Message from the garden
As a gardener, I’ll take advice almost anywhere I can get it—as long as it makes sense and is feasible for me to do it. This keeps me digging into books and renewing my subscriptions to gardening magazines, looking for tips and information I haven’t heard before.
Sometimes, advice comes from unlikely places, from books that aren’t even about gardening, for instance Isabel Allende’s wonderful work, The House of the Spirits. This strangely magical book is about life, love, families, and cultural revolution in Chile. It is not about gardening, or even about the environment. But in the book a plague of ants descends upon a plantation, and that started me thinking about insect control in a different way.
The plague starts as a “humming in the pastures” and continues as a dark shadow that creeps over the plantation, sparing nothing. The ants devour the crops, consume the chickens, and invade the household.
The plantation owner goes to town and returns with pesticides of every kind, which he applies liberally to the crops. The pesticides have an effect: anyone who eats the vegetables ends up with a stomachache. The ants continue to multiply. An expert is brought to the plantation, but in spite of his education and modern techniques, his efforts are ineffective.
Finally, in desperation, one of the old workers on the plantation is allowed to try a different method. One by one, he carefully gathers up a handful of ants, wraps them in his handkerchief, and puts the bundle under his hat. “I’m going to show you the way out, ants,” he tells them. “So, you get out of here and take the rest with you.” Then he rides off out of sight, leaving the expert howling with laughter and ridicule.
The next morning, the ants are gone, and the expert is beside himself. “You have to show me how to do that!” he rages. “By talking to them, mister,” the old man replies. “Tell them to go, that they’re a nuisance here. They understand.”
Of course this is fiction. But this story isn’t as unreal as it might seem. Although we may not actually talk to insect pests in our gardens, we do send them a message. If our plants are undernourished, stressed from lack of water, or suffering from overtreatment with chemicals, they send out a message to the insect world that says, “Hey, I’m easy pickings.”
Likewise, if our vegetable plants are healthy and robust, enjoying the nutritive benefits from rich soil, they’re less likely to be attacked. If you think about it, it’s the same with us. It’s those times when we’re stressed, undernourished, or over-tired that illness is most likely to get a hold.
Insects can send us a message as well. As Maria Rodale said in the March 2000 issue of Organic Gardening magazine, “Bugs are your friends. Sure, some of them are signs of trouble. But mostly they are trying to tell you that something isn’t right.”
Listen to your garden, to what the plants and insects are telling you. And send a strong message to pests by enriching your soil, supplying adequate water, and rotating your crops.
Note: Do you have a gardening story or topic that you’d like to share through this column? Please send an email to pamelacbaxter@gmail.com or send a letter to me at P.O. Box 80, Kimberton, PA 19442.
Pam Baxter is an avid organic vegetable gardener who lives in Kimberton. Direct e-mail to pamelacbaxter@gmail.com, or send mail to P.O. Box 80, Kimberton, PA 19442. Share your gardening stories on Facebook at “Chester County Roots.” Pam’s nature-related books for children and families are available on Amazon, at Amazon.com/author/pamelabaxter.