If you’ve ever had shrunken ends on your zucchini or curled ends on your cucumbers, then you have seen the results of a lack of pollination. This doesn’t always mean we don’t have enough pollinators, sometimes it means the pollinators couldn’t do their job for some other reason, like heat, humidity or the density of our plants.
But, it is becoming more and more common for us to see a lack of pollinators in our vegetable gardens. Neighboring pesticide users, invasive species, widespread habitat loss, or disease can all affect the diversity of insects we want in our gardens and these aren’t often things we can control. But we can control what happens in our own yards and garden spaces and use that control to help out the pollinator insect population. If we understand some of the strategies to help pollinators, we can also positively affect the number of predatory insects we draw to our gardens which falls right in line with the Integrated Pest Management strategies we talked about last week.
Today on Just Grow Something we’ll talk about why we might have a lack of pollinators in our garden and strategies to correct that, five annual and five perennial plants that attract pollinators to a vegetable garden, along with their benefits, the pollinators they attract, and growing tips. We’ll also cover which of those attracts predatory insects to the garden to help with some of that pest pressure many of us seem to face. Let’s dig in!
References and Resources:
The Great Marigold Debate - Ep. 147 Marigolds as Companion Plants: Know How to Use Them
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[00:00:00] If you have ever had shrunken ends on your zucchini or curled ends on your cucumbers, then you have seen the results of a lack of pollination.
[00:00:08] This doesn't always mean we don't have enough pollinators. Sometimes it just means the pollinators couldn't do their job for some other reason like heat or humidity or the density of our plants.
[00:00:18] But it is becoming more and more common for us to see a lack of pollinators in our vegetable gardens.
[00:00:25] Neighboring pesticide users, invasive species, widespread habitat loss or disease can all affect the diversity of the insects that we want in our gardens.
[00:00:35] And these often aren't things that we can control.
[00:00:37] But we can control what happens in our own yards and our garden spaces and we can use that control to help out the pollinator insect population.
[00:00:46] If we understand some of the strategies to help pollinators, we can also positively affect the number of predatory insects we draw to our gardens, which falls right in line with the integrated pest management strategies we talked about last week.
[00:01:00] Today on Just Grow Something, we'll talk about why we might have a lack of pollinators in our garden and strategies to correct that.
[00:01:08] Five annual and five perennial plants that attract pollinators to a vegetable garden along with their benefits, the pollinators they attract and growing tips.
[00:01:18] We'll also cover which of those plants attracts predatory insects to the garden to help with some of that pest pressure many of us may seem to face.
[00:01:27] Let's dig in.
[00:01:28] Hey, I'm Karen.
[00:01:30] I started gardening in a small corner of my suburban backyard.
[00:01:32] And now 18 years later, I've got a degree in horticulture and operate a 40 acre market farm.
[00:01:37] I believe there is power in food and that everyone should know how to grow at least a little bit of their own.
[00:01:43] On this podcast, I share evidence-based techniques to help you plant, grow, harvest and store all your family's favorites.
[00:01:50] Consider me your friend in the garden.
[00:01:52] So grab your garden journal and a cup of coffee and get ready to just grow something.
[00:02:06] So a lack of pollinators in our vegetable gardens can happen for any number of reasons that cannot be controlled by us.
[00:02:14] We can't help it if our neighbor is spraying copious amounts of pesticides or if our county cleared out vital habitat to put in yet another commercial development zone.
[00:02:25] But we can control what is happening in our immediate space.
[00:02:29] But just the simple act of planting things that attract pollinators may not be enough to get them and keep them.
[00:02:37] There are a couple of things to consider, especially if we've experienced a lack of pollinators in the past.
[00:02:44] The first thing is a lack of floral diversity.
[00:02:48] So pollinators are attracted to a wide variety of flowers with diverse colors and shapes and bloom times.
[00:02:56] A garden focused solely on vegetables may not provide the nectar and the pollen that the pollinators need.
[00:03:04] So we should be interplanting our vegetables with flowers or herbs that can help to attract pollinators throughout the growing season.
[00:03:13] Another thing is the timing of our flowering crops.
[00:03:17] Some vegetables like squash and tomatoes and cucumbers may not flower simultaneously with the peak pollinator activity in our area.
[00:03:29] So this is a mismatch and that can cause pollinator visits to the plants to be reduced for the ones that we want pollinated.
[00:03:37] So one of the solutions for this is to plant a mix of early and mid and late season flowers to ensure continuous blooms that are going to attract pollinators all season long.
[00:03:49] Another concern is just poor habitat availability.
