Companion Planting: Herbs instead of Insecticides

Using herbs and flowers in this way can keep your garden "green" and prevent tears when you find your prized tomato plant cut off at the root by some nasty bug!

Petunias, marigolds and geraniums can be planted in a border around the garden or trees. If you want the benefit of catnip without digging it out of your garden for years to come, put in a large clay pot and place nearby. For other pest preventers, thoughtful interplanting of vegetables can help with the process.

Underlined items can be found at Beier's Greenhouse.

Ants: Pennyroyal, spearmint, southernwood, tansy

Aphids: Garlic, chives and other onions, coriander, anise, nasturtium and petunia around fruit trees

Borer: garlic, onion, tansy

Cabbage moth: mint, hyssop, rosemary, southernwood, thyme, sage, celery, catnip, nasturtium

Colorado potato beetle: green beans, horseradish, dead nettle, flax, catnip, coriander, tansy, nasturtium

Cucumber beetle: tansy, radish

Cutworm: tansy

Flea beetle: wormwood, mint, catnip, interplant crops with tomato

Japanese beetle: garlic, larkspur, tansy, rue, white geranium

Leafhopper: petunia, geranium

Mexican bean beetle: marigold, potato, rosemary, savory, petunia

Mites: garlic, onion, chives

Nematodes: marigold, salvia, dahlia, calendula, asparagus

Rose chafer: geranium, petunia, onion

Slug: rosemary, wormwood

Squash bug: tansy, nasturtium, catnip

Tomato hornworm: borage, marigold, opal basil

Whitefly: nasturtium, marigold