Encouraging beneficials

Planting Mix

A practical mix designed to provide nectar, pollen and habitat from spring into early autumn under typical UK conditions.

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What the mix is trying to achieve

The aim is not simply to grow as many flowers as possible. A useful beneficial-insect mix should provide continuity, so there is always something flowering while also creating shelter and habitat around the crop.

The mix below combines long-flowering base species with faster mid-season flowers and later species that help keep resources available into late summer and early autumn.

Treat this as a starting point rather than a fixed prescription. Local climate, soil, crop layout and available space should influence the final mix.

Flowering coverage

The goal is to avoid obvious gaps. Different species overlap so that when one begins to decline, another is already flowering.

Plant Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep
Sweet alyssum✓✓✓✓✓✓
Calendula✓✓✓✓✓✓
Phacelia✓✓✓✓
Buckwheat✓✓✓
Dill✓✓✓
Fennel✓✓✓✓
Cosmos✓✓✓✓
Yarrow✓✓✓✓✓✓
Clover✓✓✓✓✓✓
Marigold✓✓✓✓✓

Recommended Biopredator mix

Base layer — 70%

The base provides continuity and resilience. These species form the dependable core of the planting.

  • Sweet alyssum — 25%
  • Calendula — 15%
  • Yarrow — 10%
  • Clover — 20%

Mid-season boosters — 20%

These species increase floral density during the main growing season and provide extra feeding sites when pest and beneficial activity is often highest.

  • Phacelia — 10%
  • Dill — 5%
  • Marigold — 5%

Late-season sustainers — 10%

These help extend food availability later in the season when earlier species may begin to fade.

  • Cosmos — 5%
  • Fennel — 5%

The percentages describe the overall mix, not the exact number of plants. Adjust them where particular species perform poorly or excessively well on your site.

Where to sow

Use crop edges, headlands, unused corners, tunnel entrances, glasshouse margins, pots or permanent boundary strips.

Positioning close enough for beneficials to move into the crop is more important than creating one large area far away.

How much area?

As a practical starting point, aim for around 5–10% of the cropped area as flowering edges, strips, corners or containers where this is realistic.

Smaller areas can still be useful if they are well distributed.

Stagger sowing

Do not sow everything on one date. Staggering some annual species by a few weeks can extend flowering and reduce the chance of a mid-season gap.

Fast species such as phacelia and buckwheat are particularly useful for filling temporary gaps.

Keep some permanent habitat

Where possible, combine annual flowers with permanent or semi-permanent habitat such as clover, yarrow, hedge bases or grass margins.

This gives beneficials somewhere to survive when annual strips are removed or cultivated.

Simple sowing approach

  1. Early season: establish the base layer and first sowings of alyssum, calendula, clover and yarrow.
  2. Late spring: introduce phacelia, dill and marigold to increase flowering density.
  3. Early summer: add or succession-sow fast annuals where gaps are appearing.
  4. Mid to late summer: rely increasingly on cosmos, fennel and repeat-flowering base species.
  5. End of season: avoid clearing every refuge at once; retain some permanent habitat where practical.

What to avoid

  • Using only one flowering species
  • Creating a single short flowering flush
  • Placing all habitat far from the crop
  • Clearing every strip or refuge at the same time
  • Allowing vigorous species to dominate the whole mix
  • Treating flowering strips unnecessarily with broad-spectrum insecticides

Next: make the habitat work in practice

Plant choice is only one part of the system. How the crop, margins, treatments and refuges are managed will determine whether beneficial populations actually persist.

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