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
00:00:04
ends on your cucumbers, then you have seen the results of a lack
00:00:07
of pollination. This doesn't always mean we
00:00:09
don't have enough pollinators. Sometimes it just means the
00:00:12
pollinators couldn't do their job for some other reason, like
00:00:15
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
00:00:23
pollinators in our vegetable gardens.
00:00:25
Neighboring pesticide users, invasive species, widespread
00:00:29
habitat loss, or disease can all affect the diversity of the
00:00:33
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
00:00:41
spaces, and we can use that control to help out the
00:00:45
pollinator insect population. If we understand some of the
00:00:49
strategies to help pollinators, we can also positively affect
00:00:53
the number of predatory insects we draw to our gardens, which
00:00:56
falls right in line with the integrated pest management
00:00:58
strategies we talked about last week.
00:01:01
Today on Just Grow Something, we'll talk about why we might
00:01:04
have a lack of pollinators in our garden and strategies to
00:01:08
correct that. Five annual and five perennial
00:01:11
plants that attract pollinators to a vegetable garden, along
00:01:14
with their benefits, the pollinators they attract, and
00:01:17
growing tips. We'll also cover which of those
00:01:20
plants attracts predatory insects to the garden to help
00:01:24
with some of that pest pressure many of us may seem to face.
00:01:27
Let's dig in. Hey, I'm Karen, I started
00:01:30
gardening in a small corner of my suburban backyard and now 18
00:01:33
years later, I've got a degree in horticulture and operate a 40
00:01:36
acre market farm. I believe there is power in food
00:01:39
and that everyone should know how to grow at least a little
00:01:42
bit of their own. On this podcast, I share
00:01:44
evidence based techniques to help you plant, grow, harvest
00:01:47
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
00:01:55
just grow something. So a lack of pollinators in our
00:02:09
vegetable gardens can happen for any number of reasons that
00:02:12
cannot be controlled by us. OK, we can't help it if our
00:02:17
neighbor is spraying copious amounts of pesticides or if our
00:02:20
county cleared out vital habitat to put in yet another commercial
00:02:25
development zone. But we can control what is
00:02:27
happening in our immediate space.
00:02:30
But just a simple act of planting things that attract
00:02:33
pollinators may not be enough to get them and keep them.
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There are a couple of things to consider, especially if we've
00:02:40
experienced a lack of pollinators in the past.
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The first thing is a lack of floral diversity.
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So pollinators are attracted to a wide variety of flowers with
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diverse colors and shapes and bloom times.
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A garden focused solely on vegetables may not provide the
00:03:01
nectar and the pollen that the pollinators need, so we should
00:03:06
be interplanting our vegetables with flowers or herbs that can
00:03:10
help to attract pollinators throughout the growing season.
00:03:14
Another thing is the timing of our flowering crops.
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Some vegetables like squash and tomatoes and cucumbers may not
00:03:23
flower simultaneously with the peak pollinator activity in our
00:03:28
area. So this is a mismatch and that
00:03:31
can cause pollinator visits to the plants to be reduced for the
00:03:36
ones that we want pollinated. So one of the solutions for this
00:03:39
is to plant a mix of early and mid and late season flowers to
00:03:44
ensure continuous blooms that are going to attract pollinators
00:03:48
all season long. Another concern is just poor
00:03:52
habitat availability. Pollinators need more than just
00:03:56
flowers, OK? They also need nesting sites.
00:03:59
They need water sources. They need places to shelter.
00:04:02
If you have a fairly bare or overly tidy garden, you may lack
00:04:09
the essentials for their habitat.
00:04:12
It's one thing to have very neat and tidy rows and to of course
00:04:17
have mulch, because that's one thing that I always encourage.
00:04:20
But we do need to provide habitat by maybe leaving some
00:04:24
patches of bare soil around the exterior of the garden.
00:04:27
For those ground nesting bees, we're adding a small water
00:04:30
source incorporating native plants and shrubs to give them
00:04:34
more of those places to shelter that they need.
00:04:38
The next thing would be limited access to key crops.