[00:03:54] Pollinators need more than just flowers, okay?
[00:03:57] They also need nesting sites.
[00:03:59] They need water sources.
[00:04:00] They need places to shelter.
[00:04:02] If you have a fairly bare or overly tidy garden, you may lack the essentials for their habitat.
[00:04:11] It's one thing to have very neat and tidy rows and to, of course, have mulch because that's one thing that I always encourage.
[00:04:19] But we do need to provide habitat by maybe leaving some patches of bare soil around the exterior of the garden for those ground nesting bees.
[00:04:28] Or adding a small water source.
[00:04:31] Incorporating native plants and shrubs to give them more of those places to shelter that they need.
[00:04:38] The next thing would be limited access to key crops.
[00:04:40] So vegetables like tomatoes and peppers are self-pollinating, right?
[00:04:45] But they do benefit from pollinator activity to increase those yields.
[00:04:50] Cucumbers and squashes, however, do rely very heavily on insect activity and they are often loaded with plenty of flowers.
[00:04:57] But they may not yield what we think they should even if we see pollinators around.
[00:05:03] If those flowers are hidden under very dense foliage, the pollinators just may not get to them.
[00:05:10] So this is an instance where we may need to be pruning our plants as needed to increase that visibility and use companion planting to draw pollinators closer to the vegetable flowers that we need pollinated, right?
[00:05:24] And then finally, something that we may not think about in terms of the rest of our space is competition from nearby resources.
[00:05:34] If you have a beautiful ornamental garden in your front yard and you have your vegetable garden in the backyard, well, the pollinators might be attracted to that ornamental garden in the front and not be visiting your vegetable garden.
[00:05:47] The same thing goes for wildflower patches or natural habitats in your area that may provide more attractive or more abundant resources which are diverting those pollinators away from the vegetable garden.
[00:05:59] So we can increase the appeal of our garden by planting a wide variety of flowers, especially native and pollinator favorite species to compete for that attention from maybe the other natural areas around.
[00:06:14] We always encourage wildflowers and natural habitats in and around our spaces if we can do that, but we don't want to do that to the detriment of our vegetable garden.
[00:06:23] So it's important to sort of incorporate those types of plants into our vegetable garden areas.
[00:06:30] So now that we know we can control some of the conditions needed to keep the pollinators around and get them working in our vegetable gardens, let's talk about some of the plants that will help attract them.
[00:06:43] We will start with five easy to grow annuals and then we'll move into some plants that can be perennial in a lot of areas.
[00:06:50] The first one on my list of annuals is sunflowers.
[00:06:53] They provide abundant pollen.
[00:06:56] They attract beneficial insects and their height can actually serve a different purpose, like as a windbreak or as partial shade for the garden, right?
[00:07:04] Pollinators like bees and butterflies and beetles and even hummingbirds enjoy sunflowers.
[00:07:11] Sunflowers need to be direct sown in the garden.
[00:07:14] They do not do really well being transplanted because they have such a deep taproot.
[00:07:20] This is a good thing, but if you have a short season area and you're wanting to use sunflowers and you need to get them started indoors,
[00:07:26] just make sure that you are potting them into the largest pot possible.
[00:07:31] That's feasibly, you know, available for you to be growing indoors because the more volume of soil you can plant them in,
[00:07:38] the less likely you are to disturb that root system when you transplant them.
[00:07:41] But if at all possible, you want to direct sow these seeds after the last frost and you do want to put them in full sun.
[00:07:48] The plants should be about 12 to 18 inches apart.
[00:07:51] They do need to be watered regularly until they are established and then they really don't need a ton of water after that.
[00:07:57] If you're growing a really, really tall variety, you may want to stake them,
[00:08:01] especially if it's somewhere close to the garden because you don't want them flopping over into the garden and crushing your other plants, right?
[00:08:08] Number two on my list of the annuals would be zinnias.
[00:08:11] Zinnias have a really long blooming period and they will attract pollinators from the first blooms in early summer all the way through the fall until the first frost when those zinnias finally die back.
[00:08:23] The bees love them, the butterflies, the hoverflies.
[00:08:26] These can be started indoors about four to six weeks before your last frost or you can direct sow them after your last frost.
[00:08:35] Place them in full sun about eight to 12 inches apart.
[00:08:38] If you are sort of seeding them, you can broadcast seed them and then thin them out a little bit if you need to.
[00:08:43] But oftentimes I have seen where they don't necessarily need to be thin.
[00:08:47] They will just grow in a tight bunch together.
[00:08:50] You do want to deadhead these.
