This year I’ve tried many different things in both my vegetable and herb garden so some of things have been trial and error. I’ve never had a specific place to grow herbs or have grown and harvested the amount I have this year. I’ve dried the majority on my herbs on my drying rack that I made with a dowel bought from the hardware store inserted some cup hooks and then used twine to hang it up with.

Most of herbs have dried well except the chives. I read last week that a lady dried her chives under a sheet in the shade and it took about a day. So I gave it a try – after a week they are a mess and still not dry. Michigan weather can be humid so maybe that’s the problem.

For now I think we will just enjoy the fresh chives while we can and maybe I’ll bring some inside to grow for the winter, unless I come upon another method of drying them.

In the vegetable garden we’ve decided to go organic. We have not used any fertilizer (we used compost), and we haven’t used any chemicals for the bugs. So far, so good, the vegetable garden is growing with out a problem. Though when we first planted the garden and it was too cold for anything to grow, we thought, it if we had put fertilizer on it – would that have heated the ground enough for it to grow? We almost went and bought a bag of fertilizer to see if it would work! The temptation was there, but we were strong and held out, and, you know, the garden is beautiful.

But yesterday, walking through the garden, I’d noticed more holes in the potato plants and realized just squishing the potato beetles is not working. Our usual way is to get some Sevin insecticide and sprinkle it on top. You can just see the bugs drop off, but now we are looking for a better solution.

Well, you know me I got to researching on line and heard about the beer thing. You place containers around the garden filled with beer, and the bugs go to it and drown. So on the way home from church yesterday, dressed in our Sunday finest, I asked Bat to stop and get some beer. After I explained real fast what I wanted it for, so he would stop giving me wild looks, I realized he wouldn’t stop even for the sake of his prized Yukon Gold Potatoes.

So back to more research and I found a website that suggested shaking flour on the plants. I put flour in a canning jar and Bat put small holes on top with a nail and hammer. Now my vegetable garden is sprinkled with flour, it kind of felt like the old days with the Sevin.

So far this has worked – you have to make sure you first kill the bugs you see and then sprinkle heavily with the flour. Then, of course, the bugs just traveled down the road to the beans so I spread some on them also.

Every year, right around the peak of spring, we do a whole bunch of yard clean up work in our front yard. It’s usually in that period around Mothers day when we pick up a few trays of annuals at our local nursery and it usually takes the good part of a weekend to do. This year was no exception in that regard.

An interesting thing happened this year when I got to this part of the garden though. It’s one of my favorite places because it's all Columbines that self seed and get bigger every year. As I was cleaning up, I was wondering why the flowers didn't look quite right this year. So I looked a little closer.

Holy Crap! Infestation! The aphids were here and they were here in force!

Now it's not uncommon for me to get some aphids. Not even uncommon to find them out in force from time to time and I deal with the problems as they arise. This was by far the earliest and most intense infestation that I've ever had though.

At first glance I found that almost all the columbines on this side of the garden were under siege. In fact, I was about to break into the organic pesticide. I rarely ever do that, but this just seemed overwhelming. Before I did, I luckily looked a little closer and found something incredible. An ecosystem had developed right there.

Because of the abundant food supply, the ladybugs (Yes I know they're not bugs, they're beetles. That's the name I grew up with so that's what I call ’em OK?) had moved in and were reproducing like rabbits. They are natural predators to the aphid, so I thought it best to let them do their work. Also, I'm willing to sacrifice a few flowers in order to foster a healthy population of these beneficial insects for the rest of the season.

In that vein I decided to remove all the flower stalks from the plants and place them upside down in a bucket, then off to the trash. They were the most infested part of the plant so I wanted to give the beetles a head start on clearing them up. Aphids generally don’t have wings, although they can develop them for purposes of relocating when the food source is endangered or depleted, so I wasn’t worried about them coming out of the trash and returning. Don't worry, there were plenty left for the bugs to feed on.

WARNING ... EXPLICIT photos follow ...

Ok, they’re not really “explicit”, but I did find a regular lady bug love fest happening on some of the under story branches as I was pruning them.

I kind of felt a little peeping Tom-ish for taking these, but in the interest of education I'm willing to go the extra mile for you.

And this is "The act." If you look closely you'll see the two bodies of the beetles protruding from under their wing covers. And that kids, is how the birds and the beetles goes... MMMM K?

Here you can see the collection of yellow egg sacks lain neatly under a leaf and Mom heading off to eat more aphids no doubt.

So then, who’s this handsome little guy? Well, he is the larvae form of the Ladybird beetle. From this phase it'll go through a pupa phase and then emerge as the lady bug that we're all familiar with. So, if you see these guys crawling around the garden, they are your friend!

In the Short term, I had to make a concession to the aphids in that I gave up my flowers for this year. I have others. The bigger point is found in the long term view however. In that perspective I've helped to foster a natural ecosystem and life cycle that will benefit me and my garden later this year.

If the problem had persisted, I’d have had to go to the next step which, to me, would be to entirely cut off all green growth and let the plant try again. I’m happy to say however that this battle seems to have gone in my favor. The aphids have moved on to other plants where the battle continues but are in no where near the same numbers. And as for the lady bugs, well, I’ve seen more this year so far that I think I have in quite a few springs. So far so good I’d say!

All the best.

Paul~

You can reach Paul Gardener by email, or check his personal blog at A posse ad esse