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If you have ever had shrunken ends on your zucchini or curled
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ends on your cucumbers, then you have seen the results of a lack
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of pollination. This doesn't always mean we
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don't have enough pollinators. Sometimes it just means the
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pollinators couldn't do their job for some other reason, like
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heat or humidity or the density of our plants.
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But it is becoming more and more common for us to see a lack of
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pollinators in our vegetable gardens.
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Neighboring pesticide users, invasive species, widespread
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habitat loss, or disease can all affect the diversity of the
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insects that we want in our gardens.
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And these often aren't things that we can control.
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But we can control what happens in our own yards and our garden
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spaces, and we can use that control to help out the
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pollinator insect population. If we understand some of the
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strategies to help pollinators, we can also positively affect
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the number of predatory insects we draw to our gardens, which
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falls right in line with the integrated pest management
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strategies we talked about last week.
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Today on Just Grow Something, we'll talk about why we might
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have a lack of pollinators in our garden and strategies to
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correct that. Five annual and five perennial
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plants that attract pollinators to a vegetable garden, along
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with their benefits, the pollinators they attract, and
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growing tips. We'll also cover which of those
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plants attracts predatory insects to the garden to help
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with some of that pest pressure many of us may seem to face.
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Let's dig in. Hey, I'm Karen, I started
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gardening in a small corner of my suburban backyard and now 18
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years later, I've got a degree in horticulture and operate a 40
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acre market farm. I believe there is power in food
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and that everyone should know how to grow at least a little
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bit of their own. On this podcast, I share
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evidence based techniques to help you plant, grow, harvest
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and store all your family's favorites.
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Consider me your friend in the garden.
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So grab your garden journal and a cup of coffee and get ready to
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just grow something. So a lack of pollinators in our
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vegetable gardens can happen for any number of reasons that
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cannot be controlled by us. OK, we can't help it if our
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neighbor is spraying copious amounts of pesticides or if our
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county cleared out vital habitat to put in yet another commercial
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development zone. But we can control what is
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happening in our immediate space.
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But just a simple act of planting things that attract
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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
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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
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nectar and the pollen that the pollinators need, so we should
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be interplanting our vegetables with flowers or herbs that can
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help to attract pollinators throughout the growing season.
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Another thing is the timing of our flowering crops.
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Some vegetables like squash and tomatoes and cucumbers may not
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flower simultaneously with the peak pollinator activity in our
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area. So this is a mismatch and that
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can cause pollinator visits to the plants to be reduced for the
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ones that we want pollinated. So one of the solutions for this
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is to plant a mix of early and mid and late season flowers to
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ensure continuous blooms that are going to attract pollinators
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all season long. Another concern is just poor
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habitat availability. Pollinators need more than just
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flowers, OK? They also need nesting sites.
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They need water sources. They need places to shelter.
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If you have a fairly bare or overly tidy garden, you may lack
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the essentials for their habitat.
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It's one thing to have very neat and tidy rows and to of course
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have mulch, because that's one thing that I always encourage.
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But we do need to provide habitat by maybe leaving some
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patches of bare soil around the exterior of the garden.
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For those ground nesting bees, we're adding a small water
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source incorporating native plants and shrubs to give them
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more of those places to shelter that they need.
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The next thing would be limited access to key crops.
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So vegetables like tomatoes and Peppers are self pollinating,
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right? But they do benefit from
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pollinator activity to increase those yields.
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Cucumbers and squashes, however, do rely very heavily on insect
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activity and they are often loaded with plenty of flowers.
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But they may not yield what we think they should.
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Even if we see pollinators around, if those flowers are
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hidden under very dense foliage, the pollinators just may not get
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to them. So this is an instance where we
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may need to be pruning our plants as needed to increase
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that visibility and use companion planting to draw
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pollinators closer to the vegetable flowers that we need
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pollinated, right? And then finally, something that
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we may not think about in terms of the rest of our space is
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competition from nearby resources.
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If you have a beautiful ornamental garden in your front
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yard and you have your vegetable garden in the backyard, well,
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the pollinators might be attracted to that ornamental
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garden in the front and not be visiting your vegetable garden.
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The same thing goes for wildflower patches or natural
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habitats in your area that may provide more attractive or more
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abundant resources, which are diverting those pollinators away
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from the vegetable garden. So we can increase the appeal of
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our garden by planting a wide variety of flowers, especially
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native and pollinator favorite species, to compete for that
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attention from maybe the other natural areas around.
