If you know your garden and plants' needs and provide for those needs without the use of chemicals, you'll be an environmentally friendly and successful gardener. And with so many of us enjoying gardening these days, it's important that we show concern for our personal and environmental health by using natural methods instead of pesticides wherever possible.
Think of it this way: Just as you eat properly, exercise, and get plenty of rest in an effort to stay healthy and feel good, successful gardeners ensure plants get all the things they need to stay healthy. Now take this principle one step further: If you're feeling tired, you try to get more sleep or eat better - before resorting to medicine. Likewise, where environmentally friendly gardeners find dandelion patches, or pest infestations, they try natural ways to solve the problem before resorting to chemicals.
Environmentally friendly gardeners don't try to wipe out every pest; they reduce them to an acceptable level.
Here's how:
- Map out your yard, take an inventory of all plants and trees, and then inspect them regularly for early signs of change in health.
- Relax your standards a little bit! A few weeds won't kill your garden. What's more, insects are a normal part of a garden's natural beauty and ecological balance.
- Having said that, decide how many pests your plants can tolerate before they are damaged beyond your comfort level, and when to start treating the problem.
- When you understand the plants' life cycle, the pest and its natural enemies, and the ecosystem surrounding them, you can choose the best time to intervene.
Choose strategies that are:
- Least disruptive to natural controls (beneficial insects etc.)
- Least hazordous to human health
- Least toxic to non-target organisms (the good guys)
- The most permanent
- Easy to carry out
- Most cost-effective in the short & long term
Once you find out what's causing the problem and make a few adjustments, find out if your strategy is working. If necessary, make adjustments - perhaps for two or three seasons - until the problem disappears. Remember, responsible gardening requires vigilance and patience.
