Lady bugs and praying mantids can help protect your garden

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – One of the worst parts of gardening is finding out a bug has already snacked on your fruits and veggies before you even get the chance. So if bugs destroy your garden every year, use mother nature to fight back.

First – lets start with summer vegetables. That includes tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, eggplant, and more. But before you put anything in the soil, Jeff Wallitsch of Wallitsch Gardens wants you to remember this tip:

"You can’t plant them in the same spot. You need to rotate your crops especially for your tomatoes," Wallitsch said.

That helps prevent depleting nutrients in the soil and leads to healthier plants.

Once you’ve figured that out, you’ll need to till the soil, give the plants their space, and fertilize once a week. If you want to take it up a notch, you can use a plant specific fertilizer.

"If you've ever grown tomatoes and they start to crack, the skin cracks, that's because they're not getting enough calcium. So Tomatoe Tone already has the calcium in it for you already," Wallitsch said.

No matter what fertilizer you use, Wallitsch says it’s good to stick to a simple rule for plants you’ll be eating.

"I like to use something a little bit either natural or organic. Just because it is a food product. You are ingesting things."

Same thinking goes for keeping bugs away. You probably don't want to eat chemical pesticides, so let mother nature do the work for you. Lady bugs and praying mantids are Wallitsch’s go-to insects.

"Lady bugs are going to eat things like aphids and scale," he said.

And up to 800 praying mantids can come from a single egg casing.

"Put it in a protected area, in a plant or inside a shrub in the shade. When it’s warm enough it will start to hatch and they will go all over the garden."

Wallitsch also suggests using Marigolds around your garden, but make sure you get the right kind.

"It's really sad because a lot of new varieties have taken the scent out of them. But those at the garden center have a scent. So there are still marigolds that have a scent. It's kind of again a natural way, as opposed to spraying."

And as always, keep the watering consistent.