We consider having a good bug mix on hand really useful (essential even) in creating a healthy, pest free garden. It’s key function is to attract certain insects (often referred to as beneficials) that help pollinate crops and control unwanted insects.
As we’re in Tasmania we’re unable to buy in certain seeds and bug mixes due to quarantine, so we grown our own – and while the mix will vary depending on seasons and availability, here are some of our stalwart and rather beautiful ingredients. Image from Green Harvest
Sweet Alice (Lobularia maritima) has masses of tiny white and/or purple flowers that attract hoverflies and parasitic mini-wasps. This little bush grows prolifically, so much so that we often ‘weed’ it out and use it as mulch to protect naked soils. In doing so it drops its seeds and grows where we’ve thrown it down. When the bush is dry, we also put some of it in a paper bag and shake it around vigorously – this separates the seeds from their pods so we can easily harvest them.
Sweet Alice being used as mulch
Sweet Alice seed pods and actual seed separated
Finally, we use nasturtiums (Tropaeolum) in our bug mix which everything seem to love. They’re a fantastic ground cover, perfect in orchards and for rambling down slopes. We use their young seed pods to make ‘poor man capers‘, and the rest fall on the ground and are harvested for our bug mix. 
All three of these plants will grow prolifically and while they will self seed and become very abundant in your garden, they wont become invasive. This means you can happily grow them in both your annual and perennial crops without a problem. 
Above and below you can see some of these flowers in action in our orchard, below you’ll also see flowers like borage, native pelagonium and sunflowers, who add to creating an attractive, food filled space for beneficial bugs. 
Want to know more?
- Diane’s Flower Seeds
- Buy some good bug mix through Green Harvest, no delivery to TAS or WA sadly for us.
- Mother Earth News
- Attracting bees to your garden with flowers.
Hi,
This is Diane Linsley at Diane’s Flower Seeds. Thank you for linking to my article on Flowers for Beneficial Insects. I’m writing to tell you that the URL for that page was changed when my site went mobile. Here’s the new URL so you can update it:
http://www.dianeseeds.com/beneficial-insects-flowers.html
Thanks,
Diane
Thanks Diane! Have changed that over now :-)
Just a quick note – according to the Tasmanian Border Control agents that attended the Seed Storm workshop here in Tasmania earlier this year, there are no issues sending the good bug mix to Tas. They looked at the list of the seeds in the mix, and found no problem. There may have previously been an issue with a couple of the items in the mix, but that is no longer the case. Thought you might like to know! I have a request into Green Harvest (who also attended the workshop) as a reminder to update their website to allow the shipment.
Cheers,
Vallorie
That’s great news Vallorie! I was just looking at their catalogue yesterday and it definitely still says that it can’t come to Tas (or W.A). I’ll watch with interest :-)