Supporting the Good Bugs

The Campbell Community Garden is tended using organic, natural gardening methods. This year we are introducing beneficial insects and incorporating more flowers into our gardens to support those good bugs while they fight the bad bugs.

The insects we plan to introduce include:

Atheta coriaria (Rove Beetle, attacks soil dwelling insects)

Stratiolaelaps scimitus (soil dwelling predatory mite)

Dacnusa sibirica/Diglyphus isea mix (for leaf miners)

Aphidoletes aphidimyza (Midge, attacks aphids)

Some of the flowers we plan to plant for the insects include:
Parsley and Cilantro (we will allow it to flower), Sweet Alyssum (we have seeds started and purchased a few plants), Sunflower (dwarf varieties), Marigold, Calendula, and Borage.We are also allowing a few Kale plants to flower.

The video below from P. Allen Smith is a nice overview of on insectary garden.