The only way to find out is to plant a garden and then watch what happens. Unfortunately, given the awesome reproductive rates of mites, thrips, and aphids, what you are likely to see first are lots and lots of pest problems. Even if you are not overly concerned with alleged damage to the environment, all that spraying starts to cost money in a hurry. They become a backup system for the time-honored method of going out every chance you have, checking for pests, and zapping them with soap, pepper spray, or the pinch of thumb and forefinger. Chemical controls also, for my money, leave you with a much less interesting garden than you might have had otherwise.
Insects are fantastic creatures, worth going out in the garden and watching.
They can be as comical as the syrphid flies that seem to vanish before your eyes, only to reappear a moment later. They can be as graceful as the swallowtail butterflies drifting by on a summer day. And your garden will always be an interesting place, even when the roses are not blooming and tomatoes are not ripe. And if you plant flowers that attract the tiniest of the beneficial insects to your yard, it will also be a very beautiful garden, well worth an afternoon of contemplation on a warm spring day. Thomas Watson is graduate of the University of Arizona College of Agriculture, where he earned a BS in Agriculture, majoring in plant sciences.