Inviting Beneficial Guests to Your Pacific Northwest Garden
Do you long for a beautiful, blooming garden filled with flowers and thriving vegetable plants? If your garden has been struggling, you may need a little outside help that can only come from beneficial guests. A variety of insects and bees can transform your dull, non-producing vegetable garden into one filled with blooms. To get those bees and insects to visit, you need to put out the welcome mat and send out some invitations in a variety of ways. Greenwood Hardware can help you get the insects you need to make your garden grow.
Honey Bees
Honey bees are lovely little creatures that buzz in, pollinate your flowers and vegetables and head back home. They are an asset to any garden. That clover you hate so much in your lawn—the bees love it! Flowers that are single petal and are blue, purple and yellow are especially attractive to honey bees. Consider having a variety of flowers and plants that bloom throughout the entire growing season to keep the bees coming back.
Bumble Bees
These big fat bees are excellent pollinators and will show up in early spring to help get your garden off to a great start. Rhododendrons and lamiums are perfect for the Pacific Northwest and are exactly what those bumble bees need. You may also attract some hummingbirds as well.
Butterflies
While they are not prolific pollinators like the bees, they are still a lovely addition to the garden. Marigolds, asters, butterfly bush, purple coneflowers, and daisies are just a few of the flowers that attract butterflies.
Ladybugs
Ladybugs are an excellent, chemical-free way to keep aphids out of your garden. They too love marigolds along with a variety of herbs that you can grow to attract the little red bugs and stock your kitchen. Things like dill, chives, and cilantro will have the ladybugs flocking to your garden.
Praying Mantis
These awesome creatures will dine on the harmful insects like grasshoppers and beetles that can decimate a garden in no time at all. Invite the praying mantis to your garden by planting a raspberry bush is one option. You get fruit and helpful guests. Hostas are great for the flower bed and provide shade and a nice hiding spot for the mantis to chill in.
If you are ready to take a more organic approach to your gardening and landscaping needs, try using nature to do your dirty work. You can find what you need to create a lovely place for these beneficial creatures at Greenwood Hardware. Stop on in, or contact us today!