Recently I attended a CEFS workshop presented by David Orr, a professor in the Department of Entomology at N.C. State University. The “Habitat for Multiple Ecological Services” half-day session included presentations from Orr, research updates from two of his graduate students, and a visit to some of the test areas planted for pollinators.
At the workshop, I learned that managing land for agricultural purposes and managing your backyard lawn and garden aren’t as different as you or I once might have thought.
Lurking in the ag-speak at the session were ways to make gardening at home easier and more rewarding for you and your plants.
From monoculture to wild culture
A farm field planted entirely with one crop – corn, for instance – and a home landscape planted mostly with one plant – say, turfgrass – are, essentially, the same thing. Corn is a grass (a large grass), for one thing. But what makes these two landscapes similar is that they are monocultures – pieces of land planted entirely with one type of plant.
It takes a tremendous amount of resources to maintain a monoculture. Think about your lawn maintenance: mowing, watering, fertilizing, weed control, pest control. The list goes on. The same is true of farm fields. The reason? There’s no biological diversity in a monoculture. In the wild, nature’s “garden,” there’s a system of checks and balances.
Orr showed a slide with research results from scientists studying the “food web” or system of organisms associated with a balsam fir and six caterpillars that live on the fir. There were 120 different organisms interacting with each other in that web. On the white oak, there are 450 leaf-eating insects that live in the tree, and all of the different bacteria, fungi, insects and plants associated with those insects. There are bacteria that feed on the insects and bacteria that feed on the bacteria feeding on the insects. The only way, Orr said, that the whole country isn’t knee-deep in houseflies are the natural biological controls keeping them in check.
Try this at home
It’s impossible to replicate the wild in your backyard. You don’t even want to, really.
A climax community hardwood forest is no place to grow tomatoes. There are tricks to making your yard work less taxing and your garden more productive, though.
The main problem with farm fields and home landscapes is that they aren’t diverse. A vegetable garden with all tomatoes and nothing else is a Mecca for tomato-munching critters. Plant some marigolds or some basil or mountain mint in your vegetable garden and you’re welcoming pollinators (thus increasing your tomato harvest) and providing food and a home for other beneficial insects and organisms.
When adding plants to your garden, it’s important to think about what will lure beneficial insects, not pests. For example, non-native butterfly bushes draw butterflies, but they also draw the moths for squash vine borers, one of the very worst pests for southern vegetable gardeners. Instead plant native butterfly milkweed, lance-leaf coreopsis, mountain mint and partridge pea.
Choose plants that bloom in the spring, summer and fall to keep the good bugs coming year-round. Whenever possible, grow natives, as those are naturally adapted to feed the insects and birds you want in the garden.
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