Organic Gardening Techniques from Frankie Muzio

Frankie Muzio, organic gardener and owner of Frankie’s Organic Fruits and Vegetables Market in North Haven, provided a program about how to use praying mantis and other organic techniques to raise healthy fruits and vegetables. Frankie has been using organic gardening for many years and encourages home gardeners to learn more about how to be successful with this approach.

The use of praying mantis in the garden is one of the key elements in Frankie’s approach to gardening. Mantis have an enormous appetite the moment they hatch from their egg case. As young mantis, they eat aphids, leafhoppers, mosquitoes, caterpillars and other soft-bodied insects. As they mature, their appetite also grows and they eat larger insects, including ticks, beetles, grasshoppers, crickets, and many other pests.

Fall is the perfect time to look for the egg case that the mantis lay on shrubs. They especially like to use weeds such as mug wort and golden rod, but the egg cases can be found on a wide variety of plants and items. They can be wintered over in the garden shed to protect the eggs from being destroyed by predators. A mesh container designed for praying mantis provides a safe place to keep the egg case. As the weather warms in the spring, place the egg case out in your garden so the babies can begin eating as soon as they hatch. Frankie reports that his garden remains free of most pests because the mantis are numerous and active.

In addition to praying mantis, Frankie also recommends using diatomaceous earth (DE) for natural insect control. This is a dust made from crushed freshwater diatoms, the fossilized remains of marine phytoplankton, that will cause soft bodied insects to get cut by the minute sharp crystals and die, yet the dust feels soft to us and does not cut our skin. DE can also kill insects such as fleas, ants, bedbugs, and cockroaches, which have an exoskeleton, because it can work its way under the shell and puncture the body. There are no chemicals in the product and it is safe for organic gardening. Food grade quality is recommended, not the DE that is used for swimming pool maintenance. You will find more details about using DE in the garden and home available on the Internet.

Daytime Gardeners of North Haven is a member of the Federated Garden Clubs of CT, Inc., New England Garden Clubs, Inc., and National Garden Clubs, Inc. New members are always welcome. For information on our activities and membership, email proto.mary@yahoo.com, and be sure to visit us on Facebook at Daytime Gardeners of North Haven.