| Interplanting just means growing several different | | | | way the pest and beneficial insects balance |
| plants amongst each other. There are many benefits | | | | themselves out - just as nature intended. |
| to growing herbs and flowers throughout your | | | | 3. Attract Pollinators to your garden with nectar and |
| vegetable crops - one is that they look great, | | | | pollen rich flowers or flowers in shades of blue, |
| combining beauty and purpose. | | | | yellow or white. This will attract bees and other |
| The original cottage garden style is believed to have | | | | pollinators, making sure you get good fruit set in |
| evolved from the interplanting of herbs and flowers | | | | crops such as tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and |
| amongst the vegetables. So what benefits are there | | | | cucurbits. |
| to growing plants together in the veggie garden? | | | | 4. Reduce Weeds by interplanting as thickly as |
| 1. Confuse Garden Pests by interplanting a variety of | | | | possible. This is particularly useful for gardeners with |
| plants together. This masks the smell and shapes of | | | | little space. Planting thickly provides a living mulch, |
| plants which pests use to locate their favourite | | | | allowing little opportunity for weeds to take over. |
| foods. For example: if you plant carrots and onions | | | | Formal gardens with many sections for specific types |
| together it confuses both the onion fly and carrot fly! | | | | of plants was once a great indulgence of the rich. |
| Generally speaking, the greater variety of herbs and | | | | Some people still seem to like the mono-culture look, |
| flowers you have growing in your vegetable garden, | | | | but I prefer my garden a little on the wild side. And |
| the fewer insect problems you'll have. | | | | my garden rewards me with an ongoing supply of |
| 2. Encourage Beneficial Insects by planting flowers | | | | fresh vegetables, herbs and flowers - all living happily |
| and herbs that they love to live near. Garlic chives, | | | | together. |
| dill, fennel, garlic chives, parsley, shasta daisies, | | | | Nature doesn't create a line in the earth and have |
| yarrow and flowers of the aster family are | | | | one species grow on one side, with another species |
| favourites of many beneficial insect, including parasitic | | | | growing on the other. Diversity is one of the great |
| wasps, ladybird beetles and lacewings. | | | | splendours of nature. Can you imagine a rain forest |
| The adult insects feed on flower nectar and pollen, | | | | with just two or three species growing there? |
| then lay eggs on garden crops. When the eggs | | | | By interplanting and using Companion Planting |
| hatch, the ravenous larvae of these beneficial insects | | | | techniques we can emulate nature and encourage |
| devour the pests that may plague your crops. This | | | | eco-systems and bio-diversity in our own back yards. |