00:04:41
So vegetables like tomatoes and Peppers are self pollinating,
00:04:45
right? But they do benefit from
00:04:47
pollinator activity to increase those yields.
00:04:50
Cucumbers and squashes, however, do rely very heavily on insect
00:04:54
activity and they are often loaded with plenty of flowers.
00:04:58
But they may not yield what we think they should.
00:05:01
Even if we see pollinators around, if those flowers are
00:05:05
hidden under very dense foliage, the pollinators just may not get
00:05:09
to them. So this is an instance where we
00:05:12
may need to be pruning our plants as needed to increase
00:05:15
that visibility and use companion planting to draw
00:05:20
pollinators closer to the vegetable flowers that we need
00:05:23
pollinated, right? And then finally, something that
00:05:27
we may not think about in terms of the rest of our space is
00:05:31
competition from nearby resources.
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If you have a beautiful ornamental garden in your front
00:05:37
yard and you have your vegetable garden in the backyard, well,
00:05:41
the pollinators might be attracted to that ornamental
00:05:44
garden in the front and not be visiting your vegetable garden.
00:05:47
The same thing goes for wildflower patches or natural
00:05:50
habitats in your area that may provide more attractive or more
00:05:54
abundant resources, which are diverting those pollinators away
00:05:58
from the vegetable garden. So we can increase the appeal of
00:06:03
our garden by planting a wide variety of flowers, especially
00:06:07
native and pollinator favorite species, to compete for that
00:06:12
attention from maybe the other natural areas around.
00:06:15
We always encourage wildflowers and natural habitats in and
00:06:18
around our spaces if we can do that, but we don't want to do
00:06:21
that to the detriment of our vegetable garden.
00:06:23
So it's important to sort of incorporate those types of
00:06:27
plants into our vegetable garden areas.
00:06:30
So now that we know we can control some of the conditions
00:06:35
needed to keep the pollinators around and get them working in
00:06:39
our vegetable gardens, let's talk about some of the plants
00:06:41
that will help attract them. We will start with five easy to
00:06:45
grow annuals and then we'll move into some plants that can be
00:06:48
perennial in a lot of areas. The first one on my list of
00:06:52
annuals is sunflowers. They provide abundant pollen,
00:06:56
they attract beneficial insects, and their height can actually
00:06:59
serve a different purpose, like as a windbreak or as partial
00:07:02
shade for the garden, right? Pollinators like bees and
00:07:06
butterflies and beetles and even hummingbirds enjoy sunflowers.
00:07:11
Sunflowers need to be direct sewn in the garden.
00:07:14
They do not do really well-being transplanted because they have
00:07:18
such a deep tat root. This is a good thing.
00:07:21
But if you have a short season area and you're wanting to use
00:07:24
sunflowers and you need to get them started indoors, just make
00:07:27
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
00:07:34
indoors. Because the more volume of soil
00:07:37
you can plant them in, the less likely you are to disturb that
00:07:40
root system when you transplant them.
00:07:41
But if at all possible, you want to direct sow these seeds after
00:07:45
the last frost, and you do want to put them in full sun.
00:07:48
The plant should be about 12 to 18 inches apart.
00:07:52
They do need to be watered regularly until they are
00:07:54
established, and then they really don't need a ton of water
00:07:56
after that. If you're growing a really,
00:07:58
really tall variety, you may want to stake them, especially
00:08:01
if it's somewhere close to the garden, because you don't want
00:08:03
them lopping over into the garden and crushing your other
00:08:06
plants. Right #2 on my list of the
00:08:09
annuals would be zinnias. Zinnias have a really long
00:08:13
blooming period and they will attract pollinators from the
00:08:16
first blooms in early summer all the way through the fall until
00:08:20
the 1st frost when those zinnias finally die back.
00:08:23
The bees love them, the butterflies, the hover flies.
00:08:26
These can be started indoors about four to six weeks before
00:08:29
your last frost, or you can direct sow them after your last
00:08:33
frost. Place them in full sun about 8
00:08:37
to 12 inches apart. If you are sort of seeding them,
00:08:40
you can broadcast seed them and then thin them out a little bit
00:08:42
if you need to. But often times I can see, I
00:08:45
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 dead head these. Once the blooms die back, you
00:08:54
want to pinch them off because that's going to encourage
00:08:56
continuous flowering. They will flower continuously
00:09:00
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
00:09:05
and pinching off those dead blooms is a good idea.
