How ace are bugs?

Oops, though tI'd posted this yesterday. so a bit late but here you go.

Well it definitely looks like winter is slowly ending. I could see grass and flower beds this morning. Out overwintering garlic was standing there with it's little shoots poking out of the snow looking very proud with itself for surviving. (we have a habit of anthropomorphising everything in my house, you'll get used to it)So I am now starting to look forward to the next season which is spring. Spring is my second favourite season. The first, surprisingly enough is Autumn. So it goes Autumn, Spring, Winter then Summer. I like the changing seasons best. In Autumn everything is getting ready to go to sleep and puts on one last show of gorgeous colour before doing so. In Spring everything is waking up, dusting off it's Sunday best and trying to attract all the bugs for pollination.



I love bugs. I think I really started to notice them when I got into photography as I could see them close up (not as close as I would like. Man I'd love to be able to afford a decent macro set up). Most people dislike all but the prettiest bugs and many gardeners see them all as pests. However there are beneficial insects which can really help out.

If they are not having a detrimental effect, then leave them alone as they all form part of the natural balance between flora and fauna which gives us the beauty we all strive for.

Quote from here

Now this site has a list of bugs which fit under 3 categories; friends, some bad habits and the enemy. This made me smile quite a bit. Makes gardening seem more like playground warfare, which I guess it is. But the 3 categories are important. Only one of them is solely bad. So out of lots and lots of different bugs and other garden animals only a few are bad. However chemicals and pesticides are indiscriminate. They will attack everything. Then other animals will each these infected animals and bugs and so the poisons pass into their systems. They leech into the water systems and eventually get into our bodies. So in the end we are harming ourselves. Does that sound like a good idea to you? Nope. didn't think so. So what do you do to stop your crops being devoured by slugs and aphids and everything else? Well you can introduce the helpful bugs to your garden either by buying them in or good old fashioned encouragement via the right plants. You can use various organic recipes to keep the nasties at bay. You can use companion planting where you plant things next to each other that help encourage the right bugs, discourage the bad ones and generally support one another's growth.



These are all things I need to learn more about. I am a gardening novice and am quite black fingered really. But I plan on learning this year. I am in charge of the herbs, salad and peas in our garden this year! Since I like all of those it's the best motivation for me to learn. Plus the more bugs I can encourage in the more pics I get to take :o)