[00:08:53] Once the blooms die back, you want to pinch them off because that's going to encourage continuous flowering.
[00:08:58] They will flower continuously without you doing that, but you won't have as many blooms.
[00:09:02] So if you really want to take advantage, then going through and pinching off those dead blooms is a good idea.
[00:09:08] Cosmos are another one.
[00:09:10] These produce very airy foliage and very vibrant blooms.
[00:09:14] They are great for drawing in pollinators and predatory insects.
[00:09:17] So bees, butterflies, even moths like Cosmos.
[00:09:21] And they are very hands off.
[00:09:23] You can just direct sow these seeds after the last frost.
[00:09:26] And they don't require much care.
[00:09:28] You don't have to deadhead them.
[00:09:29] You don't have to do much to them.
[00:09:30] And they are very drought tolerant once they are established.
[00:09:32] So if you're in an area that gets particularly dry through the summertime, Cosmos will do just fine.
[00:09:37] As a matter of fact, I had some self-seed themselves into a literal crack in the ground in my very, very dry, very clay.
[00:09:47] I don't even want to call it soil.
[00:09:48] It's dirt that's right outside of my greenhouse that was left over from some plants that I had for sale.
[00:09:54] It self-seeded itself.
[00:09:55] It grew all summer with no problem.
[00:09:57] I did nothing to it.
[00:09:58] And it just continued to bloom.
[00:10:00] So not a big deal.
[00:10:03] Calendula is number four.
[00:10:05] Calendula also attracts pollinators.
[00:10:07] It also serves as a trap crop for aphids.
[00:10:09] So that's a little bonus there.
[00:10:11] The petals of calendula are edible.
[00:10:12] Of course, also they're used as tea and sort of medicinal purposes.
[00:10:17] Calendula is really good for attracting bees and hoverflies.
[00:10:19] These are something that you want to sow early in the spring,
[00:10:22] but you can keep doing all the way through until late summer if you want to.
[00:10:25] These can also be transplanted if you'd prefer to start them indoors.
[00:10:28] These should be spaced about six to 12 inches apart.
[00:10:31] This is another one that you're going to want a deadhead to prolong the blooming.
[00:10:35] Calendula does prefer full sun, but it will tolerate some partial shade.
[00:10:39] So if you have a corner of your garden somewhere that maybe doesn't get as much sun
[00:10:42] and you want to stick something in there for the pollinators,
[00:10:44] calendula might be a good option for you.
[00:10:47] And then number five is sweet alyssum.
[00:10:50] This is one of my favorites to plant under my brassicas,
[00:10:52] particularly my cabbage, but also, you know, broccoli and that sort of thing.
[00:10:55] It's a very low growing plant, so it does provide good ground cover.
[00:10:59] It suppresses the weeds.
[00:11:01] And it's also really good at attracting pollinators and beneficial predators,
[00:11:05] specifically bees and hoverflies.
[00:11:07] These you can just direct sow right out into the garden.
[00:11:10] They can be transplanted if you want to.
[00:11:12] But for me, in terms of using them as a ground cover,
[00:11:14] I just prefer to sort of sprinkle them out there and then thin them if necessary.
[00:11:18] This is another one that will also tolerate drought once it's established.
[00:11:22] It does thrive a little bit better if it gets some consistent moisture,
[00:11:26] but if you're mulching really well in and around those plants,
[00:11:29] then you likely aren't going to have to do much to them at all.
[00:11:32] And like I said, it does tolerate some drought if that's a problem in your area.
[00:11:37] Now, in terms of perennials, I'm going to caveat this to say that most of these are perennials
[00:11:42] in at least zones five and warmer, with the exception of the first one,
[00:11:46] and that is lavender.
[00:11:47] That may only be a perennial in your area if you were like zone 6B and warmer.
[00:11:52] The benefit to lavender is it's very fragrant.
[00:11:54] It is also very trout tolerant.
[00:11:57] It attracts numerous pollinator.
[00:11:59] It also can act as a pest deterrent for certain crops.
[00:12:02] So bees, butterflies, moths are all attracted to lavender.
[00:12:06] And let's be honest, it just smells great.
[00:12:08] It does like full sun.
[00:12:10] It does kind of prefer well-drained soil.
[00:12:12] Usually you're going to plant these about 18 to 24 inches apart because they do sort of bush.
[00:12:17] And then you just kind of need to prune them annually to maintain the shape and encourage those blooms.
[00:12:22] The second perennial would be bee balm.
[00:12:24] This has vibrant flowers that attract pollinators and also do repel certain pests.
[00:12:30] Bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds all like bee balm.