00:09:08
Cosmos are another one. These produce very airy foliage
00:09:13
and very vibrant blooms. They are great for drawing in
00:09:15
pollinators and predatory insects.
00:09:18
So bees, butterflies, even moths like cosmos and they are very
00:09:22
hands off. You can just direct sow these
00:09:24
seeds after the last frost and they don't require much care.
00:09:28
You don't have to deadhead them, you don't have to do much to
00:09:30
them, and they are very drought tolerant once they are
00:09:32
established. So if you're in an area that
00:09:33
gets particularly dry through the summertime, cosmos will do
00:09:36
just fine. As a matter of fact, I had some
00:09:39
self seed themselves into a literal crack in the ground in
00:09:44
my very very dry, very clay. I don't even want to call it
00:09:48
soil. It's dirt that's right outside
00:09:49
of my greenhouse that was leftover from some plants that I
00:09:53
had for sale. It self seeded itself.
00:09:55
It grew all summer with no problem.
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I did nothing to it and it just continued to bloom, so not a big
00:10:01
deal. Calendula is number 4.
00:10:05
Calendula also attracts pollinators.
00:10:07
It also serves as a trap crop for aphids, so that's a little
00:10:10
bonus there. The petals of calendula are
00:10:12
edible, of course. Also, they're used as tea and
00:10:14
sort of medicinal purposes. Calendula is really good for
00:10:18
attracting bees and hoverflies. These are something that you
00:10:20
want to sew early in the spring, but you can keep going all the
00:10:23
way through until late summer if you want to.
00:10:25
These can also be transplanted if you prefer to start them
00:10:27
indoors. These should be spaced about 6
00:10:30
to 12 inches apart. This is another one that you're
00:10:32
going to want a dead head to prolong the blooming calendula
00:10:36
does prefer full sun, but it will tolerate some partial
00:10:39
shade. So if you have a corner of your
00:10:40
garden somewhere that maybe doesn't get as much sun and you
00:10:43
want to stick something in there for the pollinators, calendula,
00:10:45
it might be a good option for you.
00:10:47
And then #5 is sweet Elysium. This is one of my favorites to
00:10:51
plant under my brassicas, particularly my cabbage, but
00:10:54
also, you know, broccoli and that sort of thing.
00:10:56
It's a very low growing plant, so it does provide good ground
00:10:59
cover. It suppresses the weeds and it's
00:11:01
also really good at attracting pollinators and beneficial
00:11:04
predators, 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, but for me, in terms of
00:11:13
using them as a ground cover, I just prefer to sort of sprinkle
00:11:16
them out there and then thin them if necessary.
00:11:18
This is another one that will also tolerate drought once it's
00:11:21
established. It does thrive a little bit
00:11:24
better if it gets some consistent moisture, but if
00:11:26
you're mulching really well in and around those plants, then
00:11:29
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
00:11:35
a problem in your area. Now in terms of perennials, I'm
00:11:40
going to caveat this to say the most of these are perennials in
00:11:43
at least zones 5 and warmer, with the exception of the first
00:11:46
one, and that is lavender. That may only be a perennial in
00:11:48
your area if you were like zone 6B and warmer.
00:11:52
The benefit to lavender is it's very fragrant.
00:11:55
It is also very trout tolerant. 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 a lavender and
00:12:06
let's be honest, it just smells great.
00:12:08
It does like full sun. It does kind of prefer well
00:12:11
drained soil. Usually you're going to plant
00:12:13
these about 18 to 24 inches apart because they do sort of
00:12:16
Bush and then you just kind of need to prune them annually to
00:12:19
maintain the shape and encourage those blooms.
00:12:22
The second perennial would be bee balm.
00:12:25
This has vibrant flowers that attract pollinators and also do
00:12:29
repel certain pests. Bees, butterflies and
00:12:31
hummingbirds all like bee balm. This like some moist, well
00:12:34
drained soil. It will take full sun or partial
00:12:38
shade. So another option for maybe
00:12:39
those more shady areas in the garden, spacing again about 18
00:12:43
to 24 inches apart, just like those lavender.
