types of plants to prevent bugs in the garden?

[ducks4you]

vfem wrote:You are lucky... I've saved seeds from my french marigold last year (the tiger orange and red ones). I haven't gotten any to germinate.

Anything special I should do?

Gosh, I dunno? I haven't tried planting ANY of these seeds. All I know is that I threw a package-full of yellow marigold seeds in a used marjarine container and grew them inside with my tomatoes a year ago. The two that I harvested from were from about 8 that survived after transplanting. I KNOW that I've thrown packages of of mixed flowers that INCLUDED marigold seeds, and had them come up before. I guess I'll have to start some and let you know what happens. (I am starting EVERYTHING inside this year, and putting them out when they are all 3-4 inches tall or taller.)

 

[OaklandCityFarmer]

Marigolds, although pretty *easy* to grow, have been really strange regarding germination in my garden. They germinate when they feel, this can be 3 days or 3 weeks.

I just throw some seeds down where I eventually want them and then they'll sprout when they're good and ready. We use a good mix of different beneficial insect attracting flowers around the gardens so when the marigolds come up they help with the mix.

 

[digitS']

Department of Horticulture, Cornell University, Companion Planting

Steve's digits

 

[bid]

Here is an interesting article:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/mar10/garden0310.htm

Apparently not something new, but I had never heard about it before. From the article:

The beetle, Popillia japonica, can feast on a wide variety of plants, including ornamentals, soybean, maize, fruits and vegetables. But within 30 minutes of consuming geranium petals, the beetle rolls over on its back, its legs and antennae slowly twitch, and it remains paralyzed for several hours. The beetles typically recover within 24 hours when paralyzed under laboratory conditions, but they often succumb to death under field conditions after predators spot and devour the beetles while they are helpless.

 

[ducks4you]

bid, good plan! I'll get my geraniums divided and put some in my vegetable garden. (Somehow I KNEW to bring them all in last fall, and they knew that they had a special purpose, and that's why all 7 of them survived.)
Might be that my vegetable garden is going to look more like a flower garden in 2010!!
Thanks for sharing!

 

[Beekissed]

I'm looking forward to my garden being liberally sprinkled with flowers this year. This is the year I am getting bees~finally!~and the flowers will also serve as more bee food and an attraction for other pollinators as well.

Among the flowers I will be planting for companion purposes are: nasturtiums, marigolds, sunflowers, blue flax.

I'll also have a few rows of annual everlasting type flowers, as I really want to experiment with dried flowers this year as well as sell cut flowers at my roadside stand.