HINGHAM, Mass. - BostonChron -- The joy of growing a kitchen garden in your yard is imagining the delicious recipes and meals you'll create using your home-grown herbs and vegetables. Do you know what gets in the way of that joy? Bugs. Gross, invasive, plant-eating, vegetable-killing bugs!

At Food Gardening Network we've learned over the years, that co-planting is a