00:12:45
This is one that we want a deadhead to encourage more
00:12:48
blooms. And it will grow in sort of
00:12:50
clumps. So you want to divide those
00:12:52
clump clumps about every three to four years, which is going to
00:12:55
give you more plants that you can plant elsewhere in the
00:12:57
garden. Which is one of the fabulous
00:12:59
things about some of these perennials, right #3 is
00:13:02
echinacea. These have very long lasting
00:13:05
flowers that not only attract pollinators, but they also
00:13:08
provide seeds for birds in the fall.
00:13:10
So it's going to attract the bees and the butterflies, but
00:13:13
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.
00:13:27
You can dead head these for canmore continuous blooms or if
00:13:31
you want those birds to come in the fall then just leave those
00:13:35
seed heads for the wildlife to partake of #4 is milkweed this?
00:13:41
I'm sure you've heard a vital host plants for monarch
00:13:44
butterflies. It also provides nectar for many
00:13:46
other insects, butterflies, bees, Wasps.
00:13:48
You can sow the seeds for milkweed either very, very early
00:13:53
in the spring or you can plant them in the fall to let them get
00:13:56
settled in and come up naturally on their own.
00:13:59
In the spring you want to plant species about 12 to 18 inches
00:14:02
apart. They do prefer full sun.
00:14:05
One additional note with milkweed, though.
00:14:08
Milkweed has a very deep taproot, and it can be resistant
00:14:12
to many herbicides and pesticides.
00:14:14
So this means two things #1 farmers who have a problem with
00:14:19
common milkweed in their pastures may be spraying
00:14:23
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 #2 if you're trying to feed monarch butterflies and other
00:14:33
pollinators, any pesticides or herbicides sprayed in the
00:14:38
vicinity of the milkweed may not kill it, but the plant will
00:14:42
absorb the the poison into its leaf tissue and then this can be
00:14:47
passed on to the pollinators. And this includes if you or your
00:14:50
neighbors are spraying lawns to get rid of dandelions and Clover
00:14:53
and such. So very important not to use
00:14:55
harmful chemicals around milkweed if at all possible for
00:14:59
this reason. And then #5 on the perennial
00:15:03
list would be Yarrow. Yarrow is another one that is
00:15:05
very drought tolerant. It provides copious amounts of
00:15:08
nectar nectar. It attracts predatory insects
00:15:11
like ladybugs, but the pollinators are it attracts are
00:15:15
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
00:15:29
doesn't tend to thrive very well and it's in the full sun, try
00:15:33
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.
00:15:41
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
00:15:46
a second bloom and those blooms are very long standing, so it's
00:15:50
almost like having a continuous bloom.
00:15:53
So if we incorporate some of these plants and we provide
00:15:57
areas for water and for shelter, then we can create a very
00:16:02
diverse and very inviting in environment for our pollinators,
00:16:06
which of course that's going to improve our fruit set and that's
00:16:09
going to improve our overall 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
00:16:18
medicinal benefits. So it's not like they're just
00:16:20
there to look at and that their only purpose is for attracting
00:16:22
pollinators. Whether to plant them around the
00:16:27
garden's perimeter or intermix them into the vegetable garden
00:16:31
is going to depend on your garden layout, your space and
00:16:35
your goals. So there are some considerations
00:16:38
for both approaches if you're going to plant around the
00:16:42
perimeter, OK, The benefit of this is ease of maintenance.
00:16:46
It's going to kind of keep your flowers and these other herbs
00:16:49
separate from your vegetable rose, which is going to make
00:16:52
planting and wedding and harvesting simpler.
00:16:54
If you keep the rest of your garden in nice, straight, simple
00:16:58
rows. It can also, you know, some of
00:17:01
them can have a barrier effect. So if you're going to use like
00:17:04
sunflowers, they're very tall. They can act as a windbreak, or
00:17:07
they can provide shelter for or shade for more sensitive crops
00:17:11
if you're wanting some afternoon shade.
