5 Startlingly Easy Ways to Eliminate 90% of Garden Pests

[@davidthegood]

Pests aren't much of a problem in our gardens anymore - today we share why! Come to SCRUBFEST II: www.thesurvivalgardener.com/scrubfest-2023/ Get Grocery Row Gardening: amzn.to/3RoCj5U David's Other Gardening Books: amzn.to/3PKLZGC Subscribe to the newsletter: thesurvivalgardener.us3.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=d1c57e318ab24156698c41249&id=1f74a21dc8 Compost Your Enemies t-shirts: www.aardvarktees.com/products/compost-your-enemies David's gardening blog: www.thesurvivalgardener.com Thank you all for watching. Enjoy the fall weather!

[@GoodTimesHomestead]

I don’t know why you don’t have a million subscribers. 😮😊👍

[@margonyman7530]

We will be at scrubfest. Can't wait. Staying in the area Friday and Saturday night. Staycation with a purpose!!!

[@t3dwards13]

Lol A few years ago, my tomatoes were covered in aphids, I left them alone, then they were covered by ladybugs!!! Also...My mom had an issue with rats. One ate ⅛ of a pack of Ramen, and she wanted to throw it out. I told her 'they're not falling for your peanut butter anymore, put those noodles in your traps instead of discarding them!'

[@GypsyBrokenwings]

David, this year I had to spray poison for a different reason....ticks! I'm bit head to toe. I couldn't even pick strawberries without them climbing my arms and up my pants legs. I also found they liked to hang out on the gate and fence posts! I don't know of anything I can attract that'll eat them. Chickens are out as they'll eat the plants and dig them up... ducks even eat plants they shouldn't. Any ideas? Deep woods off didn't work for me.

[@suemar63]

Excellent information. I've spent 40 plus years gardening without ever spraying anything and have always had plenty to eat (and share). I recently moved into the middle of BIG AG in Illinois. I have an acre and every year I;ve planted 10 shrubs and 3 trees around the perimeter. After just 4 years, I've gotten my FIRST EVER praying mantis. We have a fine "crop" of bumblebees now too. It's exciting to see the changes in just a few years. I feel like I'm giving Big Ag the Illinois salute (middle finger--ha!)

[@FloridaGirl-]

Totally. You create an eco system in your yard over time!

[@shames59]

we find preying manti flowers for bees pond for frogs half acre next to 2 ag fields that 60 acres i like our method better it works i am in nj

[@UHC48]

We have had Praying Mantis for about 4 years now. I always get so excited when I see one pop over the edge a leaf as though they were saying hello.

[@suemar63]

My husband likes to joke that they look like they are debating whether or not they can "take us down". Amazing creatures.@@UHC48

[@123gyra123]

@@UHC48 I am seeing praying mantis' on the netting I have around my container garden and they creep me out. I am a first time gardener so I am still scary about bugs. Should I take the netting off so they can get in? I saw one eating a fly but I was saying, "That's not who I am worried about, you are eating the wrong bugs, lol".

[@explained3799]

I used to live in San Francisco, in an apartment down the hill from a small grocery store. One day I bought a cabbage at the store and when I opened it up at home, it had a big old, fat old, squiggly caterpillar in it. I stormed up the very steep hill, cabbage in hand, and showed it to the store owner. He kinda laughed and said, "That's how you can tell a plant can support life, your life." Haha... I saw his point. That was 40 years ago, so I guess they still sold organic produce, without fanfare, in markets in San Francisco. Yes, gratitude for bugs is the attitude in an organic garden. Sharing is caring. :)

[@BiggestLittleFarm]

Regarding #3. I learned this the hard way when my family and I spent a year caretaking a small banana farm in Costa Rica. I brought a ton of seeds with me, thinking I was going to have the best garden ever. I ended up having the worst garden ever, the only thing that did well was okra. We quickly learned to forget about our usual staples like tomatoes and corn , and learned to harvest and use yucca, taro, and yams…things that wanted to grow there. I couldn’t grow herbs to save my life, but culantro grew like dandelions everywhere. Even now, that we’ve been back in the US almost 15 years, one of our favorite meals is “Costa Rica Spaghetti “ which is basically a bolognese sauce flavored with cilantro (which is a poor substitute for culantro, but as close as we can get). Now we’re in Missouri and I’m learning to appreciate dew berries, persimmons, nettles, and ramps because that’s what grows easily here.

[@davidthegood]

That is awesome. Exactly right!

