The dog days of summer are a time for enjoying and observing in the garden. While the heat may have gardeners feeling a bit weary, gardens themselves are just reaching their stride, with explosions of colorful blooms and bountiful harvests ahead.

Whether watering, weeding or just wandering in your garden, now is a good time to take stock of what is working and what is not. Don’t get discouraged by things that may not have turned out quite as planned. Instead, get planning; late summer and fall are an ideal time for planting here in Southern New England.

Many seasoned gardeners know that mid-summer is also the time to keep an eye out for pests that are the bane of vegetable and ornamental gardeners alike. There is no shortage of products that can be purchased or concocted to eradicate everything creeping and crawling in your garden.

Clever marketing might even make it seem like some of these chemical cocktails will only hurt bad bugs. But most pesticides are broad spectrum and don’t differentiate between beneficial bugs, pollinators and true pests. Entomologists estimate that less than 3 percent of insects are pests. Most creatures you observe at different life stages in your garden are beneficial. And most have voracious appetites for the pests that are attacking your plants.

The real solution to bountiful pest-free harvests and lush gardens isn’t found in a bottle on a shelf. It rests in the creation of a thriving ecosystem that respects and nurtures nature’s food webs. This method of pest management is known as biological control, or biocontrol, and it is rooted in science and ecology.

In biocontrol you take active steps to welcome insects back to your yard. Yes, you read that right — actively invite insects to come live in your yard and garden.

Once robust populations of beneficial insects are established, they will perform pest control services for you, but you must let them do their jobs.

In the long run, biocontrol will save you time and money. It will result in a better garden and will eliminate the need to use products that may be harmful to your children, pets, wildlife and the environment. But in the short term you have some work to do.

Although true garden pests are small in numbers, they multiply quickly and are less fussy about where they live. To attract the beneficial bugs you want and need, you will need to do more to create the kind of healthy habitat they require.

Pest control and pollination

Attracting beneficial insects has dual benefits: natural pest control and pollination. Pollinator conservationist and award-winning author Heather Holm conducted research into the specific plants that appeal most to the pest eating flies, wasps, beetles and bees you want to encourage to call your yard home. Step aside marigolds; it is our native wildflowers that form the foundation of a buzzing and balanced habitat.

Planting science-backed choices like Yarrow, Milkweed, New Jersey Tea, Quinine, Mountain Mint, Boneset, Purple Prairie Clover, Rattlesnake Master, Rudbeckia, Wild Bergamot, Asters and Goldenrod will make your new partners in pest control feel right at home.

To appeal to beneficial bugs, you will need to stop killing their food. This is the basic law of predator-prey dynamic. A shift in mindset is all it takes to view something like aphids as a food source for beneficial bugs instead of a garden pest.

Learning to identify insects in all their life stages is an important component of biological control. Technology has made this much easier, with visual lookup features on iPhones and Androids, as well as user-friendly apps like Seek or Bug-ID.

Expect (and embrace) the bugs

Ultimately the solution lies in creating a functioning ecosystem that is continuously keeping itself in balance.

This does not mean that you will not see lots of insects in your yard — quite the contrary. Insects are the foundation of the web of life, and an ecosystem is by definition a bubble of life. 

The beauty of creating a thriving ecosystem in your yard is that it offers built-in pest control and boasts countless other benefits too. Healthy ecosystems provide habitat for pollinators, songbirds and other wildlife, manage stormwater runoff, reduce air and noise pollution and minimize exposure to harmful toxins for your family and your neighbors. Most people understand the concept of a healthy ecosystem in nature — over there, somewhere else — but not a lot of thought is given to what it means to have a healthy ecosystem right at home.

Each place is as individual as the microclimates within it. But all ecologically sound spaces will be rooted in native plants. These are the most essential tools in restoring balance to a place.

By planting layers of native trees, shrubs, perennials and grasses in ways that mimic nature, you create an environment where the ecosystem can thrive. To bolster biodiversity, banish the use of chemicals and embrace building soil health with the use of compost and organic materials. Reduce the carbon footprint of the space by doing work manually whenever possible and embrace death, it creates life. Rotting logs, spent plant stems, tree snags and fallen leaves all represent shelter, food and nesting sites for the biodiverse life that is essential to balance in a space.

“Life in the Garden” brings eco-friendly garden tips from Cindy and Ed Moura of Prickly Ed’s Cactus Patch Native Plant Emporium, where they are passionate about helping people realize the essential role everyone can play in supporting life right outside their own doors.