Wondering how to Grow flowers near your foods to attract pollinators?
Some plants in your food garden will need to be pollinated. Sometimes, you can do this by hand, but you may want to simply attract natural pollinators like bees to do the work for you.
Growing certain flowers in your yard will help with the pollination process, but you want to grow the right kind – and avoid those that might be counterproductive.
You’ll need pollinators for foods like squash and cucumbers and any fruit you might be growing.
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You want to encourage insects that will help the process so that while they’re gathering the nectar and pollen from one plant, they’ll deliver it to another, helping your food garden flourish.
*Read or Pin for later: How to Clear a Garden full of Weeds here.
Some flowers you can plant to ensure you attract pollinators are lavender, sunflowers, and geraniums. You’ll want to plant these flowers along the outer edge of your garden and in and among the vegetable crops if you have room.
Lavender is one of my favorites to grow personally, and I wish I could have a vast field.
Some people alternate the rows so that one row is vegetables and the next is flowers. You don’t want to grow a flower that will tower over your vegetable crop and put it in too much shade if it needs ample sunlight.
Other flowers you can grow to help with pollination are Borage, Calendula, California poppy, Chamomile, Zinnia, Cilantro, Sweet peas, Sweet alyssum, Nasturtium, Cosmos, and Marigold.
I start many of these from seeds indoors.
Some of these flowers are edible and have additional benefits than just attracting plant pollinators. For example, some repel pests that can harm your vegetable plants above and below the ground.
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Remember that Plants will attract not all pollinators to the same color, so it’s good to swap it around and have pinks, yellows, and other colors. You’ll soon find which pollinator likes which colors, such as bees going more to yellow while butterflies land on more reds.
Use flowering plants such as butterfly weeds and bushes, honeysuckles, and Joe-Pye weeds to get more bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds visiting your garden to help pollinate.
Avoid flowers that will repel the pollinators or turn things toxic for you. Don’t plant poisonous flowers near your vegetable garden. Oleander, for example, is a deadly flower that you don’t want anywhere near your food garden.
You can research which companion plants will help repel pests and attract more of the kinds of insects that you want to help you in your garden. Not all vegetables and plants should be grown side by side.
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