[00:12:33] This likes a moist, well-drained soil.
[00:12:35] It will take full sun or partial shade.
[00:12:38] So another option for maybe those more shady areas in the garden.
[00:12:42] Spacing, again, about 18 to 24 inches apart just like those lavender.
[00:12:45] This is one that we want to deadhead to encourage more blooms.
[00:12:48] And it will grow in sort of clumps.
[00:12:51] So you want to divide those clumps about every three to four years,
[00:12:54] which is going to give you more plants that you can plant elsewhere in the garden,
[00:12:58] which is one of the fabulous things about some of these perennials, right?
[00:13:01] Number three is echinacea.
[00:13:03] These have very long-lasting flowers that not only attract pollinators,
[00:13:07] but they also provide seeds for birds in the fall.
[00:13:10] So it's going to attract the bees and the butterflies,
[00:13:12] but you're also going to get some birds coming in there too.
[00:13:15] This is a full sun plant that likes well-drained soil.
[00:13:18] You're going to plant them about 12 to 18 inches apart.
[00:13:20] This is drought tolerant once it's established.
[00:13:23] So this is another bonus one for those drier areas.
[00:13:26] You can deadhead these for more continuous blooms,
[00:13:30] or if you want those birds to come in the fall,
[00:13:34] then just leave those seed heads for the wildlife to partake of.
[00:13:38] Number four is milkweed.
[00:13:40] This, I'm sure you've heard, a vital host plants for monarch butterflies.
[00:13:44] It also provides nectar for many other insects, butterflies, bees, wasps.
[00:13:48] You can sow the seeds for milkweed either very, very early in the spring,
[00:13:53] or you can plant them in the fall to let them get settled in
[00:13:57] and come up naturally on their own in the spring.
[00:13:59] You want to space these about 12 to 18 inches apart.
[00:14:03] They do prefer full sun.
[00:14:05] One additional note with milkweed though.
[00:14:07] Milkweed has a very deep taproot,
[00:14:10] and it can be resistant to many herbicides and pesticides.
[00:14:14] So this means two things.
[00:14:16] Number one, farmers who have a problem with common milkweed in their pastures
[00:14:21] may be spraying multiple herbicide applications to get rid of it.
[00:14:26] So be aware of that if you are near any farm fields.
[00:14:30] And number two, if you're trying to feed monarch butterflies and other pollinators,
[00:14:34] any pesticides or herbicides sprayed in the vicinity of the milkweed may not kill it,
[00:14:40] but the plant will absorb the poison into its leaf tissue.
[00:14:45] And then this can be passed on to the pollinators.
[00:14:48] And this includes if you or your neighbors are spraying lawns to get rid of dandelions and clover and such.
[00:14:54] So very important not to use harmful chemicals around milkweed, if at all possible for this reason.
[00:15:00] And then number five on the perennial list would be yarrow.
[00:15:04] Yarrow is another one that is very drought tolerant.
[00:15:06] It provides copious amounts of nectar.
[00:15:09] It attracts predatory insects like ladybugs.
[00:15:12] But the pollinators are like bees and butterflies and beetles.
[00:15:17] This is another one that likes full sun.
[00:15:19] You want to plant these about 12 to 24 inches apart.
[00:15:22] The thing about yarrow is it tolerates really poor soil.
[00:15:26] So if you have a spot in your garden where something just doesn't tend to thrive very well
[00:15:31] and it's in the full sun, try popping some yarrow in over there.
[00:15:34] It also requires very minimal watering.
[00:15:37] So another one that is very good for drought type areas.
[00:15:40] This is one that you're going to cut back after flowering.
[00:15:44] It's not going to do a continuous bloom, but it will do a second bloom.
[00:15:47] And those blooms are very long standing.
[00:15:50] So it's almost like having a continuous bloom.
[00:15:53] So if we incorporate some of these plants and we provide areas for water and for shelter,
[00:16:00] then we can create a very diverse and very inviting environment for our pollinators,
[00:16:06] which of course that's going to improve our fruit set and that's going to improve our overall
[00:16:10] garden health.
[00:16:12] Many of these plants also serve dual purposes.
[00:16:15] So they're either trap crops or they're providing edible or medicinal benefits.
[00:16:18] So it's not like they're just there to look at and that their only purpose is for attracting
[00:16:22] pollinators.
[00:16:24] Whether to plant them around the garden's perimeter or intermix them into the vegetable garden is
[00:16:32] going to depend on your garden layout, your space and your goals.
[00:16:36] So there are some considerations for both approaches.
[00:16:40] If you're going to plant around the perimeter, okay, the benefit of this is ease of maintenance.