00:17:13
The downside to planting around the perimeter is that it very
00:17:18
likely might draw the pollinators and the beneficial
00:17:21
insects to the edges of the garden.
00:17:23
So if you have a very large garden with lots of space
00:17:27
between these plants on the exterior and the interior where
00:17:32
your vegetable plants are, this may create too much isolation to
00:17:37
be much help in terms of pollination for the rest of the
00:17:40
garden. So just keep that in mind when
00:17:43
you're looking at your overall garden layout and how you want
00:17:46
to incorporate these plants. Now, on the other side of that,
00:17:49
if we're intermixing these plants in with our vegetables,
00:17:54
you're going to see obvious improved pollination because
00:17:56
we're placing the flowers closer to those vegetables, like the
00:17:59
cucumbers and the squash and the melons that need those
00:18:02
pollinators. So we're going to increase
00:18:04
pollinator visits directly where it's needed.
00:18:07
And this is also going to give us a little bit of a
00:18:09
biodiversity boost, right? This is going to create a
00:18:11
habitat that supports a much wider range of beneficial
00:18:15
insects because we're reducing that monoculture.
00:18:19
And then, of course, if you look at what we always talk about in
00:18:22
terms of interplanting and intercropping, this can cause
00:18:26
some pest confusion, right? Planting these different plants
00:18:30
together can actually help deter pests by masking that chemical
00:18:34
signal of their preferred plant. So not only are you drawing in
00:18:40
beneficial pollinators, but you also might be deterring or at
00:18:43
least confusing the other pests to your garden.
00:18:46
Now, the downside to intermixing all these with your vegetables
00:18:51
is that it's going to take some careful planning to make sure
00:18:53
that you're not planting things together that will compete
00:18:58
either in terms of space or resources or other types of
00:19:02
competition. And some of these flowers may
00:19:05
not be ideal next to certain vegetables because they've got
00:19:10
competitive growth habits or because of shading or because of
00:19:13
other factors. So, you know, specifically if
00:19:16
we're looking at sunflowers, we want to avoid planting those
00:19:20
near shallow rooted vegetables like lettuce because they're
00:19:23
likely going to compete for nutrients and water.
00:19:26
And sunflowers are going to out compete pretty much anything
00:19:29
that are near them because they do have such an extensive root
00:19:31
system. Sunflowers can also be
00:19:34
allelopathic, which means they can impede the growth of plants
00:19:37
that are too close to them. Potatoes and beans seem to be
00:19:41
the most sensitive to this, but there are plenty of other ones
00:19:43
that would fall in that category.
00:19:45
Not to mention how tall they are.
00:19:46
I mean they could provide too much shade for your more sun
00:19:49
loving plants. So sunflowers are ones that I
00:19:52
generally recommend being planted along the outer edges of
00:19:56
the garden and I say about two to three feet away from the rest
00:19:59
of your crops is a good rule of thumb just to avoid any adverse
00:20:03
reactions in your vegetable plants and to avoid them
00:20:06
stealing the nutrients. Because like I said that
00:20:08
sunflower root system is going to out compete just about
00:20:11
everything else except maybe the most persistent perennial weeds.
00:20:17
I have tried to have sunflowers completely take over an area
00:20:21
where I have battled poison hemlock for years.
00:20:24
And I have yet to be successful. 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
00:20:31
Yarrow. It is very beneficial for the
00:20:33
pollinators, but it can be very dense in terms of its growth and
00:20:37
it can actually over shadow your more low growing vegetables.
00:20:40
So if you put that more to the perimeter, you might have less
00:20:44
of an A chance of that being a problem than if you were to
00:20:47
plant them directly in between some of those crops, Although it
00:20:50
might be OK if you're doing some that are taller growing.
00:20:54
And then milkweed, again, is also a little bit of a concern
00:20:57
because the SAP of the milkweed can actually irritate your skin,
00:21:02
especially if you're super sensitive to it.
