This revised and updated edition of Jessica Walliser's award-winning Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden offers a valuable and science-backed plan for bringing balance back to the garden.
With this indispensable gardening reference--now updated with new research, insights, and voices--learn how to create a healthy, balanced, and diverse garden capable of supporting a hard-working crew of beneficial pest-eating insects and eliminate the need for synthetic chemical pesticides.
After a fascinating introduction to the predator and prey cycle and its importance to both wild ecosystems and home gardens, you'll meet dozens of pest-munching beneficial insects (the predators) that feast on garden pests (their prey). From ladybugs and lacewings to parasitic wasps and syrphid flies, these good guys of the bug world keep the natural system of checks and balances in prime working order. They help limit pest damage and also serve a valuable role in the garden's food web. But, they won't call your garden home if you don't have the resources they need to survive.
With a hearty population of beneficial insects present in your garden, you'll say goodbye to common garden pests like aphids, cabbage worms, bean beetles, leafhoppers, and hornworms, without reaching for a spray can. To encourage these good guys to stick around and do their important work, you'll learn how to create a welcoming habitat and fill your garden with the best plants to support them.
Inside you'll find:
- Bug profiles introducing dozens of beneficial insects and the down-and-dirty details on how they catch and eat their prey
- Plant profiles featuring the best plants for supporting beneficials
- Interviews with entomologists who focus their life's work on understanding the value of insects, including Doug Tallamy, Paula Shrewsbury, Leslie Allee, Dan Herms, and others
- An inspiring look at how plants and insects intersect in the most incredible ways
- Why gardening for bugs is just as important to the greater world as it is to your garden
- Tips for creating insectary plantings and borders to support a broad range of beneficials
The acclaimed first edition of Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden ushered in a new way to garden; one that appreciates and understands of the power of returning a natural balance to the garden. This revised and updated edition continues to herald and expands on that same important message.
"Jessica Walliser lets readers in on the secrets to a garden that buzzes with activity. Her profiles, on the insects that fight pests and the best plants for attracting them, offer clear, practical tips." -- Martha Stewart Living
"An aid for teachers as well as gardeners, who want to know more about the insects in their world." -- The Indianapolis Star
"With [Jessica Walliser's] help, you can learn how to control pests through your gardening practices rather than your choice of insecticide." -- Gardening How-To
"A detailed, wholistic, and wonderfully illustrated guide to the lifestyles of all the insects that inhabit the organic garden as well as creating the conditions needed to encourage those you want in the fight against those you don't." -- Planet Natural
"A delight! Easy to read and entertaining, yet packed with information not only on the beneficial insects themselves, but on the plants that can attract and support them, and on how to incorporate them into your garden. Highly recommended!" -- It's Not Work, It's Gardening
" Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden by Jessica Walliser, is a fresh look at an unavoidable part of the gardening experience.... a must-have tool for new and experienced gardeners alike." -- Free Press
"Learn to identify good bugs and bad bugs...and what to plant to lure the cavalry." -- Newsday
Table of Contents:
Introduction
How a Horticulturist Came to Bugs
All About Beneficials
Who They Are, How They Work, and What They Eat
Beneficial Bug Profiles
Meet the Predators and the Parasitoids
Gardening for Bugs
Where Plants and Insects Intersect
Plant Profiles
The Best Plants for Beneficials
Your Beneficial Border
A Guide to Designing for the Bugs
Companion Planting
Battling Pests with Plant Partnerships
Putting It All Together
Who the Beneficials Eat and What to Plant
The Commercial Stuff
Purchased Beneficials, Good Bug Lures, Supplemental Foods, and Seed Blends
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Resources
Index
Jessica Walliser is a horticulturist and the award-winning author of seven gardening books. In addition, she is co-founder of the popular website SavvyGardening.com. Jessica is a two-time winner of the prestigious American Horticultural Society Book Award for her books Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden: A Natural Approach to Pest Control and Plant Partners: Science-based Companion Planting Strategies for the Vegetable Garden. For 15 years, Jessica contributed two weekly columns to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review where she had the pleasure of covering a wide range of gardening topics. Jessica was also the long-time co-host of The Organic Gardeners, an award-winning program on KDKA Radio in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She has a degree in horticulture from the Pennsylvania State University and is the former owner of a 25-acre organic market farm.
Cool Springs Press
Publication Date: February 1, 2022
0.6" H x 9.0" L x 8.0" W
208 pages
paperback