Using a few handy tips, you can find flowers and plants that will both look beautiful and also help keep your outdoor living more enjoyable this summer.
Bug repellant
Plant marigolds around your yard to keep mosquitos and other flying insects away, according to eartheasy.com. Flying insects don't like how marigolds smell and they'll avoid the area!
Another mosquito repellant that eartheasy.com recommends planting around your patio is Thai lemon grass - Thai lemon grass contains natural oil citronella, which they cite as being shown more effective than true citronella for getting rid of bugs.
Rosemary is another plant which will repel mosquitos and flying insects - plus it tastes great when used in your home cooking! Rosemary is not hardy enough to plant in the garden (it will die in the cold winter months) Gomestic tells us, so keep potted rosemary and try setting it on your patio table when you eat al fresco to keep the pests off your table.
Flies don't like the scent of mind, so try hanging sachets of mint around your table or near an open window to deter them.
Keep your garden bug free
If you've got a vegetable garden that you'd like to keep safe from hungry bugs this summer, try planting nasturtium flowers next to your vegetables like squash, cucumbers and beans. According to an article on eHow, nasturtiums deter moths, beetles, squash bugs, flies and aphids! Talk about one useful flower - nasturtiums (if grown organically) are also edible for humans!
Gardening.about.com outlines how to use herbs as 'companion plants' which you grow near the vegetables you'd like to protect from insects in your garden. For example, tansy will deter both ants and cabbage moths while lavender is thought to deter ticks, mice and moths.
The money-saving folks at Thriftyfun have a great list of insect pests and the plants which repel them.
So, you see that using flowers for their beauty is great, but this summer, bring them to the table for many more reasons!
{French marigold image source: Muhammad Mahdi Karim via wikimedia commons- Creative Commons Attribution Only license}
Do you know of any beautiful, hard-working flowers we overlooked? Let us know in the comments!
