Invite Good Bugs
to your Garden

Select the right plants for your garden, and you can encourage good bugs to feast on unwanted insects like aphids and whiteflies. Plants that attract ‘good bugs’ offer food and shelter they need for survival. Beneficial insects' preferred food source is other insects, but to complete their life cycles they also require pollen and nectar, which they dine on when the pest insect population is low.

Generally, insectary plants generally come from the carrot, daisy, and pinks families and bear small, shallow flowers. Fortunately, these include many favorite border flowers such as cosmos, sweet alyssum, and yarrow. The key to attracting beneficial insects is a diverse offering of plants. The broader the spectrum of food and shelter you provide, the greater the variety of insects your border will attract. To offer a continuous food source, select plants such as feverfew and fennel for a long bloom season.

As you experiment with plants to attract beneficial insects, remember that you will not eliminate all pests, but their numbers will be minimized so that plant damage is tolerable.

The plants listed provide a haven for beneficial insects. Plant them in flower borders or use them to edge vegetable beds:

Annuals

Bishop's weed (Ammi majus). Similar to Queen Anne's lace; blooms April to October. Attracts: parasitic wasps, pirate bugs, syrphid flies.

Coriander (Coriandrum satirum). Small white flowers on fine-textured plants; blooms May and June. Attracts: hover flies, parasitic wasps, pirate bugs.

Cosmos (C. bipinnatus). White works best; 1- to 4-foot ferny foliage; blooms April to November. Attracts: insidious flower bugs, lacewings, lady beetles.

Sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritima). White to purple flowers on 6- to 8-inch plants; blooms all year in mild-winter areas. Attracts: hover flies, lacewings, parasitic wasps, pirate bugs.

Perennials

Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare). Soft, ferny foliage; yellow, flat flower clusters; blooms April to November. Attracts: hover flies, lacewings, lady beetles, paper wasps, soldier bugs.

Coreopsis. Yellow, orange, and maroon flowers on plants 1 to 3 feet tall; blooms May to September. Attracts: hover flies, lacewings, lady beetles, parasitic wasps.

Crown pink (Lychnis coronaria). Soft gray foliage on 2-foot plants; magenta, pink, and white flowers; blooms April to August. Attracts: hover flies, parasitic wasps.

Feverfew (Chrysanthemum parthenium). White daisy flowers on 1- to 3-foot plants; blooms April to September or later. Attracts: hover flies.

Rue (Ruta graveolens). Beautiful blue-gray foliage, yellow flowers; blooms in early summer. Attracts: mud wasps, parasitic wasps, potter wasps.

Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare). Yellow flowers on plants 2 to 3 feet tall with ferny foliage; blooms June and July. Attracts: lacewings, lady beetles, parasitic wasps, pirate bugs.

Yarrow (Achillea). Pink, yellow, red, lavender, and white flowers; blooms April to September. Attracts: lady beetles, paracidic wasps.

Winter Damage

It’s early spring; time to survey the damage that this exceptionally hard winter has produced. Many shrubs may still be hiding under piles of frozen snow. Severed tree limbs lie scattered across the landscape. It’s difficult to know what to tackle first.

TREES
Start with your trees, they are generally the most valuable additions to you property. As you survey the damage ask yourself “Is this tree salvageable or should it be removed?” If the damage is extensive, or you are unsure, hire a professional for a consultation. Replacing a severely damaged tree with a younger one, perhaps a type that you like even better, may be the best solution.
If a limb is broken somewhere along its length, or damaged beyond repair, enlist good pruning practices and saw off the remaining piece at the branch collar being careful not to cut into the trunk or leave a stub. Sometimes a fallen limb may strip bark off the tree trunk. To repair this damage, cut the ragged edges of the loose bark away from the stripped area to firmly affixed healthy bark. Nature will take care of the rest. If the trunk of the tree is split, the tree may still be saved. For large trees, repairing this type of damage usually requires cabling and bracing done by a professional. If the tree is still young, the crotch may be pulled tightly together and tied or taped until the wound eventually heals.

SHRUBS
Follow the same instructions for trees, however, most shrubs are resilient and slowly regain their shape as the weather warms. If branches are bent but not broken, you may tie them together to help them along. Do not tie tightly and remove twine after about a year. Again, if the damage is severe, you may need to replace the plant.