Since both bug videos, I have been sitting in my garden a few times a day and watching for all the bugs. I have been so excited to see all the good bugs working away doing their little bug things! I used to be worried about the ants but not anymore. And now I can really see the value of having the flowers near the vegetables.
Binge watching! Looking for some of Gardener Scott encouragement. My vegetable garden this year is terrible. Lots went wrong. However the butterfly weed was great as well as beneficial insects around. As well as the first monarch butterfly of the year .. really like your excellent delivery, great teacher!
Great video Scott. In Australia, I tend to grow nastertiums and violas for that reason but also as an added bonus, the flowers are edible and so they are dual purpose. Thanks mate another excellent clip.
WE allow nature to do it's thing in the garden, respect insects and have found that we have a good natural system and let the predators take care of prey which is interesting to observe and natural as we don't use chemicals of any kind .
i don't like videos much, i almost never comment: but this is a well produced video, well edited, with a lot of content (not sure if it is 'good' content as i haven't tried it yet) but well thought out information for me to take away what i can.... this type of video is why youtube is great. thanks.
Did I notice Lilacs? My mom's favorite plant. They smell so wonderful and look great too. -Edit - Got my answer at the end of the video. They look healthy.
I love the shirt from your merchandise line! Thanks for another informative video! I have a flower garden at the base of my raised bed and planted zinnia seads near my garden in an old ugly dirt patch with hopes to provide insects and to disguise my compost pile!
Thanks to your videos, I just observed what I now know are ladybug larvae going TO TOWN on web worm eggs/larva on my cottonwood seedlings! Missoula 5b, so grateful for your tutelage! (I grew up in Billings, MT 5b, which is closer to your drier climate, but I have learned how to adapt to the slightly wetter Missoula, west of the divide, so your info is still so helpful, thank you!!!)
We would make great neighbours except I live in Australia! Love your thinking and I've pretty much done much of what you talk about, but you put so much more perspective on it. There are certainly a few tips I will take on, thanks.
I ordered the book, except there is an updated version available. In my garden (Maryland, Zone 7) I was growing some ornamental Coleus for the foliage, but they also put out long stems of flowers that lasted for months and attracted several different species of bees. Thanks for the videos. They've been both a mental stimulator for new things to do and a source of great information.
I'm a sucker for fragrance and I will opt for a fragrant perennial or shrub, more often than not. I even seek out and choose fragrant tulips. The earliest bugs seem to like them too.
Good and real informative garden of life ecosystem wisdom. Insects go hand in hand with flowers and growing a garden. I love all the flowers that you have mentioned, thanks for your expertise .Zinnias are awesome !!!! Nice useful information !
The hidden secret of garden, diversity. Build a city full of cosmopolitan restraints , services,entertainment , human resources . Building the equivalent in a garden yields the same results ..a city of life and prosperous growth
Scott does mulch steal nitrates from plants? You're a goldmine of information brother, if my raised bed ends up a success it will be your doing. Me and the mother in law don't get on, but she's seeing me with new eyes, now I am interested in living growing plants and flowers. I'm just sorry I didn't stumble on such a miraculous way of life earlier, but better late than never right. Thanks for being there brother.😊👍
Mulch won't steal nitrogen from plants. There is a slight loss at the soil surface, but the roots will be far below that. I'm glad to hear your gardening is making a difference. Thanks.
I made a bug hotel. It’s about 7 feet tall in my garden, out of good new clean pallets. With shelves. I stuff pine cones, the lichen from trees, palm pieces stacked, stacked wood, water trays, little boxes made from wooden cigar boxes, tubing cut and stacked from old hoses, old coco liners stacked. Also made mason bee trays and boxes. It’s cool and natural. I have several different milk weeds. And a dutchman pipe vine for the dutchman swallowtail. I plant fennel for swallowtails. And they eat it. Loaded. here in Fl there a many different butterflies. I try and plant host plants for the kats.
