Planting for beneficial insects

There's no doubt that bees bring plant health into a garden - they pollinate, feed off flowers, and a garden without bees does poorly in terms of vegetable production.

Bees favour blue and purple flowers, so I allow my mint and rosemary to flower especially for them. I hope they appreciate this kindness! Certainly the herb garden is abuzz with them at the moment - here they are on mint....

And rosemary...

I also plant tansy, a herb that in times past was rubbed on food or placed in coffins to delay "spoilage", and has been shown to protect potatoes from beetles, and houses from flies. My herb garden is by the back door and I have every spare spot filled with tansy. Am hoping it protects the tomatoes from bugs as well as the kitchen from pesky flies. Does it work? Well I do still get the odd fly and it would take a scientific experiment to determine whether I'd be dealing with more flies without it. Just hope they aren't coming inside to escape it....