More friends and less bullies on the farm

The other day I gave a talk to middle schools girls about bullying. I asked them to use art materials to depict what it felt like to be powerful and powerless. After they shared their collages and drawings, I noticed that the recurrent theme for feeling powerful was to have more friends. We talked about how to make or attract more friends and how this could help them be more resilient to the criticism of bullies.

Friendly Lady Bug with Cucumber Beetle bully

After the presentation, I went to the farm and smiled to myself about how certain bugs can be considered "farm bullies" and how I wish I had more bug-friends that would help us keep our crops safe and looking beautiful. When I turn to the farming research for techniques to get more bug-friends, I sometimes get lost in the terminology. In the organic farming world, there are buzzwords like "bio-diversity," "integrated crop management," and "companion planting." What does it all mean???  Basically, it means to have a variety of plants growing on your farm - some that attract beneficial (or friendly) bugs while others deter plant-damaging pests.

We chose not to use pesticides or insecticides on our farm because we don't want to damage the soil or ourselves. We want to decrease any potential toxins or carcinogens going into our body. We want healthy produce. Unfortunately, some bugs try to eat or damage vegetables before farmers can harvest. Just because we try to grow organically, it doesn't mean that we want "buggy" produce.

We use row covers on our farm to keep out pests and bugs. They do a great job, but they do not keep out 100% of the bugs. Many bugs overwinter underground and then emerge from the soil as it gets warmer outside. If they emerge from the soil after we have row covered it and planted our produce in it, we have just created a bio dome for pests to multiply. Due to the very mild winter, we are worried that this may be a problem this year.


Do we have bio-diversity going on at our farm? The answer is some, but not enough. However, we are slowly learning enough to be dangerous to those pests and how to bring in the "friendly" bugs that benefit our garden.. We recently read a great article in the Organic Gardening magazine about how to introduce more bio-diversity into your garden called  "10 Fast Ways to Control Pests: 10 easy ways to outsmart garden pests." It is helpful with identifying key plants that exude a deterring smell and others that attract an "airborne defense squad" of beneficial "insects that feed on the bad insects. We definitely want more of those friendly bugs. We will be introducing more of these strategies to our farm in the fall! Ideally, we will have marigolds and nasturtiums growing next to our lettuces. We will also have dill planted between our beans.