If you want to have a successful garden, it's important that you learn how to encourage insects into your garden with these five simple methods.
Insects are some of our most valuable garden helpers. They pollinate plants and eat pests, so it's important to encourage them if you want your garden to be as healthy as possible. Here are five ways to do just that!
Building your own bug homes is a great way to encourage them into your garden. You can do this yourself and it's inexpensive!
To make your garden an irresistible bug paradise, try these simple ideas.
Create a Log Cabin
Place a pile of logs in your garden and watch as it transforms into an ecosystem. To promote diversity among guests at this natural bug hotel, try using an assortment of various woods from trees with contrasting colors and textures.
Oak is great food for carpenter ants but will repel nesting birds; pine attracts bees while repelling slugs.
Create a Home Using an Old Flower Pot
Try making an insect home out of an old flower pot and saucer (or broken piece of ceramic pot). First fill the pot with moss, then dig a hole as deep as it is tall; place the upside down plant holder in this hole so that just enough room remains at top for earth around it. Keep digging away until there's only about 1 inch on all sides left above ground level--this will create space where bees can build their hive!
Who knew a ceramic flowerpot could be so versatile? The moss provides an excellent habitat for all sorts of creepy crawlers. To keep the rain from getting in, cover the hole with a saucer or broken pot. Place it on top of something like stone so that insects can crawl underneath and into their new home.
How to Make a Home For Lacewings
From small to large, lacewings are a great ally in the garden. They can be fond of aphids and other pests that we want nothing more than gone! To protect them from winter weathers, create for them their own snug nest out of paper or bamboo sticks with plastic piping on one end so they have an enclosed space up high enough off the ground.
Merely cut the bamboo to the same size as your container, pack it tightly into place or have an idea of what you want and roll up a card.
Move everything before frost sets in; take care not to store anything that is flammable because this will pose a danger during winter months (especially if there's any rust on metal parts). You'll find other insects moving in too like ladybirds—another gardener-friendly bug!
Stinging Nettles are Loved by Many Insects
For gardeners who love the diversity of insects in their yard, nettles may be just what they need. Nettles are a safe plant for even those with sensitive skin as it has no stinging hairs that can irritate your skin and cause allergies. These plants also add nitrogen to the soil; so if you have some extra space on your property or want an easy-to-grow houseplant, then give these prickly little bushes a go!
Nettles are a powerful plant. Able to ward off pests and even keep away mosquitoes, it is no wonder they were used as a natural mosquito repellent in ancient times! If you do not have any nettles in your garden but know of someone who does, then wearing protective gloves and long sleeves pull up root-and-all from the ground before moving them into your own yard so that these pesky bugs will stay out where they belong instead of bothering us all with their bites.
Build Yourself a Pond
Fishless ponds are a great way to encourage insects. Pond skaters, water fleas, and other bugs will move in surprisingly quickly after one is created. Without fish in a pond, the water often becomes stagnant and warm. This attracts insects to it who thrive off of this environment.
Your garden can be a festive and relaxing place for butterflies too! Be sure to read this article on how to attract butterflies.
To make sure your garden is as healthy and happy as possible, consider inviting some of these little helpers to join in. You'll be surprised at how much good they can do for you! I