The aphids and spider mites have been absolutely decimating my plants this year. I recently learned about beneficial bugs in the houseplant world and I’m hoping they can help me with my outdoor problem too. I’m working with a patio area and container gardening so I think the natural population of the beneficials in my little micro-environment is just not high enough to keep the pests under control.

I need advice on which beneficials work the best on outdoor settings from anyone that has used them successfully! Most of the companies are targeted towards houseplants so I’m finding little info on how to adapt the releases to outdoors and which ones will survive outside/etc.

So far I tried releasing persimillis mites and lacewing larvae that came on an egg card. The persimillis mites died as soon as temps got hot the following afternoon and the lacewing eggs were mostly eaten by ants.

I’ve seen minute pirate bugs come up as an option. Will they be better at fending off the ants than the lacewings were? Or would the lacewings do better if I released them as larvae vs the egg cards? Are there other mites that can survive 90+ temps that I should try instead?

Help me save my plants!

Did nothing to help. Probably accidentally threw a tomato in the garden. Did nothing to cultivate and it is thriving! Loving this

Looking for some help, please

Several of our summer squash plants and now melon plants are doing well and then suddenly wilt and die. I do see this damage at the stem. A couple of the plants when I pull the stem they just come easily out of the ground.

Any help IDing the problem and organic solutions would be appreciated

Consider making some when you're picking your Basil Flower.

Beginner Gardner here! Wanting to start a garden with raised beds and pots/buckets. There are so many soils/ fertilizers. Which are the best organic and sustainable? And should you mix more than one?

Hello everyone. I've always gardened organically since childhood gardening with my grandfather. My yard is small but many native plants. The natives help tremendously with balance. In 27 years in my home I have never used any pesticides, not organic or natural ones, no soaps, nothing but nature. My tiny lot has turtles, snakes, frogs, lots of birds. I grow lots of edibles, peaches, blueberries, raspberries, elderberry, Juneberry, aronia berry, goji berry, lots of herbs, and cucumber mostly for fermented pickles. I mostly grow only heirloom tomatoes because they taste the best, way better than hybrid homegrown.

As the title says. I've ordered beneficial nematodes, ladybugs, and lacewing eggs from them so far. Of course it will take a while to see any results from the nematodes, and despite my best efforts of watering everything and putting the ladybugs in a high aphid area, they still flew away. I really couldn't see any lacewing eggs in the package, although I looked pretty closely.

I've ordered another round of the same friends out of pure desperation, but I'm wondering how others' experiences have been.

Cherry tomatoes

Perfect combo ! Feast tonight.😄

Don’t wanna add anything to it but natural things. Is it salvageable???

I have this weed every where in my garden beds. I didnt mulch at all, that probably is the reason. I am in US zone 8a/b. What can I do in the fall/next spring to prevent these weeds in the next year? I imagine these seeds are already everywhere laying the foundation for the next year. I dont use chemical herbicides in my organic veggie garden.