On the Patio

Insects bring life and drama into the garden.

I sit on the patio and watch the fish disturbing the water in the ponds.  Above the water, bees and hornets swoop down to skim off a drink.  The fish investigate. 

Viewing all of this, from a contested perch, is a metallic blue dragonfly.  The rival who wants his perch back is a velvety red damselfly. 

As I watch, another red damselfly zooms in and the two do an aeronautic dog fight, or perhaps courtship.  I'm reminded that I don't have enough submersed vegetation in the ponds yet.  Any young the insectivorous dragons and damsels drop into these ponds will probably be eaten before they mature.  Something I need to correct, and soon. 

All of this, fish, bees, dragons and damsels, is a pean to organic gardening methods.  Use of any insecticides would impact all the creatures in my little garden, not just the pests I might want to remove.

Fish and amphibians are especially sensitive to the toxins.  The toad we get around here isn't particually welcome in my backyard, he secretes his own toxin that can be fatal to my small dogs.  But I do miss the volunteer frogs I would get in my whiskey barrel back in Michigan. 

Toads in the garden, snakes to eat the extra toads, hawks to eat the snakes, the whole chain of life is linked.  Gardeners understand this.  We need to somehow get that message out to the rest of our society.  Nature is not the enemy. 

And when it is [I'll not deny that it can be] it means that something is terribly out of balance.  And that, usually, means that humans have somehow screwed up the natual cycle, and now are paying for that interference. 

And that is my soapbox for the day.  Sorry.  This really did start out as a lovely little word picture of my pond. 

Comments

[marianne]

Excellent post, Jennifer! I've always hated pest control services and would cringe every time they came to spray inside and outside the house. I had always accepted it as a necessary evil. Then I started educating myself about the desert and ultimately took a landscaping course. One of the subjects was "Integrated Pest Management" which I embraced immediately. I fired the pest and weed control services and have lived chemical free for a few years now. The occasional scorpion who might make its way into the house is quickly searching for an escape from the cats :-)

[Easy Living BIll]

Your little ponds sounds beautiful. We all need to be reminded that nature works fine on its own. Unfortunately the mass media propaganda machine tries its best to brain wash us into thinking otherwise.
I'm looking forward to see more dragonflies and butterflies in my yard this year.

[[un-name removed]]

I grew up in the midwest and do not recall ever being bugged by bugs. Now that I live in the Southwest and have relatively few issues with bugs, they bug me anytime they come around. When we eat outside the flies naturally come around. I sit ready, my fly swatter positioned.

[Jenn]

The blue is back today

[Dee]

I loved your post- very inspiring!