"len gardener" wrote in message
...
g'day pete,

hope things are fairing well in your neck of the woods, like most a
bit of rain wouldn't go astray to say the least.

we look at managing our pests more than trying to erradicate so we are
probably less tempted to go for the big guns, my main driving force is
bad health that i feel was at least contributed to by residues in what
is perported to be fresh fruits and vege's.

so in our garden we accept some quiet visible predation by bugs, as
yet our system is young so the good guys are still to come into
balance, but they are appearing, and we attract very many birds around
our food growing areas they also help. but for us it will be the
chilly spray and coffee spray.

we too are managing our resource using basically a common sense
approach and all is working quiet well in our books.

and for countries that need to import fresh food due to lack of
agricultural land or whatever well! that is a whole other issue, but
maybe community farms may go part the way to bridging the gap a lot of
staple foods can be grown on a 5 acre patch. and people can grow a lot
of the other stuff they want in containers. just some thoughts.

len

snipped
--
happy gardening
'it works for me it could work for you,'

"in the end ya' gotta do what ya' gotta do" but consider others and the
environment
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gardenlen1/

Hiya Len
Good to se you're still around too mate.
My ISP's news server has been having some hiccups and some posts of mine
didn't get posted so I now have a couple of different newservers so if my
posts look like they came from somewhere else they probably did.

We are getting some rain here ..dribs and drabs mostly but big thunderstorm
last night ... so far its looking pretty good for the farmers seeding and we
are hoping to build on last years effort of rejuvenating one of the small
paddocks (if I get me Fergie tractor back together again quickly).

At this time of year the biggest pests are the snails, we don't get many
slugs (unless they are just hiding from me) and its also the time of year
when the Sleepy lizards go to sleep for the winter so they are no help in
controlling the snails, definitely need some ducks.

One of the troubles I have is protecting the young plants from lizards so I
planted some stuff (mainly herbs) in old cut down water tanks which of
course stops lizards from getting to the plants but also stops em from
getting to the pests too.

As far as the flying sap sucking type of bugs go I think the Little Willie
wagtail is the king of bug eating birds and although the African boxthorn
plant is a declared pest here they seem to prefer this shrub for nesting in
on my place, so I have one that will stay just as a home for these little
guys.

A couple of weeks ago the whole place was swarming with flying ants and
other "midgy" type insects then the dragonflies moved in and I was
fascinated just standing in the middle of the paddock watching millions of
em eat their way through the swarms ..it really was like being in another
world ... if you've ever stood in one of those butterfly houses and been
surrounded by that eerie silence as butterflies flutter inches from your
nose you'll know what I mean, they even seem to look directly in your eyes
(no I wasn't drunk :-)).

I don't blame anyone for using synthetic means to control pests, each to
his/her own...but I just couldn't do it.

I love doing things the way I do em ...right or wrong ....and nature never
ceases to amaze me, I don't want to do anything to stop being amazed.

Pete