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What flowers do you grow with your peppers?

backyardpepper

backyardpepper

I want to plant some flowers with my peppers so that I get good bugs around my peppers year round. What do you guys plant next to them? How many do you have per pepper plant?
 
D3monic said:
I hear marigolds are good. I plant onions, garlic, green onion ect around the perimeter of the garden to deter rabbits. But it is also fenced in because.. well rabbits are assholes. 
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I have a bunch of cats so rabbits wont be a problem... Raccoon's and possums on the other hand come around from time to time. Do you think they will do anything to the crops?
 
I have 1 marigold for each 4 plants, my whole garden is surrounded by chicken fence to prevent marmot from going in and I have onion and garlic protecting one side
 
Here is how it look
 
20150725_160342_zpsborglanc.jpg
 
Salvia, Several fruit trees including 3 different types of Citrus(bees love them), berry bushes- blueberry, lingonberry, rasberry and strawberry. The bees are in my yard from dawn to dusk.
 
SteelHeat said:
So what attracts ladybugs?
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     I've had really good luck planting marigolds mixed in with my peppers, just like charlesquick showed above. I also have containers with petunias, lantana, begonias and more marigolds near my garden.
     The goal is just to grow flowers that: A.) produce nectar and pollen to attract and feed adult predators and B.) keep blooming all season long with low maintenance. If you can manage to keep adult ladybugs, lacewings and parasitic wasps fed and interested in your garden, they will start laying eggs on all your plants (including peppers). I can't remember the last time I picked peppers or scouted my plants and didn't find at least a half dozen lacewing eggs.
     I had an aphid outbreak on my okra about a month ago - every shoot, flower and pod was completely covered in writhing aphids. Each plant had a couple dozen ants tending to the herds as well. Since I know I have a pretty healthy population of predators around, all I did was squish a few of the aphids in each cluster so the smell could attract the predators. Three days later, I couldn't find one aphid or ant anywhere on the plants. Every square inch of those plants (and all others) is squeaky clean to this day. 
 
http://extension.psu.edu/plants/gardening/news/2015/attracting-beneficial-insects
backyardpepper said:
 How many do you have per pepper plant?
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     I don't think there's a magic number or ratio here. Although I've had good luck making my garden look more or less like how charlesquik's looks in years past. Most of my marigolds got outcompeted in my raised beds this season, but my container flowers on the front porch are a constant hub of activity for bees, hoverflies, ladybugs and lacewings. Once you start attracting adults to your yard, even just a small area in it, they will find your garden and use that habitat to lay eggs. 
 
I have lamb's ear, sage, echinacea, some kind of petunia, several canna lilies and lots of other random stuff my wife plants to attract butterflies.
 
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