Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Beneficial Bug Flower Bed

I have problems with pests in my garden.  Sometimes I wonder if I’m the only one that is in a constant, ongoing battle with bugs.  I’ve tried all kinds of techniques- row covers, natural sprays, handpicking.  My latest tactic is to lure in the good guys, the beneficial bugs that can help me fight the battle.  Last year we built a raised bed with rocks from our property, filled it with dirt and then planted a beneficial bug seed mix from American Meadows.  It is advertised to attract “lacewings, lady bugs, hover flies and parasitic wasps, which help to destroy harmful pests such as aphids, thrips and mites.”

This is what it looked like last May:


Then we had a drought.  I watered regularly until we went out of town for two weeks.  I assumed that the flowers were not going to make it.  A few things grew, but it looked sad.

Fast forward to April of this year:


The flower bed came to life with Baby Blue Eyes:


Siberian Wallflower


and poppies.


The show continued in May with more and more blooms:


including cilantro with a dragonfly


Lance-leaf Coreopsis


and Globe Gila



Now in June there is an explosion of Black-eyed Susans:


I found this butterfly enjoying the blooms:


She was so distracted by the nectar that I got a nice close-up:


Among the sea of Black-eyed Susans I found some Yarrow:


and one Purple Coneflower shaded by the Black-eyed Susans:


It is fun to watch what appears in the flower bed.  I can not say whether these flowers have brought in an army of beneficial bugs yet.  Although I did spot this hoverfly on one of the blooms:


Maybe, just maybe I will get some help with the war against pests that goes on in my garden, but if not the flowers are still beautiful and make me happy.


4 comments:

  1. I really enjoyed looking at your flowers. So pretty! I have problems with birds and bugs but I also have a lot of good bugs in the garden. Interestingly I do not have a problem with bug pests in the garden near our dam, which is home to lots of frogs, froglets, dragonflies, robberflies and other good guys. (I popped over from the DTE forum.)

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  2. What a gorgeous border and I love the progression of flowers! It will be interesting to see if you do get some bug reducing benefits, but I'm with you - I'd love to have a border like that in my garden regardless.

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  3. That turned out so pretty! I do hope it helps with the bugs also! Nancy

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