11 Natural Pest Fighting Flowers
Flowers have more purposes in your garden than looking beautiful. If you research companion planting, you quickly learn that flowers can fight pests. Using flowers planted amongst your vegetable garden is a creative and natural way to fight pests looking for a quick meal.
Years ago, flowers and herbs were known for their properties that were helpful or harmful. These properties could be medicinal, culinary or even beneficial for the garden. Some flowers invite helpful insects. Others repel harmful insects that could lay waste to all of your hard work.
Not all flowers fight pests! So, let’s take a look at what flowers you might want to include. You also need to consider what plants are native to your area. Some of these won’t work depending on where you live.
Pest Fight Flowers
1. Borage
First up is borage, which is an herb, not a flower. So, it has herbal and floral benefits. Many people in America don’t typically use borage. It is an annual herb that grows star-shaped flowers. You might enjoy it in a glass of herbal teas. You can use borage to repel hornworms and cabbage worms. Many gardeners believe that planting borage near your other plants helps to increase their resistance to pests and diseases that might kill them.
2. Lavender
Who doesn’t love lavender? It has a beautiful scent and offers dozens of herbal and medicinal benefits you might enjoy. Some people even enjoy baking with lavender. It makes a lovely tasting frosting!
Lavender is considered a general pest repellant. It will ward off fleas and moths while protecting your plants from whiteflies. Everyone should have a few plants of lavender around in their garden as a general deterrent to pests.
3. Clovers
Clovers are a common ground cover that grows as easily as grass. When planted intentionally, it will leave a layer of green over your garden bed and soil. You have over 300 varieties to pick. One of the most popular choices has tiny, pink flowers.
Clovers are most popularly known for repelling pests when you use it as a ground cover. A great way to use it is by planting it as a ground cover around cabbage. It will stop cabbage worms and aphids from destroying your cabbage crop.
4. Marigolds
Marigolds are well-known for being a pest-fighting flower, and it also happens to be one of the most commonly included flowers in gardens. There are different varieties, from different colors and sizes to some that are unscented!
Marigolds are useful to repel whiteflies, kill nematodes and repel many destructive insects. At the same time, marigolds can attract spider mites and snails.