[00:16:46] It's going to kind of keep your flowers and these other herbs separate from your vegetable
[00:16:50] rows, which is going to make planting and weeding and harvesting simpler if you keep the rest of
[00:16:56] your garden in nice, straight, simple rows.
[00:16:59] It can also, you know, some of them can have a barrier effect.
[00:17:02] So if you're going to use like sunflowers, they're very tall, they can act as a windbreak
[00:17:07] or they can provide shelter for or shade for more sensitive crops if you're wanting some
[00:17:11] afternoon shade.
[00:17:13] The downside to planting around the perimeter is that it very likely might draw the pollinators
[00:17:20] and the beneficial insects to the edges of the garden.
[00:17:23] So if you have a very large garden with lots of space between these plants on the exterior and the
[00:17:32] interior where your vegetable plants are, this may create too much isolation to be much help in terms
[00:17:39] of pollination for the rest of the garden.
[00:17:41] So just keep that in mind when you're looking at your overall garden layout and how you want to
[00:17:46] incorporate these plants.
[00:17:48] Now, on the other side of that, if we're intermixing these plants in with our vegetables,
[00:17:53] you're going to see obvious improved pollination because we're placing the flowers closer to those
[00:17:58] vegetables like the cucumbers and the squash and the melons that need those pollinators.
[00:18:03] So we're going to increase pollinator visits directly where it's needed.
[00:18:07] And this is also going to give us a little bit of a biodiversity boost, right?
[00:18:10] This is going to create a habitat that supports a much wider range of beneficial insects because
[00:18:16] we're reducing that monoculture.
[00:18:19] And then, of course, if you look at what we always talk about in terms of interplanting and
[00:18:23] intercropping, this can cause some pest confusion, right?
[00:18:28] Planting these different plants together can actually help deter pests by masking that chemical
[00:18:34] signal of their preferred plant.
[00:18:36] So not only are you drawing in beneficial pollinators, but you also might be deterring or at least
[00:18:43] confusing the other pests to your garden.
[00:18:46] Now, the downside to intermixing all these with your vegetables is that it's going to take some
[00:18:52] careful planning to make sure that you're not planting things together that will compete,
[00:18:58] either in terms of space or resources or other types of competition.
[00:19:03] And some of these flowers may not be ideal next to certain vegetables because they've got competitive
[00:19:11] growth habits or because of shading or because of other factors.
[00:19:14] So, you know, specifically if we're looking at sunflowers, we want to avoid planting those near
[00:19:20] shallow rooted vegetables like lettuce because they're likely going to compete for nutrients
[00:19:25] and water.
[00:19:26] And sunflowers are going to outcompete pretty much anything that are near them because they do
[00:19:30] have such an extensive root system.
[00:19:33] Sunflowers can also be allelopathic, which means they can impede the growth of plants that are too
[00:19:38] close to them.
[00:19:39] Potatoes and beans seem to be the most sensitive to this, but there are plenty of other ones that
[00:19:44] would fall in that category, not to mention how tall they are.
[00:19:46] I mean, they could provide too much shade for your more sun loving plants.
[00:19:50] So sunflowers are ones that I generally recommend being planted along the outer edges of the garden.
[00:19:57] And I say about two to three feet away from the rest of your crops is a good rule of thumb just to avoid any
[00:20:02] adverse reactions in your vegetable plants and to avoid them stealing the nutrients.
[00:20:07] Because like I said, that sunflower root system is going to outcompete just about everything else
[00:20:13] except maybe the most persistent perennial weeds.
[00:20:16] I have tried to have sunflowers completely take over an area where I have battled poison hemlock for years
[00:20:23] and I have yet to be successful.
[00:20:25] It's a work in progress.
[00:20:26] I'm going to keep going towards it.
[00:20:29] The other one that you might be concerned with would be the yarrow.
[00:20:32] It is very beneficial for the pollinators, but it can be very dense in terms of its growth
[00:20:37] and it can actually overshadow your more low-growing vegetables.
[00:20:40] So if you put that more to the perimeter, you might have less of a chance of that being a problem
[00:20:46] than if you were to plant them directly in between some of those crops.
[00:20:50] Although it might be okay if you're doing some that are taller growing.
[00:20:54] And then milkweed, again, is also a little bit of a concern because the sap of the milkweed
[00:21:00] can actually irritate your skin, especially if you're super sensitive to it.
[00:21:04] So if you've got it interplanted in beds where you are frequently working with other plants,
[00:21:09] then you might be coming in contact with it pretty frequently.
