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It ’s difficult to know what flowers are good for your garden — and even then , which flower are easy to care for . Some flowers , like Dandelions and Sunflowers , are unbelievably easy , as long as you have plenty of sunshine . While other flowers , like marigolds , have so many different version that are each easy to mature in their own right . develop bank of these peak around your garden to ensure efficient pestis control !
The pursual is an extract fromThe Healthy Vegetable Gardenby Sally Morgan . It has been adapt for the web .
There are some flower that I ’m never without and , fortunately , they are easy to spring up from seed . My top 10 here will allow you with a unfaltering supply of flowers from other spring to autumn . Banks of these flower around your growing area will make certain that predatory dirt ball do n’t have to journey far to ascertain food .
1. Phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia)
Predatory insects just love this plant . It ’s brilliant for bees , but studies have demo that phacelia is also the best flower for attracting parasitic hoverflies , ensuring they spend longer on the plot , place egg and hunt . Studies in Europe show that corridors of scorpion weed in sugar common beet fields contribute to few bean aphid due to more parasitical hoverflies , while spring up buckwheat and phacelia in Swiss dinero field increased population of parasitic wasps that attacked cabbage aphids . Phacelia seed is easy to sow in ; simply dispel seeds when you have a patch of bare land in later summer and fall and it will provide you with other spring flowers , then sow in again in spring for later in the yr . And if you allow it to self seed , you will have a uninterrupted supplying of flowers across the patch . Learn to recognise the frilly leaves and you may simply hoe the seedling you do n’t want .
2. Borage (Borago officinalis)
It ’s claimed that the borage plant can give rise nectar more quickly than any other flora . I do n’t know if that ’s lawful , but I can safely say my Borago officinalis in early spring buzzes with bees of all sorts , as well as ladybirds and other predators . Once sown , you do n’t ever need to sow again unless you are a very respectable gardener . Mine gear up cum all over the place , so it ’s just a question of which ones to leave . They grow into large , straggly plant , so this determines where I let them maturate . It ’s also a utilitarian associate plant , producing flowers from former saltation to late autumn .
3. Parsnip (Pastinaca sativa)
In the late spring , the open umbel of chicken bloom in late saltation really convey in the insects .
4. Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum)
This plant life blossom for the longest period , up to three month , which can take you through to late summer when many other flowers have given up . Buckwheat is drouth tolerant , so it also helps in a dry summertime when the lack of water can wipe out your annual sowings . Sow in belated spring to other summertime for flower from early summer to other fall .
5. Sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritima)
This low - growing annual creates a carpet of white - odorous flowers . It ’s well-heeled to establish ; just dispel the seeds on a patch of bare soil . It flowers from late spring through to belated summertime . Not only does odorous genus Alyssum bring in predators , but the carpet of plants protects the grime in summer with a populate mulch and reduces water passing .
6. Angelica (Angelica spp.)
This biennial produces the most amazing stately bloom stubble in spring which attract bees , hoverflies , ladybirds and parasitic white Anglo-Saxon Protestant . It likes a fly-by-night spot with mulched moist soil . seed sown in autumn or late outflow will grow on through the first year and flower the undermentioned springtime .
7. Sunflower (Helianthus spp.)
Who does n’t love seeing the huge jaundiced heads of the sunflower ? They attract a steady stream of insect visitors , not just bees and humblebee , but also lacewings and ladybeetle . But helianthus are n’t big for hoverflies . you’re able to raise many different varieties : some dwarf , others multistemmed , as well as the distinctive giant sunflower . Sow in leaping for flowers from mid - summer to other fall . There are also perennial members of the helianthus family to conceive , let in Jerusalem artichoke ( Helianthus perennis ) , which flowers late in the season and has the added bonus of eatable tubers , and the Maxmillian sunflower ( Helianthus maximiliani ) , a tall , drought - tolerant perennial with loads of smart yellowish flowers in late summer into autumn that attract both butterflies and birds .
8. Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare)
This can be grown as an one-year or perennial . Just like parsnips , its umbels of yellow blossom are great for pollinators in late spring and other summer . It ’s easiest to let some of your Florence fennel harvest go to seed , so you are never without it , or you may corrupt the more decorative perennial purple Florence fennel .
9. Marigolds (Tagetes and Calendula spp.)
There are band of different marigold for the garden , including African , Gallic and mickle marigolds . All are light to sow , most ego seed , and they draw bees and hoverflies . flowerpot marigolds ( Calendula officinalis ) bloom from mid - spring through to the first frosts , while French and African marigolds ( Tagetes patula and T. erecta , respectively ) flower in summertime through to autumn . My polytunnel French marigold often continue flower through to early winter .
10. Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)
Considered by many gardeners to be a weed , the dandelion is actually a utilitarian flora as it flowers early , put up that all-important nectar supply , and the leaves are eatable and full of nutrient . examine this idea around your raspberries . Establish dandelions between row of summertime raspberries to draw pollinators . You get a sequence of flowers : dandelions first , then raspberries , followed by the other berries , such as blackberries . Mow the dandelions once they have flowered , so there is no seed to spread out . Dandelions are deeprooted , so they bring up minerals from the subsoil and easily out - contend the other weeds . It ’s so much easier to let the dandelion control the other sess than to travail them out of the dry land .
Recommended Reads
Plants & Pests : Will Bonsall ’s Advice on “ Wee Beasties ”
How to produce A Rodent - Free Planting Bed
The Healthy Vegetable Garden
A innate , chemical - free overture to soil , biodiversity and managing pests and diseases
$ 29.95
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