Attracting Insects to your Garden
by Mike Swift
There are normally two ways of looking or thinking about insects, there are the nasty ones that eat nibble and generally destroy our flowers crops and fruit, and there are the nice ones that look pretty, pollinate our crops and are parasitic on other insects. The former are in the ascendancy, but that should not be the case as normally there is a balance for the homeowner and gardener but it could be said that we are at fault ourselves encouraging the bad insects by growing monocultures that invite the nasties to proliferate.
Ways and Means By leaving set aside in our fields, encouraging natural places rather than trying to improve them you can maintain the natural habitat of many of our rare insects such as butterflies and moths of which we have a wonderful variety here on Mull. Try not to have isolated habitats but ones which are linked to enable crossbreeding and a healthy stock, reduce the sheep population and encourage cattle into butterfly rich areas to further encourage flower rich meadows and verges that contain Sheeps bit scabious, Dog violet, Birds foot trefoil, Wild thyme, Sorrel, Bog myrtle and many other wild native plants. Try to stop roadside verges being strimmed or flailed just at the height of the flowering season when many of our insects are feeding either in juvenile form as caterpillars or adults as butterflies moths etc.
Cultivated Plants Cultivate plants that encourage pollinating insects to nectar rich plants in your garden such as Calendulas (marigold) Limnanthes (poached egg plant) Nemophylla (baby blue eyes) Eschscholtzia (Californian poppy) Achillea (yarrow) Fragaria (wild strawberry) Chysanthemum maximum (Shasta daisy) Eryngium (sea holly) almost any member of the borage family such as Anchusa, Cynoglossum, Echium, Myosotis, Pulmonaria, and Symphytum will help to establish a healthy colony of insects such as hoverflies for pollinating your crops as many honeybees are in short supply or in decline.
Other plants you may already know are good at encouraging insects Sedum spectabile, Lunaria (honesty) Valeriana, Buddleja davidii, Thymus, Phacelia tanacetifolia, Mentha spicata (mint) Origanum (Wild marjoram) try to extend the season for pollinating insects Colchicums and Ivy for autumn and Crocus and Pulmonaria for spring.
Things to encourage Garden friendly insects include Anthocorid bugs, Centipedes, Lacewing larvae, Ground beetles, Hoverfly larvae, all the above help to get rid of insects in the garden such as aphids (greenfly and whitefly) capsid bugs, caterpillars, midges, scale insects, slugs, and mealy bugs, root aphids, carrot and onion fly grubs, cabbage root fly eggs, leaf hoppers, and spider mites. To avoid using chemicals in the garden try using vertical barriers against onion and carrot root fly these consist of fine mesh some 750mm high that prevent the flies from reaching the crop as they only fly lower than this, or use fine mesh available from garden suppliers to put over the crop and tuck it in around the edge so that again you frustrate the little nasty devils.
Article provided by © Mike Swift
Mike Swift has courses available for discerning gardeners and would be horticulturalists on the Isle of Mull off the west coast of Scotland, courses are designed for the novice to the experienced horticulturalist wishing to learn a new skill.
For further details visit Isle of Mull Gardening Workshops.
