OPINION

Someone mentioned to me the other day that they had little fruit on their plum tree compared with mine.

They said they didn’t see very many bees in their garden which I knew was always well-weeded and neat.

This is where we differ.

I encourage bees by having large clumps of borage, and calendula flowers, I let carrots seed, grow sunflowers, and nasturtiums, and let the good weeds flower.

I have plenty of red valerian in my flower garden, let my chives go to seed and always plant zinnias amongst my vegetables.

Having a patch of wildflowers in the corner of your vegetable attracts ladybirds, bees, and butterflies.

Bees and other pollinators are vital to every garden, enabling plants to produce fruits and vegetables, so looking after these little creatures is so important.

This includes reducing pesticide usage and taking a more natural approach.

Spray and water at night when the bees have gone to bed and always have water in a bird bath or bowl for them to drink from.

If you have a water feature, that is even better.

Bees are keen on our natives so if you are able to plant a few natives close to your vegetable garden they will be extremely happy.

Plant the likes of mānuka, corokia and kōwhai.

We also need to encourage bumble bees into our vegetable garden especially if there are tomatoes to be pollinated.

While it seems sometimes that we’re trying to get rid of bugs and insects, some are beneficial to our vegetable garden, such as ladybirds which can consume more than 5000 aphids during their lifetime - good on you ladybirds!

Praying mantis are also good to encourage into your garden, feeding on caterpillars, moths, beetles and crickets.

Hoverflies love to feed on caterpillars, aphids, and scale insects, so if you want to attract some into your vegetable garden, their favourite treats are dill, alyssum, yarrow, and lavender.

Beneficial insects certainly help to keep your garden sorted!

You also need them to do a lot of the work in your compost pile.

Spiders, dragonflies, parasitic wasps, lacewings, a variety of beetles and of course, birds and frogs all play an important job when it comes to keeping our vegetable garden at maximum health.

If you have plenty of spare garlic in your garden why not use some to make a spray that will help deter aphids, mites, and white butterflies?

Crush several cloves of garlic, add one litre of boiling water, leave to cool, then strain through a sieve or a piece of muslin.

Add one teaspoon of soapy detergent as this will be helpful to make the spray adhere to the leaves.

You will probably need to repeat the spray several times every second day or so.

Let the kids make some insect hotels out of bamboo, these can be attached to your fence or tree and will encourage insects into the garden.

We need to have both attitude and gratitude when it comes to insects in our garden because, without them, we would have a lot of extra work to do.

-The Country