[00:21:12] And again, its size also might overpower smaller crops.
[00:21:16] So those three, the sunflowers, the yarrow, and the milkweed, I would generally recommend
[00:21:20] to sort of the outer edges of the garden to avoid any problems.
[00:21:25] But if you are going to intermix the other ones in with your vegetables,
[00:21:31] there's kind of a few guidelines that you want to follow.
[00:21:33] And this kind of goes for just about anything that you're going to interplant,
[00:21:36] whether it's vegetables or, you know, these flowers or herbs or whatever.
[00:21:40] You want to match your growing needs.
[00:21:42] So pair your flowers and your vegetables that have similar requirements for sunlight
[00:21:47] or water and their soil preferences.
[00:21:50] So zinnias go really well with tomatoes, for example.
[00:21:53] You also want to make sure that these flowers don't overshadow the vegetables that you're trying
[00:21:57] to go or completely, you know, compete, outcompete them for their resources.
[00:22:02] So mind your spacing a little bit.
[00:22:04] And then the timing of this can be very beneficial.
[00:22:08] You can use the annual flowers to fill the gaps in between your early or your late season
[00:22:15] vegetable crops.
[00:22:17] I would recommend just combining both strategies for your best results.
[00:22:21] Plant perennials and the taller annuals around the perimeter and then intermix the other annuals,
[00:22:26] the more low-growing ones, in and among your vegetables.
[00:22:29] Use those low-growing plants like the sweet alyssum near leafy greens or your shorter plants like
[00:22:35] your brassicas, while the taller flowers like your cosmos or your zinnias are better paired
[00:22:41] with your trellis crops like peas or tomatoes.
[00:22:44] Unless you intend to use a taller growing plant to help shade a lower growing one.
[00:22:49] This is all in your planning, right?
[00:22:51] And then just monitor your garden over time.
[00:22:54] Adjust the planting locations based on how well things do.
[00:22:57] Everything is an experiment.
[00:22:59] And there's nothing that says that you can't rip up some plants halfway through the season
[00:23:03] if you see that something's not doing well or it's interfering with another plant's growth.
[00:23:09] Now, what about pest control, right?
[00:23:11] Several of the plants that we just talked about also attract predatory insects that help control
[00:23:17] garden pests.
[00:23:18] So we talked about this a little bit last week in our IPM episode.
[00:23:21] Let's break down which plants we just talked about that attract predatory insects, plus
[00:23:27] five additional plants to consider if your focus is on pest management through natural predation.
[00:23:33] So there are five plants from those first 10 plants that we talked about that not only
[00:23:38] attract pollinators, but that also attract predatory insects.
[00:23:42] The first one is sweet alyssum.
[00:23:44] It will also attract hoverflies, lacewings, and then parasitoid wasps.
[00:23:49] Calendula is going to attract lady beetles or ladybugs, lacewings, and ground beetles.
[00:23:55] The yarrow is going to attract parasitic wasps, lady beetles, and lacewings.
[00:24:00] Lavender attracts spiders and parasitic wasps.
[00:24:05] And then cosmos also attracts hoverflies and parasitic wasps.
[00:24:10] Now, there are five additional plants that we can put in the garden that are specific
[00:24:16] to attracting predatory insects.
[00:24:18] And the first one is dill.
[00:24:20] Dill will attract lacewings, parasitic wasps, and lady beetles.
[00:24:25] The flowers provide nectar and pollen for those predatory insects, and its structure actually
[00:24:30] offers them shelter.
[00:24:32] The one thing you'll also notice with dill is that it attracts the caterpillars for a swallow
[00:24:36] tail butterfly.
[00:24:37] So be prepared to watch it be munched on if you're planting dill.
[00:24:41] Fennel is another one.
[00:24:43] It attracts hoverflies, parasitic wasps, and those tachinid flies.
[00:24:46] These predators will feed on pests like aphids and caterpillars and whiteflies.
[00:24:51] You can plant either type of fennel.
[00:24:54] You've got the bald fennel.
[00:24:56] So that will give you one harvestable crop there.
[00:24:59] And that also does provide the ferns at the top.
[00:25:02] Or you can just plant fern fennel that does nothing but the ferns.
[00:25:05] Some people enjoy bulb fennel.
[00:25:07] Some enjoy the fennel weed.
[00:25:10] Others really think it tastes like nothing but black licorice and want nothing to do with
[00:25:14] it.
[00:25:14] But even if you don't like it, the predators will like it.
[00:25:16] So let's go ahead and plant that anyway.
[00:25:19] Number three is cilantro or coriander.
