Pests?

Basil

I read a book last winter called "The New Organic Grower" by Eliot Coleman.  You may remember from a previous post where I talked about using his systems to get our vegetable farm going.  He has a chapter on pests that is titled, 'Pests?'  In it, he talks about having a system managed on a holistic level and how the pests can be self-regulating if you take them in to account.  His idea is that they aren't really pests when they are kept in check by good bugs, birds, plants they don't like, etc.

Green Beans

Well, Mr. Coleman, I am here to tell you that there aren't many things that keep grasshoppers in check in the natural environment.  Any of us that have seen A Bugs Life know that birds love them, but that is pretty much it.  When you find yourself in drought conditions, birds wander away and grasshoppers flock to water.  We have the plague here at Roving Donkey Farm.  It is not too much of an exaggeration either.  When I walk down to the garden, there are so many jumping around, I have to stop to let them get out of my way.

That's a dead one!

Want to know what a grasshopper can do?  It can jump, fly and eat it's body weight in vegetation every day.  When it dies (which is so not soon enough), it hangs on to whatever it is on and doesn't fall off.  That is pretty incredible to see.  The eating their body weight comment...I pulled 137 heads of lettuce out of the ground that were no longer recognizable because they had been munched.  Every time I tried to plant something new, it would be gone the next day.  There were 75 new heads of lettuce and 150 spinach plants put in three days ago.  You can't tell that they were ever there.

Onions

I hate grasshoppers.  That is a very strong word, I know, and I don't like to use it.  But for them, it's true.  I don't like their unpredictable behavior, their destruction and their long life span.  Next year we will be able to purchase an organic pesticide that will knock them down when they are in the nymph stage, but it is too late this year.  So, we are pretty much done at farmers market for the year, there isn't much left that is marketable.  You live and you learn.....hopefully.

Tomatoes

Broccoli