Do No Harm

This appeared in the August 5, 2021 edition of The Fish Wrap.

When you see your garden with weeds sprouting and bugs flying in, it’s tempting to approach the problem armed for battle. The suffix ‘icide’ means killer, as in herb-killer or pest-killer. But the energy of killing is impossible to target precisely. A mindset of destruction will never lead to a thriving garden. The energy you bring to the garden should be the desire to promote life.

The garden is an organism, an interconnected system. When you attack one part of the system, all parts will be affected. Pests are not an unrelated blight on an otherwise pristine plant. A bug eating a plant is a sign that something is wrong with the plant. Some weakness exists in the plant that will only get weaker if you bombard the environment with killing chemicals. Focus instead on the health of the plants and the soil and their defenses will be naturally strong. 

At RLF, we listen to what our plants are saying. If we see a bug, we don’t get mad at the bug - we ask the plant what it needs. We all know a bit of plant language. You can see a plant’s desperation during a drought, and the absolute joy that it feels after a rain. It’s possible to learn subtler language too and sense things like where the mineral balance is off in the soil. You can also study your plant books for expert opinion about what the plants are communicating with certain symptoms and characteristics.

If a plant is unhealthy, it’s probably because the soil is deficient. It takes time to build up the soil, time you don’t have when the squadron of Japanese beetles comes in. Shorter term things, like insect netting for young plants or foliar feeding, protect your plants and bring the energy of life!