LESSON YOUR FOOTPRINT
Confessions of a Sustainable Gardener
Part 1 – PEST
BACKGROUND
With my background and interests, one would think my garden became sustainable via a well thought-out, altruistic route. Heck, I spent years at university studying the environment obtaining 2 degrees in environmental engineer followed by 2 decades as a practicing environmental engineer. More importantly, I am a life long gardener, learner and admirer of nature. In reality, I became sustainable out of need and laziness. As such, I just kind of backed into it.
PEST
It all started one day about 20 years ago when I got tired of chasing the next pest. This is important and worth repeating – I got tired of chasing the next pest. I went after one, then another, then another, and then the first one came back and it all started again. It was a viscous cycle. I no longer had the time or energy to spray or dust. I thought, what if I just stopped all this nonsense and see what happens naturally?
There was some written about organic garden and maybe even sustainable gardening, although I don’t recall that being the term used at the time. More was written about organic gardening, which for me, today, is just part of my sustainable whole. But twenty years ago, I didn’t know I would go in this “sustainable” direction. I didn’t even know what it was and I certainly didn’t have time to research it. So, I just applied logic. Logic told me if there were good bugs and bad bugs, then there were also checks and balances. As such, I just stopped interfering. I was confident nature would take care of herself, or at least that was my hope.
And she did. My first season, there were more bugs than I care to admit; there were holes in my leaves and half eaten flowers. Gaining courage, to rid them, I started to hand pick some of those bugs off the plant and into a jar of soapy water. This was not the easiest thing I did that year, and I still get squeamish doing so today, even after all these years. But I managed to rise to the occasion when the need arises.
By the next year, there were less holes and more flowers, PLUS more birds, bees and butterflies. It was noticeably different. This was all the encouragement I needed. When I look back on this early pest control decision, I also had to accept a level of tolerance for less than perfect plant displays. The plants themselves were perfectly happy; they just looked a little worse from the chewing. But this was traded for honeybees pollinating my cucumbers, butterflies alighting my Lantana, and birds singing in the wee morning hours.
This went on for a few years. Yet, to label myself an organic gardener was not something I was ready to embrace. Even though this was the first step to organic gardening, I figured there had to be more to it and as such, didn’t feel I was worthy of the label. Today, I can say with confidence, I am an organic gardener. What I didn’t know then that I know now, was that my first steps toward organic gardening 20 years ago is all that is really needed to become an organic gardener. Every journey begins with the first step.
Over the next couple of weeks, I will post the rest of my journey that brought me to where I am today. I’ll enlighten you on soil, mulch, right plant in the right place, fertilizer, water-wise design, rain harvesting, fungicides, herbicides, pre-emergences, and in general, my organic gardening philosophy.
Thanks for taking this journey with me: I hope not to disappoint you. It is my hope you too will look at your garden just a little bit differently and feel it is OK to wear the label “organic gardener.”
Until next time…
Helen Yoest
Gardening With Confidence