[@susandyson3921]

Wish I could walk around your garden. I'm 71 years of age. Grew up on 5th generation small farm of 134 acres. Prople were judged how weed free and perfect the rows look in the garden. Now that I find it Impossible to keep the garden pretty and weed free I have about given up. 2 failed years trying to do the garden by myself. Wish I had known about your type of gardening years ago. It totally makes sense. All the farms had hedge rows where quail, phesants, rabbits all thrived. Not only did all of that vanish but now I'm surrounded by 2,000 acres of solar pannel fields. Glad I'm 71 and not 17. So sad ! Keep up the good work young man.

[@davidthegood]

Thank you. I pray things change.

[@camperjack2620]

I'm 72. Its never too late. keep learning, keep changing. May God Bless you and I hope you're saved and attending a 1611 King James Bible Believing Baptist church.

[@ifyouloveChristyouwillobeyhim]

Thank you for sharing your amaing story and perspective. Put your faith in Christ alone!

[@rufusjp]

This year I got toads! The funny thing is, before they showed up there were tons of caterpillars! You can actually see the toads eating stuff around the garden around dawn. Now the only plants that are still getting eaten are in a tall raised bed that the toads can’t get to.

[@gryphonrampant1]

My friends the wasps do such a thorough job cleaning my plants I barely get to see even the charismatic caterpillars like swallowtails. And they're very chill around me as I work. I heard of some research suggesting that wasps can recognize human individuals and whether or not they've been aggressive towards wasps in the past. I have some native asters that volunteered around the border of my pumpkin patch and see SUCH a DIVERSITY of pollinators on them. bumblebee, honeybee, wasps, native sweat bees, pollinating flies, beetles, and butterflies!

[@countryfrau8328]

I dont spray and I have gobs of the kind of native pollinators you mentioned. I'm in 6b. Wasps? I see their eggs on horn worms and wow do they ever show up on fennel plants later in the season. They also love those Chinese long bean plants. So far no stings on us.

[@kamillepapini1503]

I love this info! Makes me feel less pressure to have everything "perfect"🙂

[@nickkitchener6155]

Grew pumpkins under tobacco on heavily mulched ground this year, and fed them a solution of fetid swamp water, pee, and water every week. Very little insect pressure and incredible production.

[@fieldcroft]

But adequate bladder pressure and production, I presume.

[@j0t324]

@@fieldcroft- lol 👌

[@SG-vu4qy]

God bless You !!! you made me feel so much better about my wildness. I love the offense strategy. I realize I made an accidental eco system by placing wood pallets upright around a little tree that was struggling with sun scald and wind abuse. I look out my window and watched my wild little birds hiding in it from the hawks. growing onward with a smile.

[@treesagreen4191]

My granddaughter was worried about some holes in some salad leaves we were picking once. I told her it was OK and we could eat the holes...😀

[@davidthegood]

Yes! The holes are also low-calorie.

[@chirigringo777]

@@davidthegoodthe holes are for holding salad dressing

[@ilovemichigan-1111]

This made me smile and giggle. I love it so much! Kids are such a blessing 💜💯

[@TexomaPrepper]

I used ‘chemicals’ twice this Spring/Summer, two doses of Spinosad on a 5’ X 8’ bed of sweet corn. I’m on a .25 acre lot in the N Texas exurbs and I’ve been growing groceries (chickens, fruit, veg, herbs) for five years. My entire backyard is now a food forest. Three years ago I decided a natural approach to dealing with garden pests was the healthiest, most effective way to go. I provide year round food and habitat for frogs and birds and my insect pest issues have dropped to nearly nil. Birds eat the bugs and frogs deal with snails and slugs. About three $15 bags of bird seed carries the local ‘flock’ through the winter and a 100 gallon plastic ‘pond’ with a little solar fountain pump is a perfect breeding area for frogs. About the only drawback to this system is that I end up sharing a good bit of my plums with the birds and squirrels, a trade I’m happy to make.

[@roberttillson2847]

Great video David! You put together the lessons it took me years and tons of wasted money to figure out into a short sweet video. I hope more people see this video and take the lessons to heart. It will save them all the time and money wasted trying to reproduce a commercial farm in a garden setting. Big farms equal big inputs! Blessings to all of you!

[@davidthegood]

Thank you, Robert. Blessings to you as well.

[@jamiegiddens5103]

I really enjoy reading everyone’s comments after watching this video! I’m learning so much, and I am 56 years old. I’ve tried so many times in the past to grow food like tomatoes, peppers, and squash, but never had any real success. I thought it was hopeless. This video gives me hope! I bought the Compost Everything book, and 6 months ago buried a big bowl of food scraps in my backyard. When I recently dug it up, it was so beautifully composted! I added that to a raised bed and filled the hole with more kitchen scraps for another round. I’m planning to plant watermelon on top this year! Thanks so much for these videos, David! You are such an inspiration!

