A Story About Working with Nature - Weekend Homesteading Report
This weekend I got to see nature doing its thing and working hard to keep abundance going on my homestead. You may hear people like me and others use the phrase "working with nature" but sometimes it is hard to make it feel "real".
Here is a short story from the weekend that hopefully will help you understand what "working with nature" looks like in practice.
The Food Forest Comes to Life
My front food forest is really coming to life and I noticed something new while I was working over the weekend. There were just tons of little bugs flying around.
This got me curious because these days that is just not that common of a sight these days. But I had a lot to do so I only had a few minutes to watch the bugs fly about before getting back to work.
The next thing I noticed was that several of my cascara trees had a bunch of sticky stuff all over their leaves. That was odd...
Then as I was working I noticed that all the bugs flying around had a bit of red on them and I started seeing red dots on some of the plants.
I realized that there the bugs I was seeing were all lady bugs!
But why?
Well I had a lot of work to do so the question got put aside but I kept pondering it while I was working. Was it connected to the sticky stuff on the cascara leaves?
Then I made the observation that put it all together. The young growth on the cascara trees were covered in aphids! But right there were lady bugs munching away on the aphids.
It dawned on me that the sticky stuff was sap. This was the tree's way of trying to defend against the aphids!
And of course the lady bugs loved munching on the aphids.
But what really made me happy was that here was proof that what I talk about all the time--working with nature to create a balance on your homestead--actually works!
I believed it works and I had made past observations that made me feel that this approach works but there was something special about seeing a swarm of lady bugs keeping the aphids in check.
If I had not setup my homestead to support the lady bugs then the aphids would not be in check. It was decisions I made several years ago when I moved to this homestead that made what I saw over the weekend possible.
That really made this weekend an awesome one for me.
Working With Nature
I'm continuing to work with nature and setup my homestead to support the vast range of wildlife from small to big.
This bee barn was an early Father's Day gift that I just got up and will help support native pollinators.
Small steps like the bee barn, planting native plants, planting trees, installing snags, setting up rock piles, etc. All make a difference but it is the cumulative impact of them all together that will make your homestead a wild homestead.
There is more I wanted to share with you all but I'm afraid I'm feeling really sick at the moment so this post is about the limit of what I could muster for today.
If you are interested in learning more about how you can work with nature then check out the links at the end of this post but also check out one of my earlier blog posts: Control Garden Pests without Toxic Chemicals
Also, I would love to hear you story about how you are working with nature on your homestead or in your garden. I run a weekly contest where I ask people to share their stories on this topic. Check it out and submit your entry by Friday at 5 pm PST.
Thank you!
Weekly Blog Post
- How to Get Started with Sheet Mulching
- Companion Post on Steemit - The Basics of Sheet Mulching
Related Blog Posts
- Control Garden Pests without Toxic Chemicals
- 5 Ways Your Homestead Will Benefit from Native Plants
- How to Work With Nature to Rewild your Homestead (And Why You Should Do It.)
Follow me for more posts all about homesteading, working with nature, and growing your own food: @wildhomesteading
And check out my blog - www.wildhomesteading.com for weekly in-depth posts on working with nature to grow your own food and start/build your homestead.
You are doing a great job! I wish there were more farmers who would think in this way. I hope that those lady bugs will be fast enough and that they are very hungry to eat all those bugs :) They must love you for this feast :)
I hope that you feel better now and that you can enjoy the weekend a little bit!
Thank you for sharing!
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TrufflePigI LOVE this story! Absolutely perfect. That bee barn is so cool. I've been wanting to make one for ages.
Thank you! I want to make some of my own bee barns too but that one was a very nice gift :) I found some native bees pollinating some of my berries last night. It was great to see and I hope they find the bee barn!
Cool lot green, it makes me feel fresh and good 😊😋
:) I hope to have a lot more "green" on my homestead soon! Always working on expanding the growing areas!
Cool then soon I'm back you make more cool posts :)
Cool your ladybugs were on the job! Loved the first photo of your food forest. :))
Thank you! :) Yeah, I really enjoyed seeing the lady bugs and I love that the food forest is coming to life!
Enjoying your post propped up in bed on a Friday night and I'm suddenly INSPIRED to get out in my garden at 5am tomorrow and to do SOMEthing for an hour. It has been hellishly hot here in Northern Thailand (41-42C or 105-108F) every day for about a month, and suddenly I feel to beat the heat, get some early watering in and start dreaming-planning for the coming weeks when the monsoonal rains come. 😊
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Thank you! :) That is hot! lol and I have been feeling bad in 85F weather here in western Washington which to be fare is very unusual for this time of year here. I hope the early morning gardening goes well for you!
Thank you.... 5.30am is manageable but by 8am we need to lay in the shade already. LOL. Have a lovely weekend when it finds you.
Too hot! Thank you and you too!
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It's so cool to see a space with a natural, integrated approach. This year, my thistles are almost four feet tall! They were absolutely covered in aphids like you mention, and it attracted ladybugs like crazy. The lady bugs were on every tree, even though I saw no aphids there. I'm glad we embraced that weed, and I'm glad of the balance that it brought.
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Lovely article. Read a couple of links and those were awesome too. Thank you for sharing everything that works for you. It’s great to have references and resources from actual people who genuinely encourage and empower their peers.
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