00:21:04
So if you've got it interplanted in beds where you are frequently
00:21:08
working with other plants, then you might be coming in contact
00:21:10
with it pretty frequently. And again, its size also might
00:21:14
overpower smaller crops. So those 3, the sunflowers, the
00:21:18
Yarrow and the milkweed, I would generally recommend to sort of
00:21:21
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
00:21:30
vegetables, there's kind of a few follow guidelines that you
00:21:33
want to follow. And this kind of goes for just
00:21:35
about anything that you're going to interplant, whether it's
00:21:37
vegetables or, you know, these flowers or herbs or whatever you
00:21:40
want to match your growing needs.
00:21:42
So pair your flowers and your vegetables that have similar
00:21:46
requirements for sunlight or water and their soil
00:21:49
preferences. Those zinnias go really well
00:21:51
with tomatoes, for example. You also want to make sure that
00:21:54
these flowers don't over shadow the vegetables that you're
00:21:57
trying to go or completely, you know, compete out, compete them
00:22:01
for their resources. So mind your spacing a little
00:22:04
bit 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
00:22:13
early or your late season vegetable crops.
00:22:17
I would recommend just combining both strategies for your best
00:22:20
results. Plant perennials and the taller
00:22:23
annuals around the perimeter and then intermix the other annuals,
00:22:26
the more low growing ones in and among your vegetables.
00:22:30
Use those low growing plants like the Swedelissum near leafy
00:22:33
greens or your shorter plants like your brassicas, while the
00:22:37
taller flowers like your cosmos or your zinnias are better
00:22:41
paired with your trellis crops like peas or tomatoes.
00:22:44
Unless you intend to use a taller growing plant to help
00:22:48
shade a lower growing one. This is all in your planting,
00:22:51
right? And then just monitor your
00:22:53
garden over time. Adjust the planting locations
00:22:56
based on how well things do. Everything is an experiment, and
00:22:59
there's nothing that says that you can't RIP up some plants
00:23:02
halfway through the season if you see that something's not
00:23:04
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
00:23:15
predatory insects that help control garden pests.
00:23:17
So we talked about this a little bit last week in our IPM
00:23:20
episode. Let's breakdown which plants we
00:23:23
just talked about that attract predatory insects, plus five
00:23:28
additional plants to consider if your focus is on pest management
00:23:31
through natural predation. So there are 5 plants from those
00:23:35
first ten plants that we talked about that not only attract
00:23:39
pollinators, but that also attract predatory insects.
00:23:42
The first one is Sweet Elysium. It will also attract hoverflies,
00:23:46
lace wings, and then parasitoid Wasps.
00:23:49
Calendula is going to attract lady beetles or ladybugs, lace
00:23:54
wings, and ground beetles. The Yarrow is going to attract
00:23:58
parasitic Wasps, lady beetles, and lacewings.
00:24:01
Lavender attracts spiders and parasitic Wasps, and then cosmos
00:24:07
also attracts hoverflies and parasitic Wasps.
00:24:11
Now, there are five additional plants that we can put in the
00:24:15
garden that are specific to attracting predatory insects,
00:24:18
and the first one is dill. Dill will attract lace wings,
00:24:22
parasitic Wasps, and lady beetles.
00:24:25
The flowers provide nectar and pollen for those predatory
00:24:29
insects and its structure actually offers them shelter.
00:24:32
The one thing you'll also notice with dill is that it attracts
00:24:35
the caterpillars for a swallowtail butterfly, so be
00:24:38
prepared to watch it be munched on if you're planting dill.
00:24:42
Phenyl is another one. It attracts hoverflies,
00:24:44
parasitic Wasps, and those taconid flies.
00:24:47
These predators will feed on pests like aphids and
00:24:49
caterpillars and whiteflies. You can plant either type of of
00:24:54
fennel. You've got the bulb fennel, so
00:24:56
that will give you 1 harvestable crop there and that also does
00:25:00
provide the ferns at the top. Or you can just plant Fern
00:25:03
fennel that does nothing but the Fern.