[@tmontero8492]

Genius, David. Basic and sensible. As an active backyard gardener, I sometimes get way too hung up on videos with "new" techniques, methods, ingredients that I spend $$ on. There are so many ingredients in my shed, that I cant even remember why I bought them in the first place! I will save this video to watch from time to time. Thank you for sharing your wisdom, hard work, and foibles!

[@davidthegood]

Thank you

[@machettefreddy4170]

I hung up a bird feeder & fresh water supply in my back yard, 100's of wild birds soon inundated my yard, can you guess what happened to all my garden pests?

[@nickkitchener6155]

Did they lay down fertilizer under the feeder? Could be a good spot for a heavy feeding plant next year.

[@ifyouloveChristyouwillobeyhim]

I really wanted to install a bird feeder but Mom said it would attract squirrels. So people say the solution is to just "shoot them". Let's say I don't want to waste lead on squirrels. Should I try a slingshot?

[@dulcyreck4436]

@@ifyouloveChristyouwillobeyhimI feed my birds safflower seeds. The squirrels don’t like them so they don’t even bother with the feeder. I do have to bring it in at night, though, as the rats do like safflower seeds.

[@countryfrau8328]

Yeah BUT if I don't cover my tomatoes with netting with big squares that allows big bumblebees access but keeps out birds I dont stand a chance of getting tomatoes, melons, or squash no matter access to water for birds. I covered pretty much everything this year but cucumbers and despite growing a 30 foot row of them I literally DIDNT GET ONE CUCUMBERall summer thanks to birds finding them before they were even 2 inches long.

[@Jimdandy-w8c]

Yeah but what happened to all your figs,or grapes,or Nan king cherries,gooseberries, how do I stop them jokers from eating all those things along with the pests

[@ursamajor1936]

It's working for me! Anyone that asks me what I do, I refer to your resources, books, videos. You are really on to something with this gardening formula and I, for one, thank you much. This has been my best garden yet, in 60 years of gardening. I'm currently doing fall cleanup and top dressing. Winter for Wisconsin is right around the corner now.

[@davidthegood]

Thank you very much.

[@shames59]

60 years with a garden I envy you it's only 5 for me, but I'm 🪝 love it and all the critters

[@MichaelSchneider-RODENT]

BAAAAMM!!! One of the most significant videos, that either you or anyone has ever done... Comprehend all the lil insights you just tossed out in this video and a peaceful existence of labor, beauty and productivity shall become harmoniously achieved. Wowzers! Awesome! 👆🤠✝😎👍 God, please continue to use David and somehow lead us into being able to use this knowledge in these crazy times of what is to come. Holy Spirit please lead and guide us into and through to Your victory. Amen! HalleluYah!

[@davidthegood]

Thank you very much

[@Oceanhavens]

You are such a breath of fresh air, and i couldn’t possibly agree with you more. So dang sensible and so validating of my natural methodology. Thanks for putting your knowledge out there dude. I dig it.

[@christinaoliveryoung6019]

Be careful, you're going to get a bunch of no-dig gardening people jumping down your throat LOL🤪

[@Oceanhavens]

@@christinaoliveryoung6019 hahaha! I’m so slow it took me a second…

[@rosehavenfarm2969]

I really like the STUN method of plant selection: Sheer, Total, Utter Neglect, invented by Mark Sheperd.

[@ChristopherPisz]

Thank you for making a video I can link to people every time I see someone on a forum somewhere that says, "I just started my garden and I have all these ____ attacking my plants!" This coincides with the lecture that Dr. Dykstra gave with John Kempf, which is one of the most enlightening things I've learned. I stop looking at "how do I kill these bugs" and start looking at, "how can I improve this soil" and "What should I replace this plant with?"

[@davidthegood]

That's right! Thank you.

[@johnliberty3647]

I had 2 clusters of Okra with a Chaya plant between them. Deer only ate one cluster. I have pepper between my citrus hedge seedlings since that space is open for a couple of years. Hornworm only ate one pepper plant. In the past they went from nightshade to nightshade. Intermittent planting worked

[@HennoS]

This needs to be shared throughout all gardening groups. It stuns me to see how many fanatic gardeners still don't know these basics. This is the first lesson you need to learn when you start gardening. This is the foundation of everything we do and try to achieve in a garden. It doesn't matter what kind of garden you have or what climate you are in. This goes for all situations. Well said Dave. I'll be sharing this one around a lot 👍

[@davidthegood]

Thank uou

[@smas3256]

Confusing the pests and making them dizzy gives the hornets and ladybugs time to zero in on their 🎯. Enjoying your videos. Thankyou from zone 6b USA. Blessings. We all need them.

