. They will not stay if what they need for a healthy family is not there.

Beneficial Insects and Natural Pest Control

Beneficial insects are the same. If you are trying to control pests naturally and/or organically, birds and beneficial insects are part of your arsenal, especially during spring gardening. You want to keep them around!

It can be very problematic trying to control insects which vector (transfer) viruses, especially for home gardeners. Whiteflies, thrip and aphids, to name a few, can be problem pests for vectoring viruses. Once a plant is infected with a virus, it can’t be uninfected. If you can identify the problem soon enough there might be a chance to save other plants.

Tomato spotted wilt, vectored by thrip

Understanding Plant Virus Transmission

These tiny insects move the virus from plant to plant. I’ve seen whole crops fail and have to be removed from not catching the problem soon enough. For home gardeners it is a disappointment, for commercial growers it can be devastating.

Scout Your Plants and Identify Problems Early

I have had many people ask what to do without having to spray chemicals on their plants. My answer is, scout your plants and learn how to identify what your problem is! You HAVE to know what your problem is before you act. In some cases, you don’t have to use hard insecticide if the problem is caught soon enough.

Now that we have internet you can learn to identify your problems. If you don’t know what it is, indicate the crop and description of what you are looking at. After scouting a blueberry field, I looked up yellow worm with black spots on blueberries and there it was. Of course, there is always your local extension office. They can help you if you get stuck.

Yellow Leaf Curl vectored by Silverleaf/Sweet Potato whitefly

A Lesson in Reading Labels

Recently, someone was having a problem with immature grasshoppers and asked what she should do to get rid of this problem. Before I could get back to her, she told me that she found a chemical under her sink that she used and then her daughter gave her a product she had. She used them both. Luckily it was an ornamental plant (not edible). The grasshoppers were gone in the morning (of course, after spraying two chemicals). She didn’t know which one might have worked.

Please, fight doing this kind of thing! If you have a label that tells you what to use the product on and how to use it, READ THE LABEL!

I think I said this before, but I can't reiterate it enough! I have found that it is very common to lose the instructions that actually tells you how the product should be used. It comes off or gets lost. Luckily, we can now look it up online.

In the commercial world, the labels for everything (organic or not) have to be kept in one location, it is a law. After working in the commercial world for so long, it’s now it is a habit of mine. Of course this is not a requirement for home gardeners, but it’s good practice. I have seen many situations where quick access to the label was essential.

If you use the wrong product in the wrong way, you could find that it doesn’t solve your problem and may possibly ruin the plant or worse, it could cause harm to animals you have around. I don’t want to lecture or keep beating the drum on this, but I want you to understand the importance of this!

A Gentle Reminder for the Season

One more time: It is getting warmer, the bug population will increase. Don’t just spray something because you have something!

OK, enough lecturing, I’d like to end this on a light note. 😊

Springtime Visitors at Home

Seeing early flowers like this may give you happy thoughts!

I live on an acre in a neighborhood in Steinhatchee, Florida. North of our property is a very large hunting area. We have left trees on our property removing them only for structures, hurricane safety and clean up. I think this attracts wildlife especially since our neighbors have removed most, if not all their trees.

We’ve watched an adolescent bear climb over our front fence, walk through our wooded yard and leave over the back fence. One day while working in the yard, I noticed a beautiful fox passing through. This week we noticed deer tracks. We think a doe and a fawn from the size of the prints. They must have found our place interesting, because there were prints in places we hadn’t expected.

I looked around to see if they had been munching on my plants or garden. They hadn’t (thankfully!). I think the trees give them a feeling of safety. Seeing these natures signs makes me happy. I hope the signs of Spring are giving you happy thoughts. 🌺

A Final Thought

Take the time to stop, take a deep breath, and look around at the nature. I guarantee you will get a boost!

Until next time!