Last week in our community garden we turned the soil, picked spinach, pulled weeds, planted sugar snap peas, leeks and shallots and discussed last years’ stink bug invasion with a new garden neighbor.   She feared the stink bugs might cause damage to her new garden this summer.  She heard other community gardeners’ stories of tomatoes, squash and other crops ruined by the pesky bugs.  I reassured her that the stink bugs did not damage our crops.  We had an abundance of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and squash, but by the end of summer our sunflowers were infested with the bugs.  We had a stink bug hotel towering above our garden (see Fall Clean Up and Demolition blog post).   We did not plan to grow sunflowers in our garden this year, but after talking to our new garden neighbor,  I realize the sunflowers probably saved our crops last year!   We will plant sunflowers again to divert the stink bugs.

How will you protect your garden from the stink bugs this year?