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We always encourage wildflowers and natural habitats in and
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around our spaces if we can do that, but we don't want to do
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that to the detriment of our vegetable garden.
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So it's important to sort of incorporate those types of
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plants into our vegetable garden areas.
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So now that we know we can control some of the conditions
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needed to keep the pollinators around and get them working in
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our vegetable gardens, let's talk about some of the plants
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that will help attract them. We will start with five easy to
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grow annuals and then we'll move into some plants that can be
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perennial in a lot of areas. The first one on my list of
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annuals is sunflowers. They provide abundant pollen,
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they attract beneficial insects, and their height can actually
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serve a different purpose, like as a windbreak or as partial
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shade for the garden, right? Pollinators like bees and
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butterflies and beetles and even hummingbirds enjoy sunflowers.
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Sunflowers need to be direct sewn in the garden.
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They do not do really well-being transplanted because they have
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such a deep tat root. This is a good thing.
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But if you have a short season area and you're wanting to use
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sunflowers and you need to get them started indoors, just make
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sure that you are potting them into the largest pot possible
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that's feasibly, you know, available for you to be growing
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indoors. Because the more volume of soil
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you can plant them in, the less likely you are to disturb that
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root system when you transplant them.
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But if at all possible, you want to direct sow these seeds after
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the last frost, and you do want to put them in full sun.
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The plant should be about 12 to 18 inches apart.
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They do need to be watered regularly until they are
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established, and then they really don't need a ton of water
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after that. If you're growing a really,
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really tall variety, you may want to stake them, especially
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if it's somewhere close to the garden, because you don't want
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them lopping over into the garden and crushing your other
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plants. Right #2 on my list of the
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annuals would be zinnias. Zinnias have a really long
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blooming period and they will attract pollinators from the
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first blooms in early summer all the way through the fall until
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the 1st frost when those zinnias finally die back.
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The bees love them, the butterflies, the hover flies.
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These can be started indoors about four to six weeks before
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your last frost, or you can direct sow them after your last
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frost. Place them in full sun about 8
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to 12 inches apart. If you are sort of seeding them,
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you can broadcast seed them and then thin them out a little bit
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if you need to. But often times I can see, I
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have seen where they don't necessarily need to be thin.
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They will just grow in a tight bunch together.
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You do want to dead head these. Once the blooms die back, you
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want to pinch them off because that's going to encourage
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continuous flowering. They will flower continuously
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without you doing that, but you won't have as many blooms.
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So if you really want to take advantage, then going through
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and pinching off those dead blooms is a good idea.
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Cosmos are another one. These produce very airy foliage
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and very vibrant blooms. They are great for drawing in
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pollinators and predatory insects.
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So bees, butterflies, even moths like cosmos and they are very
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hands off. You can just direct sow these
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seeds after the last frost and they don't require much care.
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You don't have to deadhead them, you don't have to do much to
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them, and they are very drought tolerant once they are
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established. So if you're in an area that
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gets particularly dry through the summertime, cosmos will do
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just fine. As a matter of fact, I had some
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self seed themselves into a literal crack in the ground in
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my very very dry, very clay. I don't even want to call it
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soil. It's dirt that's right outside
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of my greenhouse that was leftover from some plants that I
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had for sale. It self seeded itself.
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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
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deal. Calendula is number 4.
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Calendula also attracts pollinators.
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It also serves as a trap crop for aphids, so that's a little
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bonus there. The petals of calendula are
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edible, of course. Also, they're used as tea and
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sort of medicinal purposes. Calendula is really good for
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attracting bees and hoverflies. These are something that you
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want to sew early in the spring, but you can keep going all the
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way through until late summer if you want to.
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These can also be transplanted if you prefer to start them
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indoors. These should be spaced about 6
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to 12 inches apart. This is another one that you're
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going to want a dead head to prolong the blooming calendula
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does prefer full sun, but it will tolerate some partial
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shade. So if you have a corner of your
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garden somewhere that maybe doesn't get as much sun and you
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want to stick something in there for the pollinators, calendula,
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it might be a good option for you.
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And then #5 is sweet Elysium. This is one of my favorites to
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plant under my brassicas, particularly my cabbage, but
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also, you know, broccoli and that sort of thing.
