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Other unpleasant aspects of desert gardening is watching a tree die in just a matter of
days from Texas root rot, or seeing all your newly emerged seedlings ripped from the
ground by a curve-billed thrasher, or planting a five gallon mesquite and finding its bark
has been removed by a hungry cottontail during the night. Then there's the joy of
discovering heads of lettuce chewed to pieces by ground squirrels, or walking around the
corner of the house to find a herd of javelinas wallowing in a flower bed. Ah yes, the
trials and tribulations of Tucson gardening. Some days you might wonder why bother?
Certainly
not every desert gardener is going to have to fight or tolerate all the above mentioned
pests. It depends on how urban, suburban or rural your gardening. If your garden is
near a natural wash or areas of undeveloped land watch out because nature's creatures are
abundant. And some years they'll be more so than others.
It's fun to watch the bunnies, especially the young ones, scampering around the
yard but don't think they can't cause your garden some damage. And if you make water
available to the rabbits, birds and other animals you might be compounding your pest
problem. Even mature plant specimens can be damaged when rabbits chew the bark off the
trunk or nibble the branches back until there's nothing left.
Thousands of aphids can cover new growing shoots and buds or cover the underside of
leaves sucking the life from the plant. Cabbage loopers and other caterpillars chew off
leaves while leaving their droppings behind. Beetles chew holes in the leaves. Cut worms
and grubs can kill young seedlings by chewing through the stems cutting them off at ground
level or eating away at the roots. Spider mites can discolor leaves by sucking out the
juices. And the list of culprits goes on.
The Tucson gardener will have to learn to live with some of the insects if they're in
moderate numbers. It's when they begin to dominate the plant and hinder its appearance or
growth that action will need to be taken.
It may be as simple as patrolling the grounds and removing unwanted insects by
hand. Or maybe a blast from the hose while you're watering will knock the culprits
off the plant. If you're growing vegetables you can try floating row covers which keep the
insects out. The row covers work well on some vegetables like low growing lettuce but the
thin material has a tendency to rot after a few months under the desert sun. In the spring
birds and rodents find the soft fibers of the row covers make excellent nesting material.
The next step is to try environmentally friendly control methods such as insecticidal
soap, diatomaceous earth, rotenone, bacillus thuringiensis and many other
alternatives to harsh chemical control. Gardens Alive sells what they call
"environmentally responsible products that work!" and offer a wide array of
products if you can't find what you're looking for locally. (Gardens Alive, 5100 Schenley Place, Lawrenceburg,
IN 47025.)
The Tucson Gardener can't vouch for the success of buying garden
predators such as lady beetle larva, lacewings or preying mantis and introducing them into
the garden to reduce the number or harmful insects. However I have witnessed roadrunners
gobbling up grubs and young rodents; lizards eating ants and many other small moving
insects; cactus wrens plucking caterpillars from beneath leaves and spiders trapping their
victims in their webs.
Unfortunately the roadrunners like eating other young birds, and any
lizards they can catch. It's a vicious cycle and finding a satisfactory balance of
predators and prey may not be easy. And who's to say your package of lady beetles will
stick around once you release them in your garden?
Chemical control should be the last resort if you're an environmentally
conscientious gardener. No doubt chemicals on the market have been thoroughly tested and
as consumers we have to assume they are relatively safe if the user follows all
instructions. So be sure to read the label carefully and follow the instructions.
Sooner or later some of your plants are going to come down with some sort
of affliction that may be more work to cure than is worth the effort. The solution may be
not to grow some things and only plant resistant varieties of others. That's part of
being a Tucson gardener -- adapting to the environment in which you garden.
(1998) |
