Hello, hello. Welcome to Lady Bug episode number one of one because this is probably

enough to get you started in the world of ladybugs.

These are so amazing.

I mean, I remember just loving them as a kid

and trying to collect them and maybe not care for them as well as well could have but I was a kid hey you know what can I do I

loved to collect bugs but as a gardener now of course there's a whole new world to them that I can appreciate. So what do they do? How do they

operate and how do we keep and or get them in our garden? Well, Ladybugs sure seem to be into certain flowers.

So things like Angelica, Kilengula, Chives Dill,

and Fennel, and even Marigolds.

And so you can plant things like that that will get them in there but at the same time of course their favorite meal would be aphids and so if you can plant a plant that aphids like to go to, it also follows that if there are ladybugs around, they will also go there.

So Nastertium is fantastic.

In fact, Nestertium is a pretty classic, what we call a trap crop, which will trap

aphids by making them go to the Nastertium, thus using aifids, almost farming aifids,

as a way to bring in your ladybugs and provide them with a constant food source.

So starting to think about pests, less as pests, and more as food sources for beneficials

is probably the better way to think about it as you go down your gardening

journey.

At least that's the way that I'm going at it.

Now, how do you keep them?

How do you get them to stay? Where do they like to be? Well they're cold-blooded,

you're going to see them in spring and fall, that's when they're most active, but when it gets

really cold, like under 55 degrees Fahrenheit and I realize as I say that that's not really cold for many of you but for a ladybug it is.

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