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market-farming - Re: Beneficial Insects

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Ava Devenport" <essenheal AT iname.com>
  • To: market-farming
  • Subject: Re: Beneficial Insects
  • Date: Tue, 30 May 2000 13:22:35


On 05/30/00, ""five springs farm" <fsfarm AT mufn.org>" wrote:
> Below is a reprint of a small article from our newsletter that has some
> relevancy to this topic (originally from the Nebraska Sustainable
> Agriculture Society Newsletter)
>



Great article, thanks for sharing it! I put some hyssop plants in just
this spring that I started indoors in the winter. They also make beautiful
hedges if left to grow. And a great, although medicinal tasting, cup of
tea when you've got the sniffles and chest congestion. The tea can be
sweetened with honey, though.

Blessings,
Ava



> Jim and Jo
> The Community Farm Newsletter
> http://www.mufn.org/public/tcf
>
>
> Herbs in Your Garden
> By Tom Tomas
> Your herbs will do more for you if you distribute them throughout the garden
> rather than planting them all in one place. The flowers of many herbs
> provide nectar and pollen as well as alternate habitat for beneficial
> insects. Beneficial insects may prey on aphids or parasitize cabbageworms,
> but they also must have the proteins from pollen to become sexually mature.
> Herb plants can provide this pollen. By spreading your herb plants around
> the garden, you can encourage beneficial insects to visit the vegetables and
> fruits that need their help.
> Plant dill around your cabbage patch. Plant caraway under your fruit
> trees. Garlic chives fit well in any flowerbed. Beneficial insects frequent
> oregano, summer savory and hyssop during their long blooming season. Low
> growing thyme makes a beautiful and fragrant ground cover that can serve as
> a living mulch under fruit trees where there is some sun.
> Mint and catnip will provide flowers and harbor aphids that feed ladybugs
> when they are in short supply on your lettuce. Remember, lady bugs need a
> food supply at all times if they are to be ready when you need them to
> control aphids on your crops.
> Herbs provide needed biodiversity in your garden, even if you only harvest
> an occasional sprig for your salad or mint julep. So improve the sex lives
> of your beneficial insects while you enhance your culinary life. Plant herbs
> here and there all over your garden.
>
> From the Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society Newsletter, Spring 1999.




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