Who can deny that fresh home grown vegetables are the absolute best?
But if you are like me, you often have problems with pests, like aphids.
If you too are concerned about the dangers of pesticides then you would probably like to try a natural remedy. Unfortunately, plants alone rarely solve the problem. However, taking an integrated pest management approach using several earth friendly methods can go along way. This method “employs the use of physical barriers, companion planting and cultural techniques, in addition to least toxic controls to maintain a proper balance between pest and predator insect. In IPM, total eradication of pest populations is not sought, since it would upset the ecological balance.”
An important part of IPM is companion planting. Companion planting is an ancient strategy of planting certain plants together to enhance their symbiotic qualities. For instance aromatic herbs can repel harmful insect while their flowers can attract beneficial insects.
The famous three sisters planting widely used by native people across North America involved planting beans to fix nitrogen in the soil, corn for the beans to climb, and squash to shade the ground.
Chives, for instance, are reputed to repel the carrot fly, Japanese beetle, and aphids. Their beautiful purple flowers also quite attractive and attract pollinators.
Basil also is good for repelling flies, mosquitoes, carrot flies, and asparagus flies. However, they do draw white flies. So it would be beneficial to incorporate other pest-repelling plants in addition to the Basil.
Here is a list of other pest-repelling plants.
What is really nice about this method is that you get the benefit of free herbs!
Food for thought…..
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