Gardens are great, but pests gnawing on your garden aren’t. Whether you are growing a garden you plan to eat from or you just want beautiful blooms, it can be a challenge to keep little pests away from your garden bed. However, there is an easy – although often overlooked – solution to repel insects and bugs from your garden. It’s time to learn about bug-repelling plants.
A bug-repelling plant is any plant that, as you might have guessed, works to repel insects and bugs. While humans may have a keen sense of smell, it turns out that bugs and insects are much more sensitive to scent than we are, and that means that plants with vibrant scents can be used to repel insects and bugs. Here is a handful of the hardest working bug-repelling plants you can easily add to your garden:
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1. Lavender
lavender plant in white pot on table with other plants
Lavender isn’t only useful for its soothing scent – this is a plant that can double as an instant insect repellent. Lavender is excellent to keep mosquitos and gnats away, which means lavender is an ideal plant to have in easily moved pots to keep near your doors, windows, and on your patio.
2. Mint
Mint leaves
Mint has many uses, including for health, but in a garden, a mint plant can be used to keep spiders, ants, and mosquitos away. Experts recommend keeping mint planted in a separate pot, as mint planted in the ground can spread quickly.
3. Marigold
The beauty of marigolds
Marigolds are both pretty to look at and useful to keep a variety of critters out of your garden. Marigolds are known for repelling lice and mosquitos and can even repel rabbits from vegetable gardens. Marigolds do well planted both directly in the ground or in pots that you can move around for your convenience. Plus, honeybees love the pollen in marigolds, so you can also help bees perpetuate the worldwide ecosystem while protecting your garden.
4. Rosemary
Blossoming rosemary plants with flowers
Rosemary is a versatile herb that can be used for cooking, for beauty and health, and even for repelling pests. Rosemary can be potted or planted directly in your vegetable garden to guard against many bugs and insects, including flies and mosquitos.
5. Petunias
gardener holding petunia flowers
Petunias are fragrant, colorful blooms that can be planted alongside your vegetables to repel many of the insects that are attracted to vegetable gardens. For example, petunias can repel asparagus beetles, tomato worms, and leafhoppers, as well as some other pests.
6. Chrysanthemums
Chrysanthemums are probably the hardest-working flower on this list. Expert gardeners know that chrysanthemums are helpful in repelling a wide variety of insects and bugs that like to gather near vegetable and flower gardens. Chrysanthemums can repel ants, beetles, ticks, lice, bed bugs, silverfish, roaches, and spider mites.
Repel Insects and Bugs With These Plucky Plants
You don’t have to use chemical insect repellents to keep your garden clear of pests. Plant the right flowers and herbs in your garden and you can repel insects and bugs while also keeping your garden beautiful and fresh. Planting the right flowers in your garden bed or keeping the right herbs in pots near the windows and doors in your house can save you the trouble of dealing with insects and bugs during the spring-summer months.