00:25:05
Some people enjoy bulb fennel, some enjoy the fennel weed,
00:25:10
others really tasting. It tastes like nothing but black
00:25:12
licorice and want nothing to do with 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 #3 is cilantro or
00:25:21
coriander. This attracts hover flies, lace
00:25:24
wings and parasitic Wasps. So when we've talked about
00:25:27
growing cilantro in our garden, we've talked about how quickly
00:25:30
it wants to bolt, and we have to keep it cut back fairly
00:25:33
frequently, but eventually it's going to go to flower fairly
00:25:36
quickly. That's why we recommend doing it
00:25:38
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
00:25:45
of cilantro actually provide an ideal nectar source for small
00:25:49
predatory insects. So it's going to give you a
00:25:53
benefit at that point, and then you can just let it go from
00:25:55
flower to seed. And you can either collect that
00:25:58
seed as coriander, or you can just let it reseed itself and
00:26:01
start the whole process all over again.
00:26:02
But cilantro, another one that's really good to attract those
00:26:04
predatory insects #4 is buckwheat.
00:26:07
Now, generally speaking, I tend to use buckwheat as a cover
00:26:12
crop. And it's a really good, fast
00:26:15
growing, fast flowering plant that I use as a summer cover
00:26:20
crop because it grows so quickly.
00:26:23
But it does attract predatory insects like parasitic Wasps,
00:26:27
hoverflies, and tacanid flies. It blooms very, very quickly and
00:26:32
it does provide abundant nectar for those predatory insects.
00:26:37
So it does give them some consistent resources throughout
00:26:39
the growing season. So normally when we're using
00:26:42
buckwheat as a cover crop, once it flowers, I'm mowing it down
00:26:47
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
00:26:52
something directly into that buckwheat after I have cut it
00:26:56
down. But if it's an area of the
00:26:59
garden that I'm not necessarily going to need, then there's
00:27:02
nothing that says I can't leave that buckwheat standing and it
00:27:06
will actually reseed itself. If you plant it early in the
00:27:08
spring, allow it to grow reseed itself, it'll generally speaking
00:27:13
if you have a long enough season, it will grow again and
00:27:16
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
00:27:21
either needs to be filled fairly quickly but for the short term
00:27:26
or that you can just plant for the entire season.
00:27:29
So buckwheat is a really good 1 #5 on this list is marigolds and
00:27:34
I'm going to caveat this one. Some of you know why.
00:27:38
We'll talk about that in a second.
00:27:40
Marigolds are really good for a attracting predatory insects
00:27:44
like spiders and ground beetles and lady beetles.
00:27:48
But I'm going to leave a link to the previous episode and the
00:27:52
blog posts that I have done about marigolds and how to
00:27:56
properly use them in the garden space because marigolds are
00:28:01
probably best known for repelling nematodes.
00:28:04
But they have also been, you know, talked about as the end
00:28:08
all be all of keeping insects out of the garden.
00:28:12
And while that is true in certain instances, it is also
00:28:17
attractive to certain pests in the garden.
00:28:19
And so we need to be very careful in how we use marigolds,
00:28:23
whether it is as a way to attract the predatory insects or
00:28:28
to repel the insects that we don't want in the garden or to
00:28:32
draw the insects that we don't want in the garden away from the
00:28:35
garden. What do I mean by this?
00:28:38
If we look at the research on marigolds, because you know, I'm
00:28:41
all about this evidence based stuff, 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
00:28:49
has been shown. And what we found is that
00:28:52
marigolds are good at repelling very specific insects.
00:28:57
Aphids, whiteflies, melon worms, pickle worms, the root.
00:29:01
Not nematodes, which are the reason why marigolds are touted
00:29:04
as being good in tomatoes, because that's one of the things
00:29:07
that plagues tomatoes, right? Diamondback moth, cabbage stem
00:29:11
flea beetle, and even coddling 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
00:29:21
flip side of this, marigolds are attractive to squash bugs,
00:29:27
squash vine boars, cucumber beetles, leaf hoppers, spider
00:29:31
mites, beet army worm, cabbage loopers, all the other types of
00:29:34
flea beetles other than that cabbage stem 1.
00:29:36
So striped flea beetles, western black thrips, tarnished plant
00:29:40
bug, these are all attracted to marigolds.
