One of the best organic methods of pest control is to encourage beneficial bugs in your garden. Lady beetles, Tachinid flies, lacewings, soldier bugs and other beneficial insects will help keep bad bugs like aphids, slugs and armyworms under control. You may not see your obliging friends unless you spend some time gazing into the flowers or digging in the dirt.
Lady beetles and their larvae feast on aphids, mealy bugs, soft scales and spider mites. The larvae of lady beetles are very distinct spiny creatures.
Tachinid flies or hover flies look like tiny bees or wasps. Although the adult is not predatory, feeding on pollen and nectar from flowers, its larvae are parasites to plant-chewing caterpillars.
Gardening Tips: Beneficial bugs in an organic garden
Although many children will scream and run from ground beetles, these allies that live under mulches and plantings are voracious villains for slugs, cutworms and other soft-bodied pests.
Spined soldier beetles are another predator of soft-bodied caterpillars and grubs. And lacewing larvae have an insatiable appetite for aphids, leafhopper eggs, thrips and more.
How do we encourage the good bugs to spend time in our gardens? With an easy and lovely addition: throw in some flowers among your vegetable plants.
Let me give you a little history about our farm. When we started our CSA business, I had dreams of adding flower subscriptions, along with the vegetable subscriptions. To easily harvest weekly bouquets of flowers, I planted most of the annual flowers in front of our pole shed, away from the main vegetable garden. I had visions of annual and perennial flowers flowing down the hill.
As we improved our vegetable production, I had less time to cut flowers even though I still planted dozens of zinnias, asters and celosias. Then came the year that we ran out of space in the main garden.
There was a little room on the flower hill so the beans moved in front of the pole shed. As we were planting, we noticed that this was the richest, crumbliest soil that we had. What a nice spot for carrots.
Needless to say, my vision of a hill of flowers has changed. Now we put them in among the vegetable gardens. A row is saved here and there, some for perennials and some for annuals. That way while working in the garden, we enjoy the beauty of the flowers and the vegetables enjoy the benefit of the bugs. The business world would call this a “win-win” situation. Once again, nature is way ahead of us.
Some good plant food sources for your allies are daisies, sunflowers, marigolds and yarrow. Be sure to let some of your herbs flower. Sage, thyme, lavender, fennel, mint, and dill not only treat your good bugs they also look nice in the garden or in a bouquet. Even better than that, most herb flowers are edible so you can create a masterpiece salad from your herbs.
Go ahead; bring on the beauty and the bugs by mixing up the flowers and the vegetables.
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