[@gerhardbraatz6305]

My best cucumbers by far have accidentally grown in my compost pile for 2 yrs running now.

[@elpinchechingon]

Glory be to God for such wonderful life!

[@camperjack2620]

DAvid, another great instructive post. Thank you.

[@mattpeacock5208]

This was a harsh summer! We did okra, as always. In S.E.Texas this summer the 100°+ no rain weather we had for July and August even killed the okra! This year was a mess. We got a great mater and cucumber harvest before old man drought kicked in, so your point about not mono-cropping aint lost on me bro!

[@almostoily7541]

We're in SE TX, too and my dad's tomatoes were done in June and he waters with well water.

[@georgekahn3313]

That was an excellent presentation. Thank you David the Good

[@markcdeyoung3118]

yeah you got to watch those wasps when they get in your mailbox though they tend to go through your mail and weed out your personal information 😅 ....I know I usually plan 100 plus tomato plants for the last 20 years or so I only get like four or five medium to small tomatoes off each one but I had four volunteer tomatoes come up in my compost pile and with zero-maintenance I got like 1200 picture-perfect tomatoes off of them even though I pretty much made a compost pile where I normally plant my tomato plants for some reason it didn't seem to help much when I done that 🤷 ... My thumbs are as green as they can be right now I just put a fresh coat of paint on the o'l John Deere

[@terencechandler845]

Breaking it down to basics that win in the end ❤

[@marysmith6229]

We have such a lack of pollinators that perhaps we ought not be spraying anything.

[@davidthegood]

Yeah, for sure.

[@skylady64ish93]

Wasps and lizards are eating all of my caterpillars. And the spraying is out of control. Even with Pollinator and reroofed Natural Habitat signs in my hard,the HOA still uses pesticides and herbicides. If I didn't bring the caterpillars in to safe enclosures and feed them, we'd have zero butterflies here. I hardly ever see bees here either. Zone 9B, Florida

[@MistyMaven-dj8ci]

If you plant Bidens Alba flowers, the bees will come. You don’t even need to buy the seeds. They are considered weeds and you can see them growing all over Florida. Collect the seeds, even off of your socks if you have to. Bees here in zone 9B love em. As soon as they flower my yard is covered in bees. Also I don’t have a HOA and mow less often than my neighbors likely prefer but then the Bidens albas and Ohio spiderwort takes over the lawn. I’d rather have the bees and butterflies anyhow. Try it. ^_^

[@ahtemmathehun3506]

I discovered the wasps were doing me a solid this summer. They were eating the tomato worms. Unfortunately, the horn worm out numbered the wasps and I lost a third of my tomatoes. I'm fighting bad soil conditions, a lack of good supplemental soil and compost, terrible habitat conditions and armadillos. My gardening season has been rough this year. I'm pushing the zone to see if I can get some food to make up for a lost summer. Your fetid swamp water has been a life saver! I highly recommend it to anyone who asks. Thanks for the extra tips!

[@davidthegood]

Thank you very much.

[@GUNNER67akaKelt]

Man, so like your style. So many people over complicate stuff. Makes you wonder how plants grew without people there to babysit them. The less pesticides and fertilizers, the better.

[@davidthegood]

I agree. Thank you.

[@monkeymommy778]

Don't forget to mention those yellow bug fighting rackets from Harbor Freight 😂

[@betty8173]

Such a great '5', thank you! The back of 1 raised bed, against a hill, filled up with a so called invasive false rose, but also, jewelweed, yeah, which I had been searching for; the property has lots of poison ivy, but, praise the Lord, lots of jewelweed!! My soil is finally looking better, but it's time to put all to bed for the freeze to come! Thanks, God bless you

[@jenbear8652]

I LOVED Jack Broccoli! And as soon as I finished I was wishing for a sequel!

[@bethsands7665]

You are speaking the truth learned from years of living with nature. I love Dandelions and so does my tortoise. Awesome and useful information for those who have not yet discovered a balanced ecosystem. I never understand why people spray poisons like round-up and have no concern for what they are breathing while they are spraying...poison.

[@joeramon2742]

Yahhhhh! David keep em green and bafemus proof!!!

[@monkeyfoodgarden]

Ok y'all I know the wasps eat our caterpillars but the red wasps down here in south Louisiana are just plain mean. 😂 They gots to go. Tired of em chasing me around the garden. My new best friend the electric fly racket. Watch those suckers get smashed while practicing by back swing and that sound when you get one solid just pumps you up. Wishing y'all a blessed day.

