Garden plants are growing fast and this is when we might start seeing different types of bugs on leaves and stems.
Botanist Laura Reeves says that while some bugs will destroy the garden, some bugs are actually quite helpful.
“Beetles and other flies and wasps, all sorts of things, they're not necessarily pollinating our gardens, but they can actually take care of garden pests,” says Reeves. “Since I've been planting my cabbages and my broccoli next to my giant hyssop and my wild bergamot, I have very little problems with cabbage worms.”
While wasps might be a pest on the patio or at a picnic, they can make a huge impact on our gardens, and in a positive way.
Reeves shares one experience she has had with cabbage worms.
“I have gone through my (cabbage) patch and found hundreds of eggs,” and she walked away in despair. “I thought there's no way I could deal with this, it's just too much. And I came back later and I'm thinking ‘the cabbage should have been eaten by now.’ And I went through them, and I found five cabbage worms. What I noticed was that the wasps, paper wasps and the yellowjackets, were going into the cabbage and they were eating the larvae.”