Project by: Erin Steele, Jessica Jacobson, Matt Davis, and Cheryl Chew
Write-up by Erin Steele
Attracting Insects
Garden Summary
Garden Plan And Theme Summary:
The theme of our garden is correlated with out initial garden design; a garden that attracts
and supports beneficial insects. For this project we have researched and planted plants
that we hope in the future will supply us with insects for study and the good of our small
ecosystem.
When researched, we discovered that a majority of the plants that attract these insects are
herbs such as dill, parsley (Internet, 1998), mint, rosemary, thyme, and catnip (Sloat
Garden Center, 1998). We also discovered that brightly colored flowers such as Cosmos
and Marigolds attract Butterflies and other insects. To help our garden, and cut down our
budget, Sloat Garden store was kind enough to donate most of the herbs listed above,
along with others we did not use in our garden bed.
First, we planted what we had; we planted the herbs around the outside of our bed to
ensure the attraction of insects such as ladybugs, lacewings and ants into our bed from all
sides. In addition, we planted yarrow, a known attractor of ladybugs into our bed (Sloat
Garden Center, 1998). Because of past experiments on the bed prior to our arrival, there
was a significant growth of colored greens in our bed. Seeing how they had already
established themselves in the bed, we planted around them (also identified was a few
insects crawling on the greens, an added plus to our experiment).
After all the herbs we planted, we sowed directly into the ground other plants; Marigolds,
three types of Holycock, three types of Cosmos, three types of Nasturtiums, Cilantro and
Delphinium. We planted most of these because they will grow to be bright and big, save
Delphinium, which at first we planted for variety and beauty more than experimentation,
but in actuality is a great attraction for adult butterflies (Sunset, 1995).
We did not sow any seeds in the classroom; after careful deliberation and research, we
discovered that all the plants could grow outside provided that the frost season was
finished. So, we planted the seeds accordingly, and separated the bigger plants from the
ground covers to provide a scale of sorts; the bigger plants near the middle, the smaller on
the outside.
Our research has uncovered that the main types of insects our plants will attract are
ladybugs, ants, flies, wasps and butterflies, although the latter may take some time
(Internet, 1998, Sunset, 1995). Insects provide aid to plants in many ways. Many eat other
insects that can harm gardens, such as ladybugs and lacewings. Lacewings, both larvae
and adult aid gardens by feeding on a variety of harmful insects and mites (Sunset, 1995).
Ladybugs have been established at our school for some time now, and are a necessary
asset to our bed. Ladybugs eat aphids, a common pest in garden beds, which we can
expect to see in our garden, if it hasn't already (World Book Encyclopedia, 1986)
Ideas for Relevant Experimentaion:
Our ideas for relevant experimentation are broad. We want to do an experiment involving
ideas that we tested last semester. We want to see if seeds growing with a nitrogen
supplement survive and look healthier than starters growing with the same nitrogen
supplement. Also, because our bed deals with animal diversity, we want to conduct on
site tests using transect methods to tell how diverse our community is, and perhaps how
healthy it is as well. Due to our planting, our garden bed appears to be separated in half;
one half has plants already growing, the other, barren. We want to watch both sides, and
conduct these transect counts to compare how each side is doing, density, diversity and
coverage wise.
Summary for Watering and Care Needs:
For care, our group has decided to continue a watering plan of every other day a member
will go to the garden and water the plants. When the need for pruning arises, whoever is
watering that day will also prune the plants. Until we begin experimentation, there are no
other special needs that have to be taken care of in our garden bed.