[@davidthegood]

That does sound satisfying.

[@urkiddingme6254]

I'm with you. Paper wasps and such, ok, fine. Mean angry hornets living in nests in an outdoor electrical outlet so that I can't plug anything in there, or under a door knob, inside the mailbox, and under the eaves have got to go. I prefer friendly predators near the house. The yellow jackets can go live in a tree..

[@markcdeyoung3118]

I know the Beatles chewed up the charts back in the 60's and the Stone's tongue still hangs out of it's mouth to this day With envy

[@loves2spin2]

Yes! I went to our farm store and bought a hypodermic syringe, the smallest i could find, and a few needles. I ordered the BT liquid from amazon. Once the plants were up good, once a week i gave each one 1cc of the BT in the stem fairly near the base. I did that for several weeks. It was not easy wrestling with the vines. And often the vine was so dense it seemed impossible, but i persisted and it worked!

[@elizabethpiela7389]

For what, vine borer?

[@loves2spin2]

@@elizabethpiela7389 Yes.

[@CitizenKate]

Love the bit about the mailboxes - who knew they would make such a great gardening accessory! 🤣🤣🤣 Good talk, as always, I appreciate your perspectives. Now, how to apply all this stuff you do on that large tract of land you have to a little 22'x17' urban gardening space... 🤔

[@davidthegood]

It's even easier in a small space - much less soil to improve!

[@bowtielife]

I just saw a wasp struggling with a caterpillar twice its size through the window. I ran out to video the carnage but lost it in the leaves. It was so cool!! I like my chaos garden! I'm gonna stop saying companion planting! We just have to go crazy like you do!

[@darlenepreston8836]

David once again you made a great video- thanks more please. 🙏👍🌻

[@stonedapefarmer]

That thumbnail game on point. 😂 And damn. Limited fertility this year. I'm gonna have a lot of squash this year, but I'd love to have a 160+ pound plant.

[@loves2spin2]

Yes! All such great information, David. The only "insecticide " I've used this year is injecting BT liquid into the stems on my summer squash a few times to kill the vine borders. Believe me, I have tried for 29 years to grow them and every single year, as soon as they start to produce, they DIE. I ran across this idea on KZbin this spring and it worked. I'm still harvesting squash! I had tried everything with no luck. My garden is a jungle right now, but we'll cut it all down in a few weeks and my husband will rototill it all in. Yes, there are tons of weed seeds, but the weeds are my green manure. Garden is about 75 x 90. So far we have over 1,950 # of produce and it's not over yet. 😊

[@diananazaroff5266]

Can you tell us how you did the injection of BT, please?

[@davidthegood]

If it gets you squash, great! BT isn't that bad.

[@FloridaGirl-]

@@diananazaroff5266I use a surgical syringe. You know. Like when you get a shot feom the DR. I have thin needles. But found just using the syringe is better. So easy.

[@patti2969]

Thank you David 🎉 Always teaching us something we need to know. I learned today.. 🥰

[@mollygardens6646]

I love your style! Thanks for the encouragement. I’m new to South Georgia gardening and I’m overwhelmed!

[@kablevins]

Very nice distillation of information, David! Thank you.

[@bethberry320]

Thank you so much. I love your information and I love the way you deliver it! I have learned so much from you. Thank you, David

[@mikeyfoofoo]

Nice garden revival sermon. Good stuff!

[@deborahkennedy8131]

Such an aha moment!. That you for this insight!

[@Happy2Run4Me]