[00:25:21] This attracts hoverflies, lacewings, and parasitic wasps.
[00:25:25] So when we've talked about growing cilantro in our garden, we've talked about how quickly
[00:25:30] it wants to bolt.
[00:25:31] And we have to keep it cut back fairly frequently.
[00:25:33] But eventually, it's going to go to flower fairly quickly.
[00:25:36] That's why we recommend doing it as a succession crop, planting every couple of weeks.
[00:25:41] Once it does bolt, once it does go to flower, the tiny flowers of cilantro actually provide
[00:25:47] an ideal nectar source for small predatory insects.
[00:25:50] So it's going to give you a benefit at that point.
[00:25:54] And then you can just let it go from flower to seed.
[00:25:56] And you can either collect that seed as coriander, or you can just let it reseed itself and start
[00:26:01] the whole process all over again.
[00:26:02] But cilantro, another one that's really good to attract those predatory insects.
[00:26:06] Number four is buckwheat.
[00:26:07] Now, generally speaking, I tend to use buckwheat as a cover crop.
[00:26:12] And it's a really good, fast-growing, fast-flowering plant that I use as a summer cover crop because
[00:26:21] it grows so quickly.
[00:26:22] But it does attract predatory insects like parasitic wasps, hoverflies, and tachinid flies.
[00:26:29] It blooms very, very quickly.
[00:26:32] And it does provide abundant nectar for those predatory insects.
[00:26:36] So it does give them some consistent resources throughout the growing season.
[00:26:40] So normally when we're using buckwheat as a cover crop, once it flowers, I'm mowing it
[00:26:46] down fairly quickly because I don't want it to go to seed.
[00:26:49] I don't want it to reseed itself because I'm going to be planting something directly into
[00:26:54] that buckwheat after I have cut it down.
[00:26:56] But if it's an area of the garden that I'm not necessarily going to need, then there's nothing
[00:27:02] that says I can't leave that buckwheat standing.
[00:27:05] And it will actually reseed itself.
[00:27:07] If you plant it early in the spring, allow it to grow, reseed itself.
[00:27:12] It'll, generally speaking, if you have a long enough season, it will grow again.
[00:27:15] And you'll sort of have this second blooming that comes up.
[00:27:18] So this is a really good one to plant if you have a space that either needs to be filled
[00:27:24] fairly quickly, but for the short term, or that you can just plant for the entire season.
[00:27:29] So buckwheat is a really good one.
[00:27:31] Number five on this list is marigolds.
[00:27:34] And I'm going to caveat this one.
[00:27:37] Some of you know why.
[00:27:38] We'll talk about that in a second.
[00:27:40] Marigolds are really good for attracting predatory insects like spiders and ground beetles and
[00:27:46] lady beetles.
[00:27:48] But I'm going to leave a link to the previous episode and the blog posts that I have done
[00:27:54] about marigolds and how to properly use them in the garden space.
[00:27:59] Because marigolds are probably best known for repelling nematodes, but they have also been,
[00:28:05] you know, talked about as the end-all be-all of keeping insects out of the garden.
[00:28:11] And while that is true in certain instances, it is also attractive to certain pests in the
[00:28:19] garden.
[00:28:19] And so we need to be very careful in how we use marigolds, whether it is as a way to attract
[00:28:27] the predatory insects or to repel the insects that we don't want in the garden or to draw
[00:28:33] the insects that we don't want in the garden away from the garden.
[00:28:36] What do I mean by this?
[00:28:38] If we look at the research on marigolds, because you know I'm all about this evidence-based stuff,
[00:28:43] right?
[00:28:44] You know, anecdotes are not enough for me.
[00:28:46] So we have to look at what has actually been tested and what has been shown.
[00:28:50] And what we found is that marigolds are good at repelling very specific insects.
[00:28:57] Aphids, whiteflies, melonworms, pickleworms, the root-knot nematodes, which are the reason
[00:29:03] why marigolds are touted as being good in tomatoes, because that's one of the things
[00:29:07] that plagues tomatoes, right?
[00:29:09] Diamondback moth, cabbage stem flea beetle, and even codling moth, which is a moth that goes
[00:29:14] after apples and other palm fruits.
[00:29:16] This all sounds fine and well, until we realize that on the flip side of this, marigolds are
[00:29:23] attractive to squash bugs, squash vine borers, cucumber beetles, leafhoppers, spider mites,
[00:29:31] beet armyworm, cabbage loopers, the other types of flea beetles other than that cabbage
[00:29:36] stem one.
[00:29:37] So striped flea beetles, western black, thrips, tarnished plant bug.
