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oeneiiciai insects assist in keeping garden balance by pollinating plants and eating bugs that damage plants. Other insects clean up plant debris and keep down disease. Some, such as parasitic wasps, actually lay their eggs on garden troublemakers. As the larvae •emerge, they eat their hosts. Not a pretty sight if any of you •have seen tomato homworms "writhing as they are eaten alive! I From all I’ve read on this .topic, the advice is usually to iplant some dill, parsley, tansy, ‘cosmos, etc. in with the vegeta•bles, as a kind of afterthought. The most comprehensive and ■helpful book information I’ve 'seen to date is in “Great Garden ■Companions” by Sally Jean Cunningham, who includes •tables of insects and plants along with color pictures of her ‘garden plant combinations.
Besides the detailed advice, •what I liked was that the author leans into a more inclusive -of -insects-perspective in 'her garden. Still, from all I’ve learned in my own garden, beneficial insect attracting plants are not merely companions to our vegetable and ornamental plants - they should be treated as equal partners! In other words, for the best results, the proportion of food and habitat plants for beneficials, in the form of herbs, perennial and annual flowers, select “weeds” should be at least equal to or greater than the plants desired for human use. , This is why, in my garden, even in vegetable areas, there are a multitude of nectar producing, flowering plants. To use perennial plants, a bed garden system works best, but even a permanent whole row, square •or circular area within a row garden could do the trick. Long borders nearby a garden and meadow areas left unmowed till late fall or early spring will also help to establish beneficial insect tenants.
Currently, I’m getting ready to underplant my small orchard with herbs and flowers to attract the specific insects which will pollinate blossoms and eat up bugs that harm the fruit. In the early spring, the unmowed dandelions and deadnettle provide needed food for honeybees, carpenter bees and bumblebees. As more nectar becomes available from flowering shrubs and flowerheads of
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