Companion planting flowers in the vegetable garden By Dorothy Dobbie
Nasturtium.
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here are several reasons to plant flowers in the vegetable garden, and the reason may dictate what to plant. Flowers in the vegetable garden are a pleasure to look at and many produce chemicals that most bugs hate. Others act as attractive lures to pollinators and other beneficial insects. Mexican marigolds (Tagetes patula), for example, repel cabbage worms, aphids, whiteflies, slugs, and certain nematodes. This stubby little yellow and orange plant, deters harmful nematodes in the soil, but to benefit you need at least one season for roots to do the work needed under the surface. Mexican marigolds are reported to keep rabbits out of the garden! 34 • 2021
Tansy.
Rabbits also stay away from daffodils, cleome, monarda, and snapdragons. A border of sweet alyssum may just be enough to keep them out of the cabbage patch. As a rule, plants that have tough leaves, a strong odour, furry or prickly stems or a milky sap are avoided by deer and rabbits both. However, there is always the gourmet critter out there that ignores the rules and of course, if they are hungry enough, they will eat anything they can. The list of lovely flowering annuals that deter insects of all kinds is quite long and includes chrysanthemum, catnip, geranium, and nasturtiums. Cabbage worms are a bane to Issue 3
most gardeners. You probably know them best as little white butterflies with a couple of black spots on each wing. They go after all the brassica plants including broccoli and cauliflower. Nasturtiums act as a trap that attracts the butterflies to lay their eggs there instead of on the cabbages. Try planting thyme, tansy, or marigolds to keep cabbage worms at bay. Yarrow will attract good bugs that can do some of the fighting for you. Parasitic wasps, for example, lay their eggs in the larvae of cabbage butterflies and destroy them from the inside out. Good bugs include not only parasitic wasps, but ladybugs, lacewings, soldier beetles (mainly in the east), damsel flies, and localgardener.net
