10 Easy-to-Grow Flowers for Pest Control

It’s troublesome to know what flowers are finest in your backyard — and even then, which flowers are simple to take care of.

Some flowers, like Dandelions and Sunflowers, are extremely simple, so long as you will have loads of daylight. Whereas different flowers, like marigolds, have so many various variations which can be every simple to develop in their very own proper. Develop banks of those flowers round your backyard to make sure that predatory bugs don’t must journey far to search out meals.

The next is an excerpt from The Wholesome Vegetable Backyard by Sally Morgan. It has been tailored for the online.

There are some flowers that I’m by no means with out and, thankfully, they’re simple to develop from seed. My high 10 right here will give you a gentle provide of flowers from early spring to autumn. Banks of those flowers round your rising space will make it possible for predatory bugs don’t must journey far to search out meals.

1. Phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia) Predatory bugs simply love this plant. It’s sensible for bees, however research have proven that phacelia can also be the most effective flower for attracting parasitic hoverflies, making certain they spend longer on the plot, laying eggs and looking. Research in Europe present that corridors of phacelia in sugar beet fields result in fewer bean aphids as a result of extra parasitic hoverflies, whereas rising buckwheat and phacelia in Swiss cabbage fields elevated populations of parasitic wasps that attacked cabbage aphids. Phacelia seed is straightforward to sow; merely scatter seeds when you will have a patch of naked floor in late summer time and autumn and it’ll give you early spring flowers, then sow once more in spring for later within the yr. And for those who enable it to self seed, you should have a steady provide of flowers throughout the plot. Study to recognise the frilly leaves and you may merely hoe the seedlings you don’t need.
2. Borage (Borago officinalis) It’s claimed that the borage plant can produce nectar extra shortly than another plant. I don’t know if that’s true, however I can safely say my borage in early spring buzzes with bees of all kinds, in addition to ladybirds and different predators. As soon as sown, you don’t ever have to sow once more until you’re a very tidy gardener. Mine set seed in every single place, so it’s only a query of which of them to go away. They develop into giant, straggly crops, so this determines the place I allow them to develop. It’s additionally a helpful companion plant, producing flowers from early spring to late autumn.
3. Parsnip (Pastinaca sativa) Within the late spring, the open umbels of yellow flowers in late spring actually carry within the bugs.
4. Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) This plant flowers for the longest interval, as much as three months, which might take you thru to late summer time when many different flowers have given up. Buckwheat is drought tolerant, so it additionally helps in a dry summer time when the dearth of water can wipe out your annual sowings. Sow in late spring to early summer time for flowers from early summer time to early autumn.
5. Candy alyssum (Lobularia maritima) This low-growing annual creates a carpet of white-scented flowers. It’s simple to ascertain; merely scatter the seeds on a patch of naked soil. It flowers from late spring by means of to late summer time. Not solely does candy alyssum herald predators, however the carpet of crops protects the soil in summer time with a residing mulch and reduces water loss.
6. Angelica (Angelica spp.) This biennial produces essentially the most superb statuesque flower stalks in spring which magnetize bees, hoverflies, ladybirds and parasitic wasps. It likes a shady spot with mulched moist soil. Seeds sown in autumn or late spring will develop on by means of the primary yr and flower the next spring.
7. Sunflower (Helianthus spp.) Who doesn’t love seeing the massive yellow heads of the sunflower? They appeal to a gentle stream of insect guests, not simply bees and bumblebees, but additionally lacewings and ladybirds. However sunflowers aren’t nice for hoverflies. You possibly can develop many various varieties: some dwarf, others multistemmed, in addition to the standard large sunflower. Sow in spring for flowers from mid-summer to early autumn. There are additionally perennial members of the sunflower household to contemplate, together with Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus perennis), which flowers late within the season and has the added bonus of edible tubers, and the Maxmillian sunflower (Helianthus maximiliani), a tall, drought-tolerant perennial with a great deal of shiny yellow flowers in late summer time into autumn that appeal to each butterflies and birds.
8. Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) This may be grown as an annual or perennial. Identical to parsnips, its umbels of yellow flowers are nice for pollinators in late spring and early summer time. It’s best to let a few of your fennel crop go to seed, so you might be by no means with out it, or you should buy the extra decorative perennial purple fennel.
9. Marigolds (Tagetes and Calendula spp.) There are many totally different marigolds for the backyard, together with African, French and pot marigolds. All are simple to sow, most self seed, and so they appeal to bees and hoverflies. Pot marigolds (Calendula officinalis) flower from mid-spring by means of to the primary frosts, whereas French and African marigolds (Tagetes patula and T. erecta, respectively) flower in summer time by means of to autumn. My polytunnel French marigolds typically proceed flowering by means of to early winter.
10. Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) Thought of by many gardeners to be a weed, the dandelion is definitely a helpful plant because it flowers early, offering that important nectar provide, and the leaves are edible and stuffed with vitamins. Do this concept round your raspberries. Set up dandelions between rows of summer time raspberries to draw pollinators. You get a sequence of flowers: dandelions first, then raspberries, adopted by the opposite berries, akin to blackberries. Mow the dandelions as soon as they’ve flowered, so there isn’t any seed to unfold. Dandelions are deeprooted, so they bring about up minerals from the subsoil and simply out-compete the opposite weeds. It’s a lot simpler to let the dandelions management the opposite weeds than to dig them out of the bottom.