Pacifism in Pest Control
(Page 2 of 7)
Of course, flowers are not the only repellers of garden
pests. You can noticeably diminish insect attacks on your
vegetable plot merely by the way you arrange it.
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If you alternate a row of green beans with a row of
potatoes, for instance, you will get a cooperative effect.
The green beans will repel the Colorado potato beetle . . .
and the potatoes will repel the Mexican bean beetle.
Potatoes will also stay healthier when you plant horse
radish or flax nearby for potato bugs never stay around
these plants.
Tomatoes planted near asparagus, create an atmosphere
inhospitable to asparagus beetles. A few plants scattered
through the asparagus bed, or along the edges of the plot
will do the job. We've found the early, short stalked
tomatoes most suitable because we can mulch them heavily
and then let them grow with no more attention. Other kinds
of tomatoes will do as well, but you would either have to
stake or sucker them to keep them from wandering all over
the area. In any case you can use the tomatoes when they're
ripe: it's the plant—not the fruit—which does
the repelling. Touch a tomato vine sometime and then notice
how long the scent lingers on your fingers. It's powerful
stuff!
We've also found that sage planted with cabbages will repel
the moth whose eggs hatch into the little green worms that
gobble the cabbage before you do. Even radishes make good
companions for some plants. If you drop six to eight melon
or cucumber seeds into a shallow hole about the diameter of
a tea cup and plant a few radish seeds around them in a
slightly larger circle you'll protect the emerging melon
and cucumber plants from beetle foraging. In this case, of
course, you must leave the radishes in the ground so plant
your table supply elsewhere.
All vegetables appear to be helped by companion planting
with one or several varieties of the aromatic herbs. Chives
at the feet of roses, for example, keep aphids away. Herbs
such as borage, lavender, hyssop, sage, parsley, chervil,
tarragon, chives, thyme, marjoram, dill, camomile, lovage
and wormwood will help protect many garden plants . . . and
they're good for cooking too!
Some other plants which fend off attacks on their
companions include wormwood (repels flea beetles from
tomatoes): basil (wards off many insects which eat
tomatoes); tomatoes, mint and rosemary (repels cabbage
butterfly); nasturtium seeds in squash hills (for squash
pests); summer savory or potatoes (wards off Mexican bean
beetles); geraniums or marigolds (repels various corn
pests).
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