What To Plant In Your Garden To Keep Pests Away

If you've ever planted a vegetable garden, you know how rewarding it feels to be able to harvest and eat food you grew yourself. But you also probably know how frustrating it is to find that something else has eaten the fruits of your labor before you can get to it. You can use combinations of fencing and netting to keep out some pests, but you can also leverage the benefits of nature. Here are some plants that help prevent pests in your garden.

Japanese beetles like to munch on all kinds of plants, including roses, raspberries, and beans, so next to the plants the beetles may like, you can plant chives, garlic, catnip, or rue to help keep the beetles at bay (from Garden Design). Chives also work well to keep carrot rust flies away (from TruGreen).

A common garden pest is the aphid. Next to plants aphids like, you can plant aphid repelling plants like leeks, chives, garlic, marigold, fennel, dill, catnip, and cilantro. Conversely, you can plant something that aphids love, like sunflowers or nasturtiums; the aphids will be attracted to the "trap plants" and hopefully leave the rest of your garden alone (from Gardening Know How).

If you have a problem with deer, you can help cut down on their munching by surrounding your garden with plants that deer don't like. They don't like fuzzy foliage or plants with spines on the leaves — think planting things like lambs ear, poppies, or thistle (via Savvy Gardening). Deer are also not fans of strongly scented plants like rosemary and garlic (via From House to Home).

To help prevent the pests that may not be a huge problem for your plants but may bother you — here are some options. Chrysanthemums work well to combat any number of bugs, including ants, silverfish, ticks, and spider mites (from TruGreen). It's got a neurotoxin in it that isn't harmful to people or animals, but it kills insects, making it an ideal natural bug deterrent (via Modern Pest). Lavender is another plant that helps repel bugs. That relaxing scent that we love about lavender is a turn-off for mosquitoes, fleas, flies, and moths (from The Old Farmer's Almanac).