Boost for Natural Balance Mix

Designed to grow alongside your veggies in a narrow strip (5-10cm wide), this mix helps beneficial insects find food and shelter right where your plants need protection. It’s all about working with nature to keep harmful bugs in check and create a better balance in your garden.

With 12 varieties including coriander, alyssum, basil, echium, coreopsis, and tansy, you get a colourful, buzzing border that looks good while doing important work. There’s enough seed here for a strip 10-15 meters long.

Wildlife Benefits

• Coriander: Attracts hoverflies and parasitic wasps, natural pest controllers.
• Alyssum: Draws in small bees, hoverflies, and beneficial insects.
• Basil: Brings in bees and other pollinators with its nectar-rich flowers.
• Echium: A magnet for bumblebees and honeybees.
• Coreopsis: Attracts butterflies and bees.
• Tansy: Repels some garden pests and attracts predatory insects like ladybirds.

SOW & GROW
Almost as easy as throw and grow — just scatter and let the beneficial insects get to work.

When to sow: From late April to early June (or from late March under cloches for a head start).

Where to grow: Prepare a 5–10cm wide strip right at the edge of your veg bed — this keeps the good bugs close to the plants that need their help.

How much to sow:

• • On rich, well-prepared soil, your mix will go further — enough for around 15m.
  • On poorer soils or in the first year of cultivation, sow more thickly — enough for about 10m.

Prep the strip: Weed and cultivate the soil to a fine tilth.

• • You can sow in 2 or 3 narrow drills side by side or make one shallow drill the full width of the strip.

Mix it up: Combine the seed with around 3g of sharp sand or vermiculite to help show where you’ve sown and how dense the coverage is. Keep remixing as you go so the heavier seeds don’t all end up at the bottom.

Sow and water: Lightly cover the seed with soil using a rake or your hand, then water well to help it germinate.

Aftercare: Once the plants are up and growing, they’ll take care of themselves — attracting beneficial insects to help keep your veg patch naturally in balance.