Little Furrow 10 Beneficial Flowers to Plant in Your Vegetable Garden

Flowers are a beautiful addition to any garden, but what you may not know is that planting flowers in your vegetable garden comes with many benefits for the overall health of your garden. They make amazing companion plants, because they are great at bringing in pollinators to your garden and great at acting as trap crops.

There are a few flowers in particular that are especially beneficial and productive as companion plants! Some may be native to you and some may not. To check, use this handy tool to research whether or not these flowers are a good fit for your area! Ok, our 10 favorite beneficial flowers include…

Bee Balm
Milkweed
Sweet Alyssum
Yarrow
Borage
Chamomile
Calendula
Lavender
French Marigold
Sunflowers

Bee Balm

Bee Balm, also known as Wild Bergamot, is an amazing addition to your vegetable garden. It is native to the eastern United States, so if you live in this area, it’s a great option for your local wildlife and health of the ecosystem! It is tall, shaped like a firework, and has a beautiful purple hue! The purple is perfect for drawing in honeybees and native bees, as it is one of their preferred colors! Most people agree that it smells of citrus, and some even think it smells like a lovely cup of Earl Grey tea! Bee Balm is a perennial, so you’ll only need to plant it once in your garden, rather than year after year! If you want to plant it year after year in different places, be sure to collect the seeds to save some money and to benefit from what your land has produced!

Common Milkweed

Milkweed is generally synonymous with monarch butterflies, as many of us learned about the monarchs’ lifecycle and reliance on milkweed for food! Common milkweed is native to the eastern half of the United States and Canada. It is perfect for gardens as it draws in many different pollinators including bees and Ladybugs! Ladybugs are an important thing to attract to your garden, as they eat aphids when they are in their larvae stages and when they are full grown! If you struggle with keeping aphid populations down, many of these flowers will prove helpful. Common milkweed is a perennial!

Sweet Alyssum

Sweet Alyssum has a lovely honey-like fragrance that attracts many beneficial insects to your veggie garden. These beneficial insects will help to fight off nasty pests. Alyssum is native to southern Europe, and is a great option if you live there, however it can be invasive in parts of the U.S., so exercise caution and make sure to research if it is invasive in your area! It is an annual or short lived perennial.

Yarrow

Yarrow is a beautiful addition to your garden, as it comes in many colors and is a very productive flower! You can grow it as a pollinator attractor, but it is also a highly medicinal plant. Yarrow is native to most of the U.S. and also parts of Europe and Asia! Many native bees are drawn to yarrow, and so are ladybugs, lacewings, and more! These are the natural predators of harmful insects like aphids and whiteflies. I like to use yellow yarrow, as bees prefer purple, blue, and yellow flowers more than other colors! Yarrow is a perennial!

Borage

Want to grow a flower that beneficial insects love, but you can also eat? Plant borage! Borage is a wonderful plant that has edible flowers that taste like cucumbers and it also has many medicinal benefits! It is native to the Mediterranean region, but is widely grown in the U.S. and is not classified as invasive, but it can self seed prolifically. Borage is an annual.

Chamomile

You may think of Chamomile as a nice tea to drink before bedtime, but it also has benefits in the garden as well, as it attracts many beneficial insects that can help with pollination and harmful insect control! Chamomile is native to parts of Asia and Europe, but is grown all around the world. We like German Chamomile the best as it is the best for tea and is so pretty! German chamomile is an annual.

Calendula

Calendula is a beautiful flower that comes in yellow and orange. It is often used for natural skincare and plant dyeing, but it is also great at attracting beneficial insects. It is native to southern europe, but can be grown in the U.S and is non-invasive! It is a perennial in certain areas, but is mostly grown as an annual.

Lavender

Lavender, we all love it. From its smell to its gorgeous purple hue. Widely used as an edible flower in many culinary settings, lavender is a major beneficial insect attractor. It is native to the Mediterranean, but is commonly grown elsewhere and it is not invasive. Lavender is also a perennial, so it will come back beautifully every year.

French Marigold

We often recommend planting French Marigolds in your tomato beds as they attract certain insects that feed on Hornworms, which are a common pest that love tomatoes. They can also deter Nematodes. They are native to South and Central America, but are grown in many places. French marigolds are annuals, but collecting seeds from them is extremely easy!

Sunflowers

Sunflowers are a wonderful flower that has many different varieties to choose from! They are native to North America and are usually grown as an annual, though there are perennial varieties. A favorite of many pollinators and other insects, sunflowers are an excellent addition to your garden because they can act as a trap crop!

Why Should I Plant Flowers in my Vegetable Garden?

Trap crops and pollinator attractors are incredibly important for your vegetable garden’s overall health! Flowers can act as both of these and can help increase the production of your crops.