Nature wants to make your job as a gardener as easy as possible, but you have to help. So, let’s talk about putting in plants that attract the “good bugs”, the crawling and flying creatures whose diet includes pests that are ravaging your garden plants. These beneficial predatory insects do not live on aphid steaks alone. They need other natural sources of food and shelter for their entire life cycle before they call your backyard a permanent home.
Tahun lalu diawal kami memulai sebagai a rookie permaculture farmers, kami sudah mempelajari mengenai companion plant but yeah surely reading a book is much easier than execute it , right. So there they are… our vegetable plants and fruit tree… GUNDUL DUL DUL dilahap oleh serangga. Not entirely they fault because we didn’t provide them much food so they keep munching on our delicious lettuce, kale, sweet potato, apple tree, even our white sapote. This year we learned from past mistake, we plant a lots of miss marigold and lady nasturtium all over the garden bed, we are also adding more miss zinnia and herbs (our bugs dislike herbs) we intend on adding more companion plant but seperti biasa kami gagal menyemai beberapa jenis bunga dari benih import. Mungkin kami hanya berbakat untuk jadi petani marigold dan nasturtium. Hope this year be the best year of our vegetable, if not we will resign as a farmer…kidding…we will try again and again. Kalau mentok please give us a contact of good seedlings supplier.
They deter stripped pumpkin beetles and other pests of the Cabbage family, repel squash bugs, can be used as a trap crop for aphids and they are edible too…yupiiii… Seperti biasa awalny kami membeli benih biji dari brand ternama dan memperlakukannya bagaikan raja. Disemai ditempat bagus, pakai media gembur dan setiap hari dipelototi berharap benih itu sprouting…guess what? Yes, another failure just like miss marigold. Kebetulan juga saat kami melewati daerah cihideung tiba2 kami melihat ada penjual nasturtium dipinggir jalan yang menjual dengan harga wow. Karena kami memiliki prinsip berkebun dengan modal sekecil-kecilnya tentu saja kami tengok kanan kiri berharap menemukan petaninya (bukan penjual bunga) and yess we found him. Setelah berkeluh kesah si bapak memberikan tips “lempar aja neng, nanti juga tumbuh. Jangan disayang2” dan sebuah tanaman nasturtium kecil dengan harga petani (suerr, kami g nawar). Kami juga meminta izin memetik beberapa biji nasturtium dari tanaman yang tua.
Dikebun, biji tadi kami lempar….cuekin…and there they are, beneran tumbuh dimana2, hurayyyy. And now kami stek lah batang2 itu untuk disebarkan kesegala penjuru. Uhuyyy project nasturtium berhasil, terimakasih pak petani cihideung atas sarannya.
