Let's Grow Stuff

– Qwantese Winters: It's time to--[inhales] Stop and smell the flowers.

Or, better yet, plant them.

On today's episode, I'm gonna show you why bordering your garden with flowers is not only the visually appealing thing to do, but the smart thing to do also.

You ready?

Let's grow stuff!

[upbeat music] Before we start talking flowers, I want to highlight an amazing statewide program.

Have you ever heard of seed libraries?

Public libraries all over the state are seasonally offering them.

It's a place inside the libraries where people can come and grab seeds and even check out books on how to grow them.

Their mission is to encourage everyone to experience the joy of growing stuff.

Sound familiar?

And did I mention that they're free?

Earlier this spring, I grabbed seeds from a library in Madison.

I grabbed tomatoes, spinach, cilantro, and flowers.

We knew that we wanted to border our garden with flowers this year, and how awesome is it that we get to use free seeds from the library to do it?

My local library was offering zinnia and marigold seeds.

There are a number of reasons to make space for flowers alongside our plants.

The number one reason-- they attract pollinators.

Without pollinators, we wouldn't have tomatoes, broccoli, and cabbage, just to name a few.

By planting flowers in the garden, you make an inviting environment for friendly helpers like butterflies, bees, and birds to do their part in your garden, Reason number two-- pest control is a much-needed thing.

And if you're someone like me, who likes to use organic methods for this issue, planting flowers can be the solution that you never knew you needed.

You see, pollinators can also be predators to some common pests in the garden.

For example, ladybugs love two things: Cosmos and aphids.

Plant some cosmos in your garden, and you have more ladybugs to eat up the aphids taking over your tomato plants.

Reason number three: The border is a safe space.

Flowers can grow all different sizes and have different spacing needs.

By putting them on the borders, you're making great use of a part of the garden that sometimes gets underused, and it's visually appealing.

Now, back to these library seeds.

Each packet comes labeled, and some even have directions, which makes things really easy.

This year, I started these seeds at home, but if you don't have the best indoor light, a lot of these can be sown directly into the ground-- whatever floats your boat.

As you can see, our "Let's Grow Stuff" garden is taking off, and we have our public libraries to thank for that.

Next time you have a garden pest problem, plant some flowers.

Notice some of your plants aren't doing too hot?

Plant some flowers.

Got a sunburn?

You're gonna want to use sunscreen for that.

Thank you so much for joining us today and catch up on more of Ben and I's episodes at letsgrowstuff.org See you later.

- Funding for "Let's Grow Stuff" is provided by the Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programs and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.