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Add pockets of a few easy-growing annuals for patches of colour and to attract bees and butterlies.
Published Mar 16, 2026 • Last updated 13 hours ago • 1 minute read
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Planting annuals such as sunflowers around your veggie garden will attract pollinators, says Helen Chesnut. Photo by Pierre Obendrauf /Montreal GazetteArticle content
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Q. Do you include annual flowers in vegetable plots to attract pollinating insects? If you do, which ones do you plant? This year I’d like to add pockets of a few easy-growing ones in the vegetable garden, for patches of colour as well as for pollinators.
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A. I always have plantings of annual flowers that nurture pollinators sprinkled around vegetable plots.
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I grow small groups of sunflowers at plot corners. The blooms attract and feed bees and other pollinators. Calendula and alyssum make attractive plot edgings, as do nasturtiums.
In general, single-flowered daisy type flowers like cosmos and zinnia are effective pollinator attractors. The California poppies in my vegetable garden are always buzzing with bees. Poppy pollen attracts bees and cilantro flowers become full of hover flies — effective aphid predators.
Q. I am thinking about using saved newspapers as weed barriers in the vegetable garden this year, but I’m concerned about the possible toxicity of the inks used in printing the papers. I try to avoid using any harmful chemicals in my garden.
A. Inks used now for printing our newspapers are not toxic. The issue was once a concern, but newspapers switched to soy-based inks a long time ago.
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Newspaper is recommended for using in shredded form in compost heaps and as mulch in gardens. I’ve seen sheets of newspaper, two or three layers thick, used as a weed barrier arranged around newly planted perennials before the paper is covered with compost or some other mulch.
The same method can be used between rows of vegetables and around perennial food plants like rhubarb and globe artichokes.
On pathways between plots, I use thicker layers, often putting down cardboard first, then newspaper six or seven layers deep, which I top with wood shavings.
I avoid using any glossy paper in the garden. Its slippery nature, even under shavings, makes it hazardous for walking on in wet weather.
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