Use Pollinator Plants to Encourage Beneficial Birds/Insects while Discouraging Harmful Pests:
Pollinator plants bring the right critters into your garden to move pollen from one plant to another which is absolutely necessary for the formation of flowers and fruits. In other words, for more veggies and a more productive garden, plant flowering pollinators. Even just a few plants will benefit your entire garden! An added benefit is pollinator plants will also repel certain pests that you do not want in your garden.
You can find some examples in the Garden by the Sea Pollinator Bed (#32.) The sign on the bed lists characteristics of plants that attract specific pollinators (bees, birds, flies, etc.) or you can select pollinator plants that repel specific garden pests.
Here is an easy pollinator trick, try framing vegetable beds with Marigolds or Nasturtiums. Both plants are easy to grow, pretty, and they repel many harmful insects. Here are some other plants to try:
Plant Repels Attracts
Borage cabbage & tomato worms bees
Chamomile biting insects, squash bugs, fleas ladybugs, bees, butterflies
Columbine red spider mites bees, hummers, butterflies
Lavender slugs, mosquitoes, moths bees
Marigolds tomato & squash bugs beneficial insects
Mints cabbage worms, menace vermin bees, beneficial insects
Nasturtiums aphids, squash bugs hummers, butterflies
Rosemary slugs, cabbage worms bees
Yarrow bean beetles, flies, mosquitoes ladybugs, bees
