Lavender is a beautiful bush that can be planted either in a raised bed or around your beds as a shrub. Its distinctive aroma is very pleasing and will attract all sorts of pollinators to your garden! It’s a wonderful companion plant for repelling slugs/snails, moths (such as cabbage moths), and deer as well. This blog post talks about how you can grow your own lavender using our free mobile app!
Lacewings are great helpers for your garden. They are light green with long skinny antennae and almost transparent wings. Lacewings love to eat insects and can eat over 200 aphids in a week! They also can prey on other soft-bodied insects such as mites, thrips, whiteflies, and small caterpillars.
Minute pirate bugs love to eat various pests such as aphids, spider mites, thrips, caterpillars, and their eggs.
Birds are one of those critters that can be both good and bad in your garden. Birds help with pest control eating a wide variety of insects including aphids, caterpillars, mosquitos, and spiders.
Apple trees can be grown in even the smallest of backyards by keeping pruned down. Growing your own apples can be such a tasty reward and you will not regret it! There are many varieties of apples and they have different temperaments for your climate. The best zones to grow apple trees in are USDA Zones 4-8.
Elderberries grow on large shrubs. They produce beautiful white flowers in the spring followed by the dark berries in the summer. This large shrub is a terrific attractant to beneficial insects and hummingbirds as well!
Blueberry bushes are a great addition to your garden! These bushes are easy to grow and care for and thrive in acidic soil. You may need to add an acidifier to the soil to help these bushes thrive in your garden. They will not produce fruit until it is a couple years old, but patience is a virtue! Enjoy these tasty berries!
Grapes are one of the most popular fruits to eat but are not commonly grown in many backyards. As beautiful and tasty as they are, grapes should definitely be grown more!Â
Rhubarb is a perennial vegetable that is easy to grow in certain areas. It is best grown as a perennial in climate zones 6 and cooler, but can be grown in others as an annual in the cool season in warmer climates. The plant will die back after the first frost, but will come back in early spring. Rhubarb will thrive in a cool climate and can keep giving you a harvest for up to 20 years!
Turnips are a terrific vegetable to grow, especially if you have a time constraint or are impatient to begin to get your food! These fast-growing crops are a great addition to any backyard garden or container vegetable garden.
