Make your garden as eco- friendly as possible recycle and re-use such things as bottles for watering, old furniture for signage, put those staff-room tea bags and children’s apple cores to good use to make compost for your school garden.
Plant and sow pollinators to aid pest control. Hoverflies (pictured right – they look like bees but without the sting and have a hovering pattern to their flight) are attracted to the nectar produced by plants such as:
- calendula
- oregano
- garlic
- chives
- sweet alyssum
- and cornflower
The female hoverfly lays eggs on the plants near aphid colonies and after two
to three days, the lava emerge from the creamy white eggs and start to feed on
the aphids. What a brilliant natural pest control measure! Can you spot any
eggs in your garden? Ladybird larvae are another great predator. Ladybirds are
attracted in particular to plants with flat white or yellow flowers, such as
dill, fennel, feverfew and yarrow – to name but a few! So get planting or
create a meadow next to your veg garden.
The RHS school gardening website has plenty ideas for you on this topic as does the Garden Organic website, and do make use of Groundwork’s recent Pollinator Guide, its full of easy to follow information. And don’t forget to collect lots of evidence in your journal i.e. photos, jottings, as this is one of the competition categories.