[00:29:41] These are all attracted to marigolds, okay?
[00:29:44] And I have seen this firsthand in planting marigolds within my tomatoes.
[00:29:50] And yeah, it might be good to keep the, you know, root-knot nematodes away, which I've
[00:29:54] never had a problem with anyway, so whatever.
[00:29:56] But it sure did attract the squash bugs into my tomato plants.
[00:30:01] That was my first, you know, light bulb moment of, wait, maybe I better go research this
[00:30:06] a little bit.
[00:30:06] And sure enough, this is what I found.
[00:30:08] So I generally recommend, unless you are trying to repel anything that was on that first list,
[00:30:18] right?
[00:30:18] So aphids, white flies, you know, that sort of thing, out of a particular crop.
[00:30:25] And you are not concerned about anything that's on the other list of what marigolds are attractive
[00:30:31] to, then use them within the garden.
[00:30:34] That's fine.
[00:30:35] If you have a problem with white flies in your onions, for example, and that's something
[00:30:40] that you want to keep away, then yes, by all means, put marigolds in with your onions.
[00:30:47] But if you are planting zucchini and yellow squash, and you have a problem with squash
[00:30:53] bugs and squash vine borers and cucumber beetles, then you're going to want to plant those marigolds
[00:30:58] along the perimeter.
[00:30:59] You want them on the outside of the garden.
[00:31:01] You are wanting to draw those pests away from your squash plants toward the marigolds.
[00:31:09] So if we're going to use them to attract predatory insects, like the spiders and the ground beetles
[00:31:14] and the lady beetles, then we may want to put them along the perimeter and allow them to draw,
[00:31:23] allow the marigolds to draw those pests to them and then also draw the predatory insects to
[00:31:28] them and, you know, have all that action happening outside of where our vegetable plants are.
[00:31:34] So, you know, there's a lot of information on marigolds.
[00:31:37] Again, like I said, I will link to all that in the show notes.
[00:31:40] You just have to be very specific about how you use marigolds.
[00:31:44] And maybe you just decide that you don't want to use them at all.
[00:31:47] Who knows, right?
[00:31:48] So how do these predatory insects help control pests in the garden?
[00:31:54] Hoverflies, the larvae of hoverflies, eat aphids and thrips and small caterpillars.
[00:32:01] Lacewings, both the larva and the adults, are voracious predators of aphids and mealybugs
[00:32:06] and other small pest insects.
[00:32:08] Parasitic wasps, these are the ones that lay their eggs inside or on pests like caterpillars,
[00:32:15] aphids and white flies, which eventually kills the host.
[00:32:17] You probably have seen images of this in action with tomato hornworms.
[00:32:23] You see a big fat green tomato hornworm with all these white eggs all over it.
[00:32:26] That means a parasitic wasp has done its job and is taking out that tomato hornworm.
[00:32:33] Tacanid flies, same thing.
[00:32:35] These work in similar manner to the parasitic wasp by either laying eggs that the host consumes
[00:32:40] or inserting eggs directly into the host bodies.
[00:32:44] Lady beetles or ladybugs, the larvae, very voracious eaters of aphids, but both the adults
[00:32:50] and the larvae eat things like scale and white flies.
[00:32:53] And then one that we don't think about often is the ground beetles.
[00:32:57] These are more active at night and they hunt slugs and cutworms and soil dwelling pests.
[00:33:03] And let's not underestimate the benefit of attracting more birds to the garden, which
[00:33:07] many of these plants do.
[00:33:09] Birds can be great predators of many of the harmful insects in our gardens.
[00:33:13] Of course, they aren't always very preferential and they might be found snacking on the insects
[00:33:18] we do want in the garden.
[00:33:19] But hey, sometimes nature's just got to run her course, right?
[00:33:23] Ultimately, mixing flowers and vegetables boosts biodiversity.
[00:33:27] It improves pollination and it enhances our garden's resilience to pests.
[00:33:33] So by planting these flowers and herbs, we create a thriving ecosystem that naturally manages pests
[00:33:41] and improves pollination, reducing the need for chemical interventions and promoting our
[00:33:46] garden's productivity.
[00:33:48] Until next time, my gardening friends, keep on cultivating that dream garden and we'll talk
[00:33:52] again soon.
[00:33:53] Thanks for listening to another episode of the Just Grow Something podcast.
[00:33:57] For more information about today's topic and to find all the ways you can get in touch with
[00:34:01] me or support the show, go to justgrowsomethingpodcast.com.
[00:34:05] Until next time, my gardening friends, keep learning and keep growing.
