VEGETABLES are what most of us begin with as gardeners, followed by flowers (which we view as the afterthought). If you think at all about using flowers in the garden, chances are you’ll tuck in some zinnias for color or plant a row of marigolds “because it’s supposed to help.” But what do those blooms realy do in the soil? Here is exactly which flowers team up with which crops to attract helpful insects or suppress pests naturaly, as broken down by the infographic above.
Companion planting is not so much superstition as it is ecology: It’s creating your own little ecosystem where each plant play its part, not just to look pretty. People have heard of planting marigolds around tomatoes, but they often wonder why. That’s half the story. Turns out that marigolds emit limonene, which is an organic compound. This compound deters whiteflies and aphids but attracts hoverflies. The larvae of those hoverflies feed on caterpillars, which are the same nasty creatures you want gone. It is a double defense working at the roots. No need for chemical sprays if your allies is taking care of business for you.
How Flowers Help Your Garden Grow
To the pests, it’s all about psychology, mostly; strong-smelling things like chamomile and lavender throw off cabbage flies and other moths that use scent to home in on their host plants. Throw some of these aromatic plants into the mix and you mess up their internal nav system completely.
Another form of pest defense, this one through sacrifice, is that of the sacrificial plants called trap crops: The nasturtiums will lure away certain pests (like squash bugs, or aphids) from your high-value beans or cucumbers. Letting some pest chew in the garden sounds counterintuitive, I know… But if they are stuck on the sacrificial crop, not migrating to attack your primary crop, it’s better. And you can simply pull out the nasturtium leaves with the infestation on them, removing the problem at its source. This contains them, so you get to direct where the pests feed instead of the other way around; they does not roam free through all your veggies.
And then there’s all the good stuff: Borage not only manages pests but also benefits the plants it surrounds by supporting pollinators, directly affecting yield. It helps strawberries and especially tomatoes; bumblebees just can’t resist those blue star-shaped flowers of borage. They use a method called “buzz pollination” to shake off pollen that honeybees often fail to reach. The resulting additional vibration means increased crop weight and a higher percentage of fruit set later on. A similarly useful plant for fruit trees and other bee-loving species, like solitary bees: phacelia produce large amounts of early-season nectar to sustain various kinds of bees during a time when other flowers may be lacking.
Placing these plants works differently: How you arrange them changes how effective the mix is. Simply lining the edges with flowers will form a barrier, but interplanting right in the middle of your vegetable rows helps bring all those good bugs deeper into the bed. Lacewings and ladybugs is your best friends; you need them to be on patrol every inch of ground where any aphid might be hiding.
Another wise choice is succession planting. That means sowing seeds periodically; every couple of weeks or so, and having something in bloom from spring through frost to provide constant fodder for the insects you depend upon. When the blooms fade, the beneficials departs.
Soil health gets overlooked in companion planting discussions, but the deep-rooted nature of calendula and other flowers such as yarrow help to break apart compacted soil, while extracting minerals from lower layers of the subsoil that vegetables’ shallower roots cannot reach. Over time, fallen flower parts return some of this organic matter to the equation. Above ground and below, it’s a full circle of support.
You are not only growing food, but also creating an environment for everything to thrive together. Begin with a single or two pairings, learn what is effective in your particular climate, and allow the garden to educate you in its rhythms. The marigolds that protect your tomatoes may also end up lighting your kitchen table one day. Really: beauty and function do go hand-in-hand. You should of tried it.