If you ever check the so-called garden experts, they have many, many ideas about how to keep insect pests from the plants. Trust me when I say that I have tried hundreds of "natural" methods. Any time something new hits the gardening grapevine, I pounce on it because I guess I fall into one of two categories. Either I am a "hardcore green gardener" or I am gullible..maybe both. I have gone the whole route of spraying with dish soap, misting with diluted mouthwash, grating a bar of soap down the rows, using my sifter to "flour" the plants and doing companion planting. All of the first methods were pretty much a bust but but the last one was just pretty. Planting flowers in the vegetable patch may not do much for keeping the bugs at bay but you do not get as frustrated at them when you have bright flowers bobbing their heads in the breeze. Flowers for the win!
The insect pests pretty much ruled the gardens. Without the aid of chemical sprays and powders, the critters multiplied like crazy and soon outnumbered the plants! They flourished whereas the plants, well, looked terrible. It finally came to the point that I was literally growing "green lace". The bugs chewed holes in every leaf!
Mother Nature always knows what is to be done when things get to a breaking point. She sent in the frogs, toads and lizards with a couple of snakes thrown in for good measure. It did not take long before the plants looked better and the reptiles and amphibians were fat and happy.
All in all, I am ok with having critters in the gardens as long as they do a service. Having frogs squirm out from underfoot or skinks pouncing on the shoulder from tall plants may be unnerving to some but I look at it as a job well done. They can stay.
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