Every year I lay out 20 or 30 egg cases through the garden. An absolutely amazing creature. They go on garden patrol as soon as they are big enough. Even the tiniest mantis are predators. I once had an egg case hatch in the kitchen. That was known as the Great Mantis Roundup. I usually find egg cases scattered around the property. Ya just can't have too many.

I like your notion & ability to help of using nature's things to maintain a healthy arena to make IT all work successfully. pinenuts4

pinenuts4 said:I like your notion & ability to help of using nature's things to maintain a healthy arena to make IT all work successfully. pinenuts4

I have never ever used any chemicals in the garden. I occasionally add a light fungicide dusting to seeds I am saving. I do a soil test, and then correct the ph, etc. naturally. The only fertilizer I use is fish emulsion. Some lime when necessary, iron, dried blood ( for leaf vegetables ). I also do tomatoes from cuttings. I usually get 20 plants from one mother plant. I still grow most plants from seed.

Professional fertilizer for the type of plant you are growing is always good as is knowing the arena your plant is suited for [my partner calls my small gardens, 'Presidential', in the way I talk about my Shade Garden, my West Garden, my Kitchen Garden, and my Street Front. Knowing the acidity or alkalinity of you soil is important & there was a post with a simple home test [perhaps U?] about determining it.

Jimsouth said:Every year I lay out 20 or 30 egg cases through the garden. An absolutely amazing creature. They go on garden patrol as soon as they are big enough. Even the tiniest mantis are predators. I once had an egg case hatch in the kitchen. That was known as the Great Mantis Roundup. I usually find egg cases scattered around the property. Ya just can't have too many.

Jim ~ Where do you get your preying mantis cases?