Herbs As Aid to Organic Gardening By John Beaver

This guide to organic herb gardens intends to offer you some advice on using herbs as natural pest and disease repellents in a vegetable or flower garden. Gardening free of chemical use can be easily achieved by planting certain herbs which will keep your garden bug free and eliminate the need for harmful pesticides.

Those gardeners who are keen to adopt an organic approach to their gardening should know that they can discourage garden pests without using all those chemical products that harm beneficial insects such as bees and ladybugs and which have such devastating effects on birdlife. You do not have to tolerate, or fight to eliminate, all those pesky insects that are out there just waiting to pounce.

Some herbs, because of their smells or secretions, will deter pests naturally so when planted generally around the garden will sit there doing their work with absolutely no effort from the gardener. Just think what a relief that would be.

Being just a short guide to organic herb gardens this is intended to be no more than an insight into the chemical free way to bring natural balance into your garden, but it cannot cover every herb. Following however, is a list of the most common ones. Every one of these herbs has specific, and some duplicated benefits, for the organic gardener. Just choose those you like best as the most suitable herbs for your purpose and get them planted out in your organic garden. Then sit back and stop worrying about attacks from insect pests.

BASIL will repel flies and mosquitoes.
BAY LEAF should be ground up and sprinkled around as a natural insecticide dust.
BORAGE will deter tomato worms.
CALENDULA when planted throughout the garden will discourage many insects.
GARLIC will repel aphids.
HORSERADISH should be planted in the potato patch to keep away potato bugs.
HYSSOP is good for deterring cabbage moths.
LOVAGE mixed with your compost heap will improve the nitrogen content.
MINT will repel white cabbage moths.
NASTURTIUM planted under fruit trees will deter aphids and other pests.
PEPPERMINT repels white cabbage moths.
PETUNIAS repel the asparagus beetle, tomato worm and general garden pests.
ROSEMARY will deter cabbage moths, bean beetles, and carrot flies.
SAGE is good for repelling cabbage moths, beetles, carrot flies.
TANSY: is another herb for fruit trees, also roses and raspberries as it will deter flying insects,
WORMWOOD: is just a bonus, what is your biggest pest - is it the neighborhood tom cat? Wormwood will keeps animals away from your garden if planted out along your borders.

That is not the end of the benefits to be had from growing these herbs because they all make excellent companion plants when planted among various fruit and vegetable crops. Look out for an article coming soon explaining about companion gardening.

My name is John and I've been interested in growing and using herbs for longer than I care to think about. Having carried out a great deal of research on the subject I've now compiled a huge amount of knowledge which I want to share. To see more great information on organic herb gardens, and much more please visit my website where there are details of a free herb gardening mini-course: http://www.herbgardendelights.com.

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