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It's a very low growing plant, so it does provide good ground
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cover. It suppresses the weeds and it's
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also really good at attracting pollinators and beneficial
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predators, specifically bees and hoverflies.
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These you can just direct sow right out into the garden.
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They can be transplanted if you want to, but for me, in terms of
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using them as a ground cover, I just prefer to sort of sprinkle
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them out there and then thin them if necessary.
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This is another one that will also tolerate drought once it's
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established. It does thrive a little bit
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better if it gets some consistent moisture, but if
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you're mulching really well in and around those plants, then
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you likely aren't going to have to do much to them at all.
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And like I said, it does tolerate some drought if that's
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a problem in your area. Now in terms of perennials, I'm
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going to caveat this to say the most of these are perennials in
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at least zones 5 and warmer, with the exception of the first
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one, and that is lavender. That may only be a perennial in
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your area if you were like zone 6B and warmer.
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The benefit to lavender is it's very fragrant.
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It is also very trout tolerant. It attracts numerous pollinator.
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It also can act as a pest deterrent for certain crops.
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So bees, butterflies, moths are all attracted to a lavender and
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let's be honest, it just smells great.
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It does like full sun. It does kind of prefer well
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drained soil. Usually you're going to plant
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these about 18 to 24 inches apart because they do sort of
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Bush and then you just kind of need to prune them annually to
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maintain the shape and encourage those blooms.
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The second perennial would be bee balm.
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This has vibrant flowers that attract pollinators and also do
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repel certain pests. Bees, butterflies and
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hummingbirds all like bee balm. This like some moist, well
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drained soil. It will take full sun or partial
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shade. So another option for maybe
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those more shady areas in the garden, spacing again about 18
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to 24 inches apart, just like those lavender.
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This is one that we want a deadhead to encourage more
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blooms. And it will grow in sort of
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clumps. So you want to divide those
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clump clumps about every three to four years, which is going to
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give you more plants that you can plant elsewhere in the
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garden. Which is one of the fabulous
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things about some of these perennials, right #3 is
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echinacea. These have very long lasting
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flowers that not only attract pollinators, but they also
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provide seeds for birds in the fall.
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So it's going to attract the bees and the butterflies, but
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you're also going to get some birds coming in there too.
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This is a full sun plant that likes well drained soil.
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You're going to plant them about 12 to 18 inches apart.
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This is drought tolerant once it's established.
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So this is another bonus one for those drier areas.
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You can dead head these for canmore continuous blooms or if
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you want those birds to come in the fall then just leave those
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seed heads for the wildlife to partake of #4 is milkweed this?
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I'm sure you've heard a vital host plants for monarch
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butterflies. It also provides nectar for many
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other insects, butterflies, bees, Wasps.
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You can sow the seeds for milkweed either very, very early
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in the spring or you can plant them in the fall to let them get
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settled in and come up naturally on their own.
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In the spring you want to plant species about 12 to 18 inches
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apart. They do prefer full sun.
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One additional note with milkweed, though.
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Milkweed has a very deep taproot, and it can be resistant
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to many herbicides and pesticides.
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So this means two things #1 farmers who have a problem with
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common milkweed in their pastures may be spraying
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multiple herbicide applications to get rid of it.
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So be aware of that if you are near any farm fields.
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And #2 if you're trying to feed monarch butterflies and other
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pollinators, any pesticides or herbicides sprayed in the
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vicinity of the milkweed may not kill it, but the plant will
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absorb the the poison into its leaf tissue and then this can be
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passed on to the pollinators. And this includes if you or your
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neighbors are spraying lawns to get rid of dandelions and Clover
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and such. So very important not to use
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harmful chemicals around milkweed if at all possible for
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this reason. And then #5 on the perennial
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list would be Yarrow. Yarrow is another one that is
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very drought tolerant. It provides copious amounts of
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nectar nectar. It attracts predatory insects
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like ladybugs, but the pollinators are it attracts are
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like bees and butterflies and beetles.
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This is another one that likes full sun.
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You want to plant these about 12 to 24 inches apart.
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The thing about Yarrow is it tolerates really poor soil.
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So if you have a spot in your garden where something just
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doesn't tend to thrive very well and it's in the full sun, try
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popping some Yarrow in over there.
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It also requires very minimal watering.
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So another one that is very good for drought type areas.
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This is one that you're going to cut back after flowering.
