Wonderful ladybug weed

TZ-OH6 · June 12, 2009

My main tomato garden is in a clearing hacked out of a wilderness covered by multiflora rose, blackberry brambles and other assorted weeds.

One of the main weeds that grows all around (and in) the garden plot is wild carrot/Queen Anne's Lace. It has always been a weed on the property, and in the past I have cut and sprayed it to my heart's content (doesn't phase it). This year I let the whole area grow up in the spring to give the bees the benefit of the early wildflowers, and the wild carrot was free to take off.

The tomatoes in that area were host to a good population of aphids so I decided to plant ladybug flowers along the borders. I chose cosmos and naustertiums. Well, the cosmos and naustertiums, planted long ago, are now 3-6 inches tall. The Queen Anne's Lace, which starts growing as soon as snow thawed, is 8-9 feet tall, covered in flowers, and the flowers are covered in ladybugs, hover flies (another aphid predator) and various bees, all in time for my tomato plants to start flowering.....and the deer do not eat it.

I wonder if lady bugs like Milkweed? That's the next major weed to flower.

Blueaussi · June 13, 2009

Monarchs like milkweed! Monarch butterfly caterpillars need milkweed! And you're in the northern range where they'll breed in the summer! Please consider leaving some, their population was down last year.

You might see some black swallowtail caterpillars on your Queen Anne's Lace, too. It's so exciting to watch the eggs being lad, then the caterpillars munching away and growing. Then all of a sudden, all the caterpillars march off to pupate, and finally you'll start seeing beautiful butterflies around the garden as they emerge.

TZ-OH6 · June 13, 2009

The dominant milkweed here has changed over the years. We used to have a broadleaf form along the roadside and in the pasture, and the monarchs loved it. Both areas are now lawn and the new milkweed, which is in moister areas has narrower leaves. I have never found monarch caterpillars on it. It was a pain in the new garden because every little peice of stolon put up plants all summer long, and they penetrated the mulch, growing under the newspaper until they found an opening.

June 12, 2009	#1
TZ-OH6 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Mid-Ohio Posts: 847	Wonderful ladybug weed My main tomato garden is in a clearing hacked out of a wilderness covered by multiflora rose, blackberry brambles and other assorted weeds. One of the main weeds that grows all around (and in) the garden plot is wild carrot/Queen Anne's Lace. It has always been a weed on the property, and in the past I have cut and sprayed it to my heart's content (doesn't phase it). This year I let the whole area grow up in the spring to give the bees the benefit of the early wildflowers, and the wild carrot was free to take off. The tomatoes in that area were host to a good population of aphids so I decided to plant ladybug flowers along the borders. I chose cosmos and naustertiums. Well, the cosmos and naustertiums, planted long ago, are now 3-6 inches tall. The Queen Anne's Lace, which starts growing as soon as snow thawed, is 8-9 feet tall, covered in flowers, and the flowers are covered in ladybugs, hover flies (another aphid predator) and various bees, all in time for my tomato plants to start flowering.....and the deer do not eat it. I wonder if lady bugs like Milkweed? That's the next major weed to flower.

June 13, 2009	#2
Blueaussi Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: South Carolina Zone 8a Posts: 1,205	Monarchs like milkweed! Monarch butterfly caterpillars need milkweed! And you're in the northern range where they'll breed in the summer! Please consider leaving some, their population was down last year. You might see some black swallowtail caterpillars on your Queen Anne's Lace, too. It's so exciting to watch the eggs being lad, then the caterpillars munching away and growing. Then all of a sudden, all the caterpillars march off to pupate, and finally you'll start seeing beautiful butterflies around the garden as they emerge.