Natural Pest Control

One of the major challenges for any gardener or farmer is how to keep away pests. Unfortunately, we have often turned to pesticides in order to control pest outbreaks in our gardens. Our class was fortunate enough to visit the University of Alberta's Devonian Botanical Garden where we were introduced to the idea of Natural Pest Control. Essentially, it is the process of using other insects and plants to eliminate bothersome pests. From an Indigenous perspective, we were happy to see Mother Earth being seen as a helping hand in the gardening process, rather than an enemy needing to be brought under control.

Here are a few resources to help you get started with Natural Pest Control:

The University of California has put together a poster that lists some of the major predators and parasites that can be used to prey on worrisome garden pests. Click on the photograph to link to their website where you can download a larger copy of this poster for printing.

Atlantis Hydroponics suggests that you create a "Bug Army" to help eliminate problem insects. They have a handy graph to help determine what is the best beneficial insect for the problem you are having. Click on the poster to go to their blog post where you can find a larger version of this graph.

While limited, this infographic from New Scientist gives you can idea on what plants to grow together and why. It would be an interesting research project to undertake to find out which native plants to Alberta grow best together and try to determine what the reason is for each plant pairing.