GARDEN FRIENDS

Our gardens have many wild things that help maintain our landscape.  Basically, they are part of our gardening team.  Earthworms are incredible.  Try building a worm bin, or creating a place where they can't get out.  Use your kitchen compost since worms can process  up to 6 pounds of garbage in a week. They aerate your soil, and feed it essential minerals.

By growing an assortment of native plants, you'll draw a variety of bird species, and with plants enjoyed by butterflies you'll have visual delights.  Include milkweed, borage, sunflowers and yarrow. 

Spiders can help with predator control, along with toads.  They eat harmful insects galore.  By stacking rocks and wood in out of the way areas, you can create a shelter for toads, frogs, turtles, salamanders and lizards.  Keep dragonflies, they can capture over 400 mosquitoes a day.  Moles burrow, and eat their body weight in insects, slugs and grubs, while they aerate the soil.  Most snakes are harmless helpers and eat rodents and insect pests.  Bats pollinate flowers, spread seeds, and eat more than 600 mosquitoes an hour. 

Forget expensive bug zappers and pesticides.  Hang a fabric softener sheet adjacent to-but not touching- outdoor light fixtures to keep flying insects like mosquitoes and moths away.  They hate the scents generated when the softener sheets are heated.

Mosquitoes are drawn to your breath.   To deflect them, create a patio breeze with an electric fan.