insects

If you garden, you're going to deal with insects, disease, weeds and pests. There's so much information available on-line it can be hard to know where to start. Some of the best starting points include:

• University of California pest notes pests in homes, gardens, landscapes, and turf
• Animal Pests: from birds to voles, we've got information and advice for many of the most common troublesome critters
• Weed Management in Landscapes (and a photo gallery of some of the most common weeds)
• Orchard Pests and Diseases -a discussion of integrated pest management from The California Backyard Orchard

There's more too, just look for the links to the left.

by Sue Van Stee and Joan Youngren

Overview:

Because this garden is an ongoing project maintained from year to year, the primary purpose continues to be choosing, planting and maintaining flowering plants that attract and sustain populations of beneficial arthropods and vertebrates including birds and lizards. We also try to determine the plant preferences of these various organisms. We share this information with other Master Gardeners and the gardening public.

Plants to Attract and Provide a Suitable Habitat for Beneficial Insects, Birds and Butterflie

by Nancy Garrison, 1999

Slowly but surely I’m becoming aware and interested in what I can do in my own garden to attract and provide sustenance for beneficial insects for the purpose of creating a more biologically diverse habitat and more ecologically managing “pests” that might otherwise ruin my plants. There are number of excellent references on this subject which I’ll list at the end of this article, since in this article I am only focusing on some key plants you can grow to make the greatest impact on typical “pest “populations.

My strategy is to plant a beneficial plant at each ends of each of my 4X8’ vegetable beds so that there is a ready supply of pollen and nectar for as much of the year as possible. Since the insects that tend to be a problem in the Willow Glen area include aphids, scale, whiteflies, thrips, mites and a number of caterpillars, I’m growing plants that attract beneficials that prey on or parasitize these pests.