00:29:44
OK, And I have seen this first hand in in planting marigolds
00:29:48
within my tomatoes. And yeah, it might be good to
00:29:51
keep the, you know, root knot nematodes away, which I've never
00:29:54
had a problem with anyway, so whatever.
00:29:57
But it sure did attract the squash bugs into my tomato
00:30:01
plants. That was my first, you know,
00:30:03
light bulb moment of wait, maybe I better go research this a
00:30:06
little bit. And sure enough, this is what I
00:30:08
found. So I generally recommend unless
00:30:13
you are trying to repel anything that was on that first list,
00:30:18
right. So aphids, whiteflies, you know,
00:30:21
that sort of thing out of a particular crop and you are not
00:30:26
concerned about anything that's on the other list of what
00:30:30
marigolds are attractive to, then use them within the garden.
00:30:34
That's fine. If you have a problem with
00:30:36
whiteflies in your onions, for example, and that's something
00:30:40
that you want to to to keep away, then yes, by all means put
00:30:45
marigolds in with your onions. But if you are planting zucchini
00:30:50
and yellow squash and you have a problem with squash bugs and
00:30:53
squash vine bores and cucumber beetles, then you're going to
00:30:57
want to plant those marigolds 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
00:31:06
plants toward the marigolds. So if we're going to use them to
00:31:11
attract predatory insects like the spiders and the ground
00:31:14
beetles and the lady beetles, then we may want to put them
00:31:18
along the perimeter and allow them to draw, allow the
00:31:23
marigolds to draw those pests to them and then also draw the
00:31:27
predatory insects to them. And you know, have all that
00:31:31
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, I will link to all that in the
00:31:39
show notes. You just have to be very
00:31:41
specific about how you use marigolds, and maybe you just
00:31:45
decide that you don't want to use them at all.
00:31:47
Who knows, right? So how do these predatory
00:31:51
insects help control pests in the garden?
00:31:54
Hover flies. The larvae of hover flies eat
00:31:57
aphids and thrips and small caterpillars.
00:32:00
Lace wings. Both the larvae and the adults
00:32:03
are voracious predators of aphids and mealy bugs and other
00:32:07
small pest insects. Parasitic Wasps.
00:32:10
These are the ones that lay their eggs inside or on pests
00:32:14
like caterpillars, aphids and whiteflies which eventually
00:32:17
kills the host. You probably have seen images of
00:32:19
this in action with tomato hornworms.
00:32:23
You see a big fat green tomato hornworm with all these white
00:32:26
eggs all over it. That means a parasitic wasp has
00:32:28
done its job and is taking out that that tomato hornworm,
00:32:33
Taconid flies. Same thing.
00:32:35
These work in similar manner to the parasitic wasp by either
00:32:37
laying eggs that the host consumes or inserting eggs
00:32:42
directly into the host bodies. Lady beetles or ladybugs.
00:32:46
The larvae very voracious eaters of aphids, but both the adults
00:32:50
and the larvae eat things like scale and whiteflies.
00:32:53
And then one that we don't think about often is the ground
00:32:56
beetles. These are more active at night,
00:32:58
and they hunt slugs and cut worms and soil dwelling pests.
00:33:03
And let's not underestimate the benefit of attracting more birds
00:33:06
to the garden, which many of these plants do.
00:33:09
Birds can be great predators of many of the harmful insects in
00:33:12
our gardens. Of course, they aren't always
00:33:15
very preferential, and they might be found snacking on the
00:33:18
insects 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,
00:33:28
it improves pollination, and it enhances our garden's resilience
00:33:32
to pests. So by planting these flowers and
00:33:36
herbs, we create a thriving ecosystem that naturally manages
00:33:40
pests and improves pollination, reducing the need for chemical
00:33:44
interventions and promoting our garden's productivity.
00:33:48
Until next time, my gardening friends, keep on cultivating
00:33:50
that dream garden, and we'll talk again soon.
00:33:53
Thanks for listening to another episode of the Just Grow
00:33:56
Something podcast. For more information about
00:33:58
today's topic and to find all the ways you can get in touch
00:34:00
with me or support the show, go to justgrowsomethingpodcast.com.
00:34:05
Until next time, my gardening friends, keep learning and keep
00:34:08
growing.