Ever wonder why your neighbor rings her bed of tomato plants with marigolds?
They're pretty, but ...
They repel insects and other critters that can ruin your tomato crop. The smell drives them away. Similarly, plantings of onions, parsley, basil, oregano or thyme can keep certain pests at bay.
These are natural alternatives to using chemicals.
Alternatively, a homeowner or landowner should consider creating "habitats" on their property, sites where birds can safely nest away from predators - and eat some of the insects that prey on vegetable gardens.
White pine, hemlocks and Eastern Red cedar trees can provide small islands of habitat in a yard.
If you enjoy watching birds, there are plants that are food sources and attract birds.
Many are native species like Cranberry or Blueberry Viburnums, Winterberry Holly and blueberries.
"Hummingbirds need a trumpet-shaped flower to push their beaks into, like a blackberry flower," said Rich Buller, nursery manager for Homestead Gardens in Davidsonville.
The purple blossoms of the Jacob's Ladder plant is an early nectar source for several varieties of butterflies.
A Dianthus, Buller said, has a sweet bubblegum scent that attracts both hummingbirds and butterflies.
The sole food a Monarch butterfly caterpillar will eat is the milkweed or Asclepias varieties. The plant is vital to a Monarch butterfly's survival: The sap of the milkweed makes these butterflies toxic to birds.
Later in their life span, during their migration North, the mature Monarch butterflies lay their eggs on the milkweed plants.
Some toxins
When creating an environment in your yard that is welcoming to wild birds and butterflies, it's a good idea to consider what plants or vegetables might be mildly to profoundly poisonous to a curious toddler, bored cat or grazing puppy.
The tomato, a native South American plant, was cultivated by the Aztecs more than 2,000 years before Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas. A member of the deadly nightshade family, or Solanaceae, along with its relatives potatoes, peppers and eggplants, the tomato's fruit was long feared.
After explorers brought tomato seeds to the European continent, it took centuries before the tomato was grown for food instead of decoration. Cookbooks did not contain recipes for tomato dishes until the mid-1800s.
Mama Mia! The tomato pizza wasn't created until the 1880s.
Actually, except for its fruit, the entire tomato plant does contain toxins.
Likewise, so do the leaves, stems and flowers of potatoes, peppers and eggplants.
The Hellebore plant, with its beautiful rose-like flowers, is beautiful. But don't let your pets or young children chew or eat its leaves. Since ancient times, the Hellebore, especially the Black Hellebore, has been renowned for its poisonous properties that can induce nausea, vomiting, dizziness, even cardiac arrest or death.
If your vegetable garden gets too much attention from insects or local deer, a judicious planting of Hellebore will help keep them away.
The Boxwood shrub, a mainstay of many Colonial-era gardens is also a natural deer repellent. So, too, is the Mountain Laurel.
Some plants are toxic to pets - dogs especially - but do not bother deer.
The red berry of a yew tree or shrub does not affect deer, but will cause vomiting and diarrhea in a canine.
The popular non-native evergreen shrub Nandina has berries that are toxic to cats and animals that graze.
The poinsettia, popular at Christmastime, is mildly poisonous to cats.
Some of our favorite flowers or flowering plants are safe to admire and enjoy - but keep a curious toddler from sampling them as they can be mildly to severely poisonous: foxglove, hydrangea, Lily of the Valley, rhododendrons and azaleas, all parts of the wisteria, the flower heads of the chrysanthemum, and Narcissus bulbs.
And, yes, toddlers will eat just about anything. As a bored baby in San Diego, this writer munched her way through a dozen dying garden slugs lingering on rose bushes - after her mother had sprayed poison on them. Despite that, I still enjoy escargot.