Why Insects Are a Gardeners Best Friend

With around 27,000 species of insects in the UK alone, it’s not hard to see why they play such an important role in our ecosystem. The 3 types of insects include pollinators, de-composers and predators – each being vital to the world around us.

Pollinators and predators perhaps play the most important role in our gardens as they pollinate our flowers, fruits and vegetables and prey on any other insects that are likely to destroy a good crop!

While we may not all be their biggest fans, encouraging bugs into your garden is not only a fun activity to do with children – it also helps your garden to flourish.
The first step in attracting insects to your garden is to avoid using pesticides where possible and certainly avoid spraying near open flowers.

Just like us, insects love having places to shelter and will often seek refuge under a large rock, so be sure to have plenty of rocks and pebbles scattered around your flowerbeds.

Ensuring there are plenty of sources of nourishment is the best way to guarantee a wide variety of insects will visit your garden, a shallow dish containing pebbles and fresh water is ideal for allowing insects to hydrate without the risk of drowning. Leaving fallen fruit under fruit trees, growing plants such as Chives, Dill, Marigold and Yarrow are also perfect sources of energy.

We stock a variety of plants, seeds and starter kits for gardeners both beginner and advanced, so if you’re looking to be the host with the most for your neighbourhood bugs then be sure to call in and stock up!