Howard Garrett - the Dirt Doctor

A few weeks back I did an important post on Fidotoxicity which I hope will help spread the word on this serious occurrence. Some wrote and asked for links to Howard Garrett's site and for information on his radio show. You can go to his site here and here's a link to his excellent radio show information,which you can listen to online. Howard's methods are for organic gardening and his show is where I've learned much of what I know about letting nature work for you by using native perennials to have a garden scheme that is hardy to your region's weather and soil. Though his focus is on the heat-hardy perennials for the North Texas region, he also has a wealth of information on the site related to things which are universal, such as proper depth for planting a tree to engineer the long-term health of same. He also touts the importance of letting nature help you control pests with beneficial insects like ladybugs and mantids. One thing I highly recommend is his recipes for soil amendments like compost tea. These things are easy and just take a little bit of effort, and are ultimately cheaper than using toxic pre-packaged chemical stuff the stores sell.

The ladybug thing may be regional, though, FWIW. I was visiting my Great Aunt L. and her husband in the Ozarks one Autumn when the days were still warm but nights were chill, and there were swags of thousands of ladybugs trying to get into her house at the windows and doors. I would buy a bag of about 1000 ladybugs at Redenta's or some such garden centerin Dallas, but Aunt L couldn't give them away. The "one man's trash ..." principle applies here, I suppose.