In south california dry aridish envivornments I love borage. Beautiful blue flowers the bees, honeybees, and wasps go crazy for. 10:20 I want peranese! haha! Never seen that much awesome insect activity
3 year ago there was a tiny wasps nest under my bedroom awning, I heard some lady in a video saying she had terrible problem with slugs until wasps establish in her Garden. So I though great I will leave them there, It was all fine they never bothered us. It give in the front yard in a part where no one goes anyway. The year after I saw another nest starting to be Built I thought Oh great the little wasps are back... I didn't realized they were a totally different type, by August that wasps nest was MASSIVE it was starting to be a bit scary looking at them from so close.We could see inside the hive since one side was directly on the window(kinda cool and fascinating to look at the same time) even though the window was always closed, they were so loud getting in and out we were always wondering if it was raining.....I debated greatly if I should have some exterminator come to remove it, wondering if it was dangerous to leave them there,with all the bad press wasps get. I decided on leaving the nest alone not wanting chemicals to be sprayed on my property and feeling way too bad for killing more of nature when it's already suffering so much. With research I learned that they will all naturally pass away in winter(They never re-use the same nest either). WE were all fine nothing bad happened. I was happy of my choice. In the winter I noticed there was a big hole now at the top of the nest.eventually little branches where pocking out of the hole and Sure enough Now there is a family of little birds living in there! Their baby just dropped the nest, probably will learn to fly soon ! I can see them from my window when I peak through the curtain . SO AWESOME ! TLDR : I left a wasps nest Under my bedroom window awning last year and now a cute family of birds live in it
If you plant globe thistle, don't put it near a patio or your hangout space or you will be fighting bee's. Plant them to the back of the yard or garden .
Also, important to remember that there is no golden rule. Some of plants you mentioned for beneficial bug, attracted more pests and, like, never before, my black currant was attacked because I planted dill next to it this year.
Awesome videos as always scott! After receiving the tub and the solar fountain, My neighbors completely cut down the small tree that had all the sparrows in it :( Hopefully I can attract them back still with the water feature, But I seriously LOVED that gorgeous red flowering tree that had all the lil birdies in it.
My salvia attracts white flies, just before going to bloom. (It's the only blasted wildlife that flies up to my balcony.) I'm sick of fighting them, so I've recently done some reading to see if and how to prevent them, to be prepared for next summer. Trial and error, the life of a gardener, even when you've only got a balcony. ;)
Hello Scott, lot of good information.. I am having issue with Cucumber beetles and no clue how to control/ manage them.. any advice would be greatly appreciated..
I pluck and kill any that I see, clean the garden, and use row covers. Here's some good info: extension.umn.edu/yard-and-garden-insects/cucumber-beetles
What do you have to say about pests like birds, rabbits, and squirrel? Every time i plant morning glory something comes along and bites the stem which kills it. I re-planted an oak seedling i found and something came along and snatched that. The rabbits bite the tops off marigolds and don't even eat them. They also eat the tops off many other plants which ends up killing them.
I have trouble with squash bugs. They take over very quickly and can wipe out my squash plants within a few days. I spray them with a mix of water, dish soap and peroxide and kills the babies quickly and I think the eggs as well. Does a little damage to the leaves, but much less than the squash bugs do. I did try to leave them alone in hopes that the beneficial insects would step up, but these buggers multiply very quickly. Suggestion?
I always heard that marigolds was supposed to be good I find out that that's BS bugs love to eat them every time I plant marigolds they don't last very long but just tear them apart destroy him eat them
My 6 year old garden was ravaged by small mammal "pest." Sqerriuls primarily, rabbits, mice, rats, cats, and possems. I'm at the point of fencing my whole garden in, but I suspect that a temporary fix. Suggestions? I'm in Chicago, IL.
Fencing can help. I know gardeners who have had success by setting up feeders for the squirrels in another area. Try to find where the mice and rats have their nest and you can destroy it.
Sir, I started the A frame from a 16' cattle fence.Also going to train tomatoes and cucumbers to climb Question with the mulch to prevent Desease is compose ok to "much with. Or do I need the wood chips Sir I like and trying to learn. Thanks
Hi Scott, this is a topic I have been thinking about while starting up my garden this year. I am wondering if this is primarily a concern in areas with less growth neighboring your property? I live on an acre of land in Tennessee bordered on 3 sides by forest or shrubs. Will my native population of insects (which we have plenty off here) be enough or should I still be looking into dispersing these features throughout my yard to pull them into the garden.