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It's not going to do a continuous bloom, but it will do
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a second bloom and those blooms are very long standing, so it's
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almost like having a continuous bloom.
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So if we incorporate some of these plants and we provide
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areas for water and for shelter, then we can create a very
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diverse and very inviting in environment for our pollinators,
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which of course that's going to improve our fruit set and that's
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going to improve our overall garden health.
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Many of these plants also serve dual purposes.
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So they're either trap crops or they're providing edible or
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medicinal benefits. So it's not like they're just
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there to look at and that their only purpose is for attracting
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pollinators. Whether to plant them around the
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garden's perimeter or intermix them into the vegetable garden
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is going to depend on your garden layout, your space and
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your goals. So there are some considerations
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for both approaches if you're going to plant around the
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perimeter, OK, The benefit of this is ease of maintenance.
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It's going to kind of keep your flowers and these other herbs
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separate from your vegetable rose, which is going to make
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planting and wedding and harvesting simpler.
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If you keep the rest of your garden in nice, straight, simple
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rows. It can also, you know, some of
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them can have a barrier effect. So if you're going to use like
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sunflowers, they're very tall. They can act as a windbreak, or
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they can provide shelter for or shade for more sensitive crops
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if you're wanting some afternoon shade.
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The downside to planting around the perimeter is that it very
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likely might draw the pollinators and the beneficial
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insects to the edges of the garden.
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So if you have a very large garden with lots of space
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between these plants on the exterior and the interior where
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your vegetable plants are, this may create too much isolation to
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be much help in terms of pollination for the rest of the
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garden. So just keep that in mind when
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you're looking at your overall garden layout and how you want
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to incorporate these plants. Now, on the other side of that,
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if we're intermixing these plants in with our vegetables,
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you're going to see obvious improved pollination because
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we're placing the flowers closer to those vegetables, like the
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cucumbers and the squash and the melons that need those
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pollinators. So we're going to increase
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pollinator visits directly where it's needed.
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And this is also going to give us a little bit of a
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biodiversity boost, right? This is going to create a
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habitat that supports a much wider range of beneficial
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insects because we're reducing that monoculture.
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And then, of course, if you look at what we always talk about in
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terms of interplanting and intercropping, this can cause
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some pest confusion, right? Planting these different plants
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together can actually help deter pests by masking that chemical
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signal of their preferred plant. So not only are you drawing in
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beneficial pollinators, but you also might be deterring or at
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least confusing the other pests to your garden.
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Now, the downside to intermixing all these with your vegetables
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is that it's going to take some careful planning to make sure
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that you're not planting things together that will compete
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either in terms of space or resources or other types of
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competition. And some of these flowers may
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not be ideal next to certain vegetables because they've got
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competitive growth habits or because of shading or because of
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other factors. So, you know, specifically if
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we're looking at sunflowers, we want to avoid planting those
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near shallow rooted vegetables like lettuce because they're
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likely going to compete for nutrients and water.
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And sunflowers are going to out compete pretty much anything
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that are near them because they do have such an extensive root
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system. Sunflowers can also be
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allelopathic, which means they can impede the growth of plants
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that are too close to them. Potatoes and beans seem to be
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the most sensitive to this, but there are plenty of other ones
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that would fall in that category.
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Not to mention how tall they are.
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I mean they could provide too much shade for your more sun
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loving plants. So sunflowers are ones that I
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generally recommend being planted along the outer edges of
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the garden and I say about two to three feet away from the rest
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of your crops is a good rule of thumb just to avoid any adverse
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reactions in your vegetable plants and to avoid them
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stealing the nutrients. Because like I said that
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sunflower root system is going to out compete just about
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everything else except maybe the most persistent perennial weeds.
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I have tried to have sunflowers completely take over an area
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where I have battled poison hemlock for years.
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And I have yet to be successful. It's a work in progress.
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I'm going to keep going towards it.
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The other one that you might be concerned with would be the
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Yarrow. It is very beneficial for the
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pollinators, but it can be very dense in terms of its growth and
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it can actually over shadow your more low growing vegetables.
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So if you put that more to the perimeter, you might have less
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of an A chance of that being a problem than if you were to
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plant them directly in between some of those crops, Although it
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might be OK if you're doing some that are taller growing.
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And then milkweed, again, is also a little bit of a concern
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because the SAP of the milkweed can actually irritate your skin,
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especially if you're super sensitive to it.
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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
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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.