Winter tightens its grip

I hope wherever you are you are safe and warm. Winter continues here in earnest with an additional foot of snow this last week, should I say they are calling for more this week? Will it ever end?

Well, with Dallas receiving a foot,  DC over 4 feet and even Lakeland Fl. having a high of 47 today things are more than a bit topsy turvy weather wise. One good thing about all this snow will be the addition to the water table which has had many years of drought. Another is that with this long term cold spell should mean less insect damage to our gardens next spring. Hopefully this will be the case.

I don’t know about the rest of you but I am ready for spring. Garden catalogs tempt me with their wonderful descriptions of new cultivars and I am itching to get my hands dirty. I made the mistake of saying dig in the “dirt” at a program and was quickly corrected (as well I should). Let me put my teacher hat on for a moment… Soil is alive and dirt is dead and is basically what is under your fingernails. That is a simplistic explanation but since good soil is something us gardeners all covet it helps to understand this important concept.
1 tsp. of soil contains over a million micro-organisms, yes I did say over a million. These little critters, which are obviously too small to see, are part of a complex soil food web which are the basis for healthy soil.

This graphic of the Soil Food Web illustrates the interaction between the various components of the web. “They range in size from the tiniest one-celled bacteria, algae, fungi, and protozoa, to the more complex nematodes and micro-arthropods, to the visible earthworms, insects, small vertebrates, and plants.” This definition is from the  NRCS site. With healthy soil we will have healthy plants, less disease and even less insect damage. Healthy plants are better able to ward off fungal problems and this healthy environment invites beneficial insects which will feed on “bad” bugs.

An Insectary will provide the necessary habitat for beneficial insects and they can be your next line of defense. Beagle Ridge has several areas which are Insectaries, click here for a list of plants and the various insects they require to set up residence in your garden. For those of you who are glazing over at the moment think of it this way. When you provide certain plants, beneficial insects show up, eat those insects which are eating your plants, which require less sprays, less toxins in the garden, less work etc. I don’t know about you but anything that makes less work while having a great benefit is a win- win in my book.

Nature has a way of working until “we” butt in and decide we know better. The more we do which breaks the cycle the more problems occur and I hope when you can finally get outside you will look at things a bit differently, see the whole picture and how things can and will work together if we allow it.

Until next time, let's hope spring will be here soon,

Ellen