One of the up sides of the down economy is the slow down of development in rural areas like ours. In our area, growth was so rapid and greed so rampant, that beautiful family farms were being chopped up into 3/4 acre lots in an attempt to extract as much profit as possible from the land. This practice was destroying the beauty of our area at an alarming rate, and many developers found themselves holding properties no one wanted, after all most people move here to get away from the crowed city, why would you want a neighbor so close you could practically shake hands from your bathroom windows?
So, for here anyway, the downturn has been good in the sense that we can hopefully save some of our beautiful farm land and horse farms from being a causality of a growing economy. With that in mind if we could now go one step further and turn those farms into green farms we could become a Mecca for organics. Centrally located 2 hours from 5 major cities, we can offer freshly grown produce that is normally shipped across the county from places like California and Oregon.
So how exactly do you turn your farm or garden into a green one? Let me offer a few pointers.
Contolling Pest
One of the number one issues you have to deal with when going green is controlling all kinds of insects without insecticide. Did you know that when you use pesticides that you kill off the beneficial insects too? And that the bad insects can reproduce 3 times quicker than beneficials? So it is a vicious cycle... meaning you have to use more and more insecticide to keep the bad bugs at bay as less beneficials are around to eat the bad bugs.
Each year North American homes use approximately 136 million pounds of pesticides on lawns and gardens, and in the home. In fact, homeowners use about three times the amount of pesticides as farmers. Most wildlife pest poisonings, and most surface water contamination from pesticides, come from single-family homes. Natural pest control is less expensive than buying and applying pesticides, and it's safer for your garden, your family, the natural wildlife and the environment.
Since we have horses, one of our major issues is flies. I can not stand the thought of rubbing insecticide on my animals. You might as well just inject poison into their veins. For over five years we have used Spalding Fly Predators. These are tiny beneficial insects that eat the fly larva in the manure and prevent flies from ever starting to build up. You add additional Fly Predators on a monthly basis throughout the spring and summer months, you can keep the pest fly population suppressed to the point they're never any sort of nuisance. The fly predators come by mail and you sprinkle the eggs on fresh manure piles. They do a great job and best of all there are NO flies! .... Well very few. No longer do our horses feel miserable with their eyes covered in flies. And we can sit out on the patio with a meal and not spend the time swatting at our food, it is truly a pleasant experience. We have enjoyed a fly free farm for years.
Another pest for horses and people alike are horse flies. I could not stand to see huge welts on my animals from being bitten. That's when I came across the Epps Biting Fly trap (Ironically this is my wife's maiden name but no relation) This is the most incredible non pesticide trap I have ever seen. When we first bought it I thought, what a waste of money, then two days later when I checked the trap I saw (not kidding here) 1000's of horse flies! It is simple to use, can be used year after year and only uses soap and water. 
Natural Garden Pest Control
The easiest way to prevent insect damage in your garden is to discourage them from coming in the first place. A healthy garden is the best defense. It does take more of your time but if you remind yourself that you, your family and the environment will be better for it consider it time well spent. So how do you do this? First minimize insect habitat by clearing the garden area of debris and weeds which are breeding places for insects. Build healthy, organic soil by using natural composting methods such as compost from fall leaves, glass clippings aged horse or chicken manure (from an organically kept source).Till your garden early before the last frost, that will bring up the grubs from the soil and the last frost will kill them. Then cover the tilled soil with black plastic for two weeks. This will heat the soil, killing more insects and weed seeds in the process.
When planting inter-plant and rotate crops. Insect pests are often plant specific. When plantings are mixed, pests are less likely to spread throughout a crop. Rotating crops each year is a common method to avoid re-infestation of pests which have over-wintered in the bed. As your crops matures inspect your plants daily and pick off any bad bugs you see. Get a good bug book to be sure you identify your bugs and eggs. Sometimes a potato beetle larva can be confused with a lady bug larva. Know the difference and check under the leaves wiping out the eggs of the beetle but leaving the lady bugs. I put bad bugs I find in a jar, once I have collected enough I add soapy water and make a spray out of them to spray around the plants. It keeps the other bugs away. There are many natural sprays and recipes you can find online Jerry Baker's website is a great place to start.
Have a Japaneese Beatle problem or moles?
Use Milky spores. Milky Spores are a naturally occurring host specific bacterium. It targets and discriminately works to attack the white grubs of Japanese Beetles. Moles come to your yard to eat the grubs, no grubs the moles will move on to find a food source.
Other pesticide methods work well too.
Get some bat boxes to put around, Bats can eat more than 1,000 mosquito‐sized insect in one hour. Bird houses are good too, but keep in mind birds also will eat your crop.
When planting a garden I also plant extra, which allows for some crop loss due to animals or insects. That way I feel I am contributing to nature and getting plenty for my family.
So there are just a few tips to be green while growing your greens this summer.
Happy Gardening!!!!!!!
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