It can be more difficult attracting some of the insects with non-welcoming areas around the border. I'm dealing with that because none of my neighbors have flowers so I'll have to do extra to attract the good bugs. If you build it they will come.
@@GardenerScott this is encouraging, because I currently have ants and aphids, and I am leaving them to hopefully attract beneficial bugs. They need to get here already.
Sunflowers are considered to be allelopathic. Do you ever have trouble growing vegetables or other plants near where sunflowers are growing or grew the year before? Also, I wonder how long this effect lasts. I love sunflowers but am nervous about their ruining parts of my garden for other veggies.
I grow sunflowers around the perimeter of the garden and not in the beds. The seeds can be allelopathic, but I leave the seed heads in place for birds over the winter and there are very few seeds remaining in spring to cause problems.
Thanks a lot - that's good information to know. I leave the seeds of some but like to harvest some for growing microgreens in the winter, plus a few for replanting the following year - they make delicious microgreens.
They can be great. Beautiful and easy to grow. While they reseed, I've never considered them invasive because they have a very distinctive leaf and are easy to pull if they pop up some place you don't want them.
Scott, I'm about to build an 8x4 wooden raised bed and it will be going in my back yard which is sodded. My question is, should I remove the sod prior to placing the box and filling it with soil? I'm going to go 12" high for the box. Thanks.
I've been trying to find out "when" to start putting down mulch. If I put it on when the seeds are first sown, will the plants still grow through it or do I need to wait until they are well established?
Potatoes and beans will grow up through the mulch. I don't know about other plants. For other plants I let them get established and then lay down mulch.
I put a light mulch down when seedlings are small and increase the amount as plants grow. For thick seedlings like squash they'll push through the mulch. For little seedlings like carrots I won't have any mulch.
@@GardenerScott Thank you. I'm very very new to gardening and I've been doing all kinds of research on youtube and I found you to be the best I've looked at. I am 67 and disabled, but with your help I was able to make two 4x8 raised beds by myself. I also got the hoops up! I'm ecstatic about it all. I'm having so much fun watching my seeds breaking through the ground. So now I know when to mulch. Now seems like a good idea. :)
Important to remember that one can throw off the whole ecosystem with one, "insignificant" action. I placed a blue tank in my garden. It disturbed hydration under the trees, even though it was far from them, it scared birds away from fruit trees so aphids going rampant on fruit bushes, but at least ants started farming aphids on flowers instead of trees... Hopefully it will calm down for next year.
monarch caterpillars only eat different types of milkweed plants not butterfly weed milkweed plants they do not eat anything else butterfly Bush and butterfly weed are not the same as milkweed and monarch caterpillars only eat milkweed that's it not butterfly weed so there's no good reason to get rid of a monarch caterpillar if you want to talk about swallowtail butterfly caterpillars eat different things the monarchs are having a difficult time so please don't mix them up with other caterpillars that can detrimental, because monarch caterpillars are never detrimental they do not and will not harm anything you plant in a garden of any kind oh that's of course you plant milkweed and even then they don't kill them off.
I never thought about dill or cilantro for flowers, but I'll try that this year! I'm putting in a native plant garden and a sunflower/corn garden so I'm excited to see what happens.
Thanks for standing up for the insects in our garden and knowing that most are beneficial. We were thankful for our wasps who hunt caterpillars. Also our Long-legged flies eat the bad White-fly. That was a Hover-fly on your Peony nectar . Ladybugs are awesome as well as the the dragon larvae .
Gardener Scott says "New Colorado Home" - he moved?! WOW. *Imagine* redoing that whole garden set up he had in his old home/farm again. But I also know that if anyone can do it, its Gardener Scott. :)
@@GardenerScott don't have bags just what looks like bag worms. Basically caterpillars. Not a lot but they are making holes in the fruit. Had tomatoes for years but never seen these on tomatoes. Only on Mortgage Lifters.
@@GardenerScott I determined these may be fruit worms. They come from some type of moth based on what I read. They drill into the fruit of the tomato. Thanks
