Trap crop

[Lamia]

New to forum,
Sow thistle really likes my garden, I was cutting it and putting it around my tomatoes which was really beneficial as a mulch I think. I'm also one that uses urine in my garden on a regular basis which one would think would burn plants if used too much but the sow thistle acts as a nitrogen accumulator and takes up what my tomatoes dont want. I just found another use for it (ausome) it seems to act as a wonderful trap crop. I noticed it is being decimated by aphids, in fact that's the only thing I see aphids on. Last year they would of been wrecking havoc on my kale but not now. I love what we can learn just by watching are garden up close.

 

[Meadowlark]

Welcome!

My absolute favorite trap crop is giant sunflowers. They attract leaf footed stink bugs away from tomatoes and other plants where they can be killed easily. The only thing though is sunflowers have allopathic properties so it's best to use them in border space away from rows of plants. Marvelously effective for me and discovered totally by accident a few years ago. I've never seen it recommended but it works spectacularly for me.

 

[redback]

G'day Lamia, I'm fairly new here as well.
It's winter here in Australia now, but minimum temperatures are well above freezing and there is no snow cover. Your experiments in grasses as companions is also my current interest. I have successfully used stinging nettle to keep pests away from young brassicas and celery. Nothing attacks the stinging nettle not pests, not even my poultry. I will be planting native dichondra as ground cover in the ornamentals. As for aphids and mite I have an army of predators resident in this twenty-year-old organic garden.