This rings so true. I moved from a climate with very cold snowy winter and then dry arid desert summers to the South where we have 260 days of growing season and even stuff I could grow in the desert would not grow here. That’s been my mission for the last couple years is what CAN I plant that works well here and when is the best time to plant it? I learned about long day and short day onions. I went from the northwestern region to a southern state and boy did I have a horrible first garden season! Lol. I just had to learn what grows best here. 🤷🏻‍♀️Cowpeas, cherry tomatoes and lots and lots of squash and pumpkins as well as how to protect some crops I am still able to grow but with a little more help or shelter from the sun during the middle of the day. Bush beans are almost worthless to me to grow here. Pole beans do better but not in the summer, only in spring and fall. Otherwise it’s heat loving field peas. I finally figured out how to grow snow peas here and had a wonderful crop this spring! I learned so much about timing and I’m still learning about a more permaculture approach as I go because it’s so much less effort down the road and the plants are happier and healthier therefore more productive. I re-learned about the pollinators here and what seems to attract them. Next I’m putting up that lovely deer fencing and rabbit wire around my garden because that’s also an issue. I had great success here with the 3-sisters method and very much enjoyed that this spring/summer as well. The soil gets better and better! It’s all sand, don’t get me wrong, but I’m learning to cover it and feed it. 👍🏻I also have copious amounts of wasps and spiders. 😬I leave them alone and they’ve put up homes in my shed unfortunately but I leave them alone honestly. I do have to watch for leaf cutter ants. They nearly decimated my entire garden before I tracked them and eliminated them. Luckily most of my plants recovered but some like an established jalapeño plant gave up and died. That was extremely frustrating! They worked their way through everything just about but I am glad I found there hole. 4 times. So fun here in the forest. I’m a proud heir to a few pawpaw trees on my property and they are growing wild. I have dewberries in April. There’s a lot I don’t even have to plant or maintain here and that part is glorious! Even the spotted bee balm grows like a weed here. Amazing.

[@susanmarsh5648]

Words of wisdom 🥰

[@OrganicMommaGA]

We tried sowing some late-season corn in our garden this year. It's a bantam sweet corn variety, growing in a 4' x 4' raised bed (cinder block sides). We had several plants that looked doomed about the time others in the row were putting up their tassels, with some sort of insect frass and what looked like rotten centers. We pulled those few stalks and gave them to our chickens, allowing them the opportunity to bug and grub hunt. The remaining stalks do not show any signs of similar damage, so I feel like we were able to get ahead of the pest just enough to let the rest of the plants get stronger. Now, there are tassels with hanging pollen in many stalks and one stalk has tiny ants covering the tassels. On a neighboring stalk with tassels, a seeming large number of predatory bugs are gathering there. We watch daily as the number of ants (and probably aphids, too) are reducing in number, and so far the corn still looks healthy. We are in zone 7b and are trying new (to us) varieties every year, often in several seasons before we rule it a successful or "not for us" variety or crop. If we keep changing up what we grow, the pests are confused and we get fewer of them in general. I enjoy your videos and feel like we are one step closer every season to having a "lazy garden" of low-maintenance food.

[@caterjunes3426]

I'm 100% down with this, David. I've been building soil for about 10 years now in our current place. The plants are strong and I can't recall the last time I sprayed, even organics like BT. And, yes, I let the weak ones die out. I'm learning to be a ruthless gardener as well as a smart one!

[@TutuSainz]

Beautifully spoken! 👏🏼🙏🏽💕🌈🕊🌏

[@j.m.b.greengardens968]

I second your thoughts on planting things that are happy in your climate. I am always looking for plants that will thrive in our zone 7 Central Virginia climate, especially our relatively short, but essentially tropical summers. (Also things that will tolerate our zone 7 winters - mostly those require a bit of protection.) I would add that there are plants that are perfectly happy in spring and fall that do not like the summer at all. Assuming they even survive, they do not thrive, get buggy, have inferior flavor, and take up space for a crop that is, at best, a disappointment. As an example, I do not raise brassicas over the summer - in fact I try to clear them all out fairly early so they don't attract harlequin bugs which would wildly increase in population and be poised to wreak havoc on fall brassica transplants and seedlings. Besides, I eat brassicas fall, winter, and spring - by summer I am really tired of them. Give me okra, eggplant, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, long bean, &c. For those who want greens in the summer, I suggest malabar spinach, Egyptian spinach (neither of which are spinach) and callaloo (aka amaranth, not the callaloo that is taro leaf.) There are others as well, such as sweet potato greens. I find it entertaining, and useful, to research what is raised by cultures in the tropics, and in climates similar to this one, such as Japan and southeast China, and see what works here. I am, for example, experimenting with various edible gourds. Caterpillars - mainly various cabbage worms. Wasps will indeed do them in - I have actually observed wasps cruising up and down the flowering tops of collards hunting for caterpillars. And, in the spring, purple finches and cardinals and probably other birds hunt through the brassicas for food for their babies. I do occasionally clean up a large infestation of aphids to slow them down long enough for the ladybug population to build up sufficiently to keep them under control. I do use spinosad against squash vine borers, mainly by injecting it into the stems, but also spraying the base of young plants during the vine borer's egg laying season, but mostly I do not have insect pests issues. Good advice, thank-you.

[@countryfrau8328]

I'm in VA, also! I'd like to write now but I'm bushed. Ha!

[@victornicklow9792]

I have watched this video a few times.Makes alot of sense. Thanks for the info.

[@7strawbery]

I don't have a garden, but this makes sense. 😃👍🏻

[@cliveburgess4128]

I love volunteers! The plants that just sprout out of nowhere, never forget helping my neighbor rid his soy beans of volunteer corn because it dropped the price at harvest, if something grows by it's self, keep it, this year was a random Everglades tomato, simply would not quit growing, thanks for the reminder David!

[@c.l9154]

I’m saving this for the best wasp impersonation in the history of the world. ☺️

[@RealJasmineLove]

Wow that makes so much sense. Finally. Something that works. Changing your perspective. Thank you ❤ so much.

[@jimewood83]

I got a copy of your book. Very much looking forward to reading. I am just west off Jacksonville.

[@davidthegood]

Thank you.

[@shondapeacock3241]

❤Well said😊 but I try to keep certain wasps to a minimum, because they eat my Monarch and Swallowtail caterpillars 😢 but I definitely leave the mud dubbers.... loved your video ❤ from here in Rosenberg, Tx....🎉🎉🎉

[@davidthegood]

Oh yes... all caterpillars are fair game for wasps!

[@olsonlr]

Tree frogs also like plants with large tropical looking leaves. Plant some cannas, elephant ears, etc.

[@208roots3]

I absolutely love and agree with this! I have been working for years on our backyard ecosystem! We have successfully grown a large population of honeybees, when we started there was virtually no bee population….I feel like we haven’t gotten it quite right because although things are full of life, I believe we have an over abundance of flies….anyone have any thoughts on what may be out of balance and how we might naturally mitigate it???

[@roberttillson2847]

The overabundance of flies might not be your problem. Have you considered that your little oasis may just be the best place around to hangout? Cool shady on a hot afternoon? Safety? When the temp and humidity is right I have seen swarms of house flies in the Sonoran desert thousands upon thousands and I am still baffled as to where they come from but they just magically appear certain times of the year even in the middle of nowhere no people no stock just desert.

[@208roots3]

I guess I hadn’t thought of it that way I was more contemplating how do I compost the darn flies 😂 You have a point there….they are just so annoying! Perspective is important. I am going to try to have more of an open mind about this…

[@208roots3]

BTW @davidthegood my husband will be watching this video so he understands how a garden works in my world! Thank you for a straightforward video to help him understand!

[@harrybutler4077]

Plant enough for yourself and the insects.

[@IntegratedPestManagement]

Some good common sense right there..

[@saanichreport]

Thanks for the reminders! I wanted to add a discovery of mine for growers dealing with the cabbage moth. I used to cover all the brassicas, which was a nuisance. But since I began saving seeds, I noticed the cabbage moths prefer the broccoli flowers. So I always let an early one go to flower while the rest of the crop is avoided by this pest.

[@almostoily7541]

I accidentally dropped some broccoli seeds and two came up in my lawn. Right next to one another. One was a bug magnet. The other didn't get buggy for a long while. I saved seed from the less buggy plant. I'm hoping it had some natural chemical mojo in it that was passed down through the seeds 😂 It thrived with no water, fertilizer, and competing with grass. My kinda vegetable 😊

[@countryfrau8328]

Hmmm. Interesting because I was so grossed out by what happens to my uncovered brass I as it came down to covering them from direct seeding or not growing them at all....

[@lachlannicholls827]

Haven't watched all the way through yet, but I wanted to add something if it didn't come up. I saw this at Limestone Permaculture in Australia. He'd deliberately planted weeds like milk thistle, dandelion etc strategically throughout his vegetable growing areas. Sucking and chewing pests ALWAYS prefer feeding on the growth tips these weeds BEFORE they start attacking your brassicas etc. So on top of confusing the pests & disguising your precious crops, the weeds serve as a decoy & an early warning system of sorts. He would simply nip the tops off of the infested weeds & feed it to his chickens/ducks. That combined with a+ soil health meant I couldn't find a single aphid on his productive plants, even though they co-existed right next to the affected weeds. Sounds counterintuitive, but giving pests a food source they like better than your crops really seems to work.

[@almostoily7541]

Around here it's the pigweed ( wild amaranth) that's a trap crop. Everyone else pulls it then sprays. I let some stay and it gets ate up.

[@keralee]

Lambsquarters. Aphids adore it ...then hoards of ladybugs arrive and aphids vanish. Then the chickens and I enjoy the lambsquarters. I have bred mine up for bigger leaves, greatly prefer it over spinach.

[@kathynix6552]

Land cress is supposed to be very alluring to the cabbage white butterflies.

[@aok2727]

Yep. You said it. We had a big earwig year when we started laying down wood chips on the pathways. One year later. Back in balance.

[@losik01]

Best video. Thank you for the huge encouragement😊

[@AdvExplorer]

beautiful I love your mentality of no spray, let it die, keep planting many things. cheers

[@davidthegood]

Thank you

[@pampotgieter7611]

I love your water 🔫 pistol David! 🌍🇿🇦👍

[@rachelroot2913]

This man is a comedic genius. Now i have the likely answer why my cucumbers got overtaken with pests. It was the one area i didn’t add compost to.

[@danielleedmondson3347]

I love your videos, thankyou from Australia 😊

[@deecooper1567]

Great advice as always 🤩👵🏻👩‍🌾❣️

[@carolinekloppert5177]

Well you're not just David the good, you're David the wise and I officially dub you one of the great food-jungle creators. Loved this. It really works for me too in my jungle. What a great video on the soil, pest and biodiversity issue in its interconnected complexity but made simple.

[@trishferrer8209]

Thank You So Much!! Great info! I'm in W. TN, 8a (newly zoned as such) and the info here is very helpful!

[@jaredmccutcheon5496]

I want so bad to have chaos in my garden but it’s so hard for me to allow it to happen, lol. I have 3 grocery rows and love them but the weeds are so much harder to control. I’m almost to the point of just starting to plant in islands like you showed on some other videos, once they get going I’m sure I’ll love it. I do like to till between crops and add compost and incorporate it. That’s nearly impossible when you have lots of perennials in the beds.

[@davidthegood]

We keep the mulch going - that suppresses most of the weeds.

[@GARDENSTATEGARDENER]

Great video @David the Good

[@LincolnSayger]

Dandelions are great plants to have. They're medicinal.

[@damioncoke2644]

Excellent video. Thank you for the education. I usually go scorched-earth on the pests in my garden but do recognize that strategy creates a never ending battle.

[@nickkitchener6155]

This year I had insane wasp nest in a pile of junk destined for the dump. No caterpillars anywhere in the grow beds. Then I killed the nest and took a trip to the dump. Within 3 weeks caterpillars had completely destroyed my seed lettuces. And is the words of Sep Holzer, I had to become the wasp. As it turns out I suck as a wasp, and I lost the lettuce plants.

[@judyjewels1961]

Hey y'all 👋👋

[@valthatcher1235]

ALL great advise. Thanks David the Good

[@2021-j2d]

I like this philosophy. Seems easier.

[@tanarehbein7768]

❤😊 you go!!!

[@beautybygreg2601]

The wasps are the best helpers! They eat all the bad bugs and are constantly on patrol under the leaves.

[@MasterKenfucius]

Thanks for the warning up front. I was hoping for something to keep the squirrels away, besides the pellet rifle.

[@jacksonakson8224]

I saw Chamberbitter at 6:07. What a PITA it is.

[@kathleenebsen2659]

Thank you! This teaching is what you do best!

[@MariaInSoFla]

I so need to hear the message that this video provided. Bless you, David.

[@Mikhail-Caveman]

You're a good guy man! Thanks for the inspiration!

[@leomiranda-castro6908]

Agro-ecosystem diversity in action!

[@backyardplantlife3580]

I stopped mass plantings in my raised beds. I don’t plan anything anymore. I just walk and plant works. I have random onion and garlic throughout my raised beds. I carry a pocket full of seeds and when I harvest and see a new opening, I randomly select what goes there. I use carrots in every bed because they are a great ground cover. So good I can start new carrots in august. So my beds are all random. The bugs are definitely confused. And I get surprised at every raised bed because they all are chaotically planted. Feeding the soil is the absolute best thing I’ve done. Peaches in SC is a fail. 1/5 of my trees are peaches so it’s sad that I’m removing them all. They will be replaced with persimmons that are begging to live here I love your videos brother

[@davidthegood]

You are my kind of gardener

[@chrisinselwyn]

Gardening has certainly taught me to appreciate wasps, i normally leave some pears and blackberries for them at the end of the season so they have something to over winter with. They start looking for protein, then are looking for fruit sugar to get them through winter. The only time i can grow brassicas is when wasps are eating aphids. Something really cool has happened in my garden this year though we have a native insect hunting bird (fantail) that comes to eat bugs 2-3 times a day because of our compost heaps. Because i let some of the weeds grow to 8-10 ft high they have perches to aid their hunting efforts. The seeds that are left from the wasp's eating the berries then feed other small native birds over winter too. Because of that i don't clean my berry canes up until spring, much to my neighbours disgust 😂

[@nelvisaavedradelacruz139]

Excelente mensaje de este señor 👏