healthy secondary leaves. The less tender secondary leaves *
were ultimately attacked and became quite heavily eater
About 80 percent of the secondary leaf area remained, however,
and very tasty, unblemished beans were harvested. The yield in :
pounds was still 3.9 times the United States average! Recent tests :
- have shown that leaf damage of up to 30% by insects can actually
increase the yield of some crops. At another extreme you may -
wish to sacrifice some yield for beauty: many destructive cater-
pillars become beautiful butterflies. To get the yield you want
and/or to encourage the presence of butterflies, you can plant
extra-planits of the crop they like. ' ;
We often underestimate the ability of plants to take care of
\_ themselves. The damage done by insects is often a very small
percentage-of the edible crop. Because of this, many biodynamic i
gardeners plant a little extra for the insect world to eat. This ;
b practice is beautiful, mellow and in keeping with life-giving :
* , forms of insect control. Furthermore, extensive research has i
shown that beneficial organisms found in soil and ocean environ- :
ments can withstand stress, in the form of temperature, pressure,
Los pH and nutriment fluctuations, toa much greater degree in an
~ , organically fertilized medium than ina synthetically fertilized
medium. I suspect researchers will come toa similar conclusion
about plant resistance to insect attack.
Any time an insect or other pest invades your garden, there
is an opportunity to learn more about nature’s cycles and bal-
ances. Learn why they are there and finda living control. Look
for controls that will affect only the one harmful insect. Protect
new seedlings from birds and squirrels with netting or chicken
wire, trap earwigs in dry dark places, wash aphids off witha
strong spray of water, or block ants with a sticky barrier of vase-
line, tanglefoot or tack trap. While you are doing this, continue -
to strive for a long-term natural balance in your growing area.
At our Common Ground Research Garden the only two pest
problems we have had to puta lot of energy into are snails and
gophers. The first few years we primarily trapped gophers. A lot
of time was spent checking and resetting traps and worrying
about them, yet the damage they did was probably only about 5%.
We later found that in addition to gopher snakes they really don’t
like smelly things down their holes (sardines, garlic juice, fish
heads, male urine, and dead gophers). Here a combination of
approaches and gentle persistance has paid off. Gopher snakes
are, of course, the best preventers of a population explosion.
ae Finally, we noticed that the gophers come mainly from a grassy
: area east of the garden. We hope to eventually block that side
with a wide bed of daffodils. Daffodils contain arsenic in their
bulbs and thereby can discourage these animals.
We have a simple routine for snails and slugs. At the end of
the spring rains we go out at night with flashlights and collect
gallons of them. The snails are then dropped in buckets of

~
i.

100 A Belonced Backyard Ecosystem and Insect Life