Mr. Hank's Corner 4/24/18

This past weekend was Earth Day. Imagine celebrating Earth on this special day and all that it provides for us. Funny how we designate just one day for something that we should be doing each and everyday. Now I get celebrating the 51 years my parents have met and been together happened to also fall on Earth Day, perhaps why I became a person that teaches in the garden. Who knows? I want to know what you did to celebrate.

I had a family of students that were so excited about Earth Day that they went and brought back 450 ladybugs for the garden. Now talk about wanting to introduce beneficial insects into our garden and control aphids without chemicals. Way to go students. Chemical pesticides are bad for us and bad for the environment. A balance of bugs, both good and bad is much better than no bugs at all in your garden. I always say if bugs like your veggies then you must be growing some good veggies. When people use pesticides in the garden you may kill almost all your bugs but those that remain begin to build up a resistance which means we need to make a stronger strand of chemicals or higher concentrations which becomes worse off for the environment. Pest all have natural enemies and our role should be to allow this cycle to occur naturally. The best part bad insects can’t build up a resistance to our good bugs in the garden. Take that bad bugs!! I wish I could have released the ladybugs with the students who brought them to me however, letting the ladybugs into our garden takes patience, the right timing, and lot’s of prep work. So let’s chat a moment about ladybugs shall we?

The lifecycle of a ladybug is a pretty neat one. A ladybug makes me laugh because they remind me of a bear which also hibernates in the winter and needs to build up fat content to make it through the winter. Bet you didn’t know that cool fact about those cute aphid loving safe pest control beneficial insect did you? Ladybugs eggs look like tiny jellybeans and are typically found on the bottom of leaves. The egg takes 3-5 days and like a butterfly then turns into a larvae lasting 2-3 weeks. Similar to the butterfly lifecycle pupation comes next and last 3-5 days with a ladybug emerging. So back to the ladybug getting fat for the winter. Ladybugs feed on pollen just like bees do and need pollen and insects such as aphids, mites, thrips and other soft-bodied insects to eat. When ladybugs migrate during the late summer they hibernate in snow and come back to the lowlands to feed when it warms up to both feed and breed. Lucky for us we have great weather year round so we may not see much migration occurring here as someone in Colorado or Lake Tahoe might.

Now about releasing those ladybugs. Try to release your ladybugs at night because they will not fly away. Water is necessary for the ladybugs to drink when they wake up similar to what we we should be doing each morning when we wake up. Place the ladybugs under plants and like I said be patient. Release these ladybugs into your garden over a few days. They will stay around longer if you do it the right way. So let’s make Earth Day every day work towards using safe practices in the garden and enjoy real slow food.

Green Thumbs Up everyone!!

#Health #BellaGardenProject