Bugs

One of the side effects of becoming an urban farmer is that I became fascinated with bugs.

Bugs used to be something I only noticed when they got inside of the house. Usually I would either kill them or kick/chase them out. Once you start to grow your own food outside, you will start to notice all kinds of bugs. Now you can't kick them outside because they ARE outside. For that reason, I usually don't try to kill them. After all, they are where they are supposed to be - outside. However, in order to protect the result of your hard labor, you will start to observe the bugs. What are they? What are they doing to your fruits (or vegetables)? How to protect your crop from these bugs without using toxic pesticide? My very first tomato had a nasty worm inside. Gross! At the same time, I was so fascinated that I had to keep a picture of it.


You will start to appreciate beneficial bugs such as bees and ladybugs. Not only I appreciate honey bees, I respect these little fuzzy guys for spending their entire lives collecting pollen and help pollination during the process. Without them, we would have no honey and much less fruit to eat. That would be devastating for me. There is nothing like the sweetness of natural golden gooey honey.