Pests editor
Octavia Bryne
Octavia Bryne is an entomologist who worked on integrated pest management in commercial orchards for fourteen years before turning to the home garden.
Beats
Published in Wintergreen Quarterly
The Medicinal Garden at Cluain na bPlandaí
On a half-acre in west Clare, an Irish herbalist tends a garden of three hundred medicinal plants, most of them native, in beds laid out by traditional use.
Companion Planting a 20-Foot Perennial Bed in Zone 5
Octavia Bryne profiles a small Vermont border where pest pressure has fallen sharply through deliberate plant pairing rather than spray.
The Kneeler, the Mat, and the Question of the Knees
A close look at the unglamorous tools that keep a gardener's lower joints in working order across a thirty-year garden life, and the small case for the right pad under the knee.
The Aphid on the Mint: An Integrated Account
A small infestation in a Wellington herb garden, three weeks of observation, and the question of when to intervene.
Growing Shiso in a Vermont Greenhouse
A small lean-to in Brattleboro, four shiso varieties, and a season that begins six weeks earlier than the garden allows.
The Gravel Garden as Drought Response in Southern France
Octavia Bryne reports from a hilltop garden in the Aude where rainfall has dropped 27 percent since 2010 and a gardener has rebuilt from the soil up.
The Earthworm as a Soil Indicator
Octavia Bryne explains what a count of earthworms in a forkful of garden soil actually tells the home gardener, and what it does not.
A Quiet Year with the Cabbage Root Fly
Octavia Bryne traces a single season of brassica losses on a wet West Coast garden, and the simple felt-disc collar that ended the problem.
Ventilating a Small Greenhouse Without Electricity
Octavia Bryne examines the wax-cylinder autovent, the manual roof crank, and the propped-door tradition, and weighs the case for each.
The Slug as a Fact of Cool-Climate Gardening
Octavia Bryne on the gardener's long settlement with the slug — what works, what doesn't, and the philosophical adjustment that has to come first.
A Three-Year Soil-Test Rhythm for the Home Gardener
Octavia Bryne lays out a simple cycle of soil sampling for a small kitchen garden, with notes on what to test, when, and how to read the results without overreacting.
An Integrated Approach to Aphids in a Small Kitchen Garden
Octavia Bryne walks through a season of aphid management on a 14-by-20 plot in Lower Hutt, where the broad beans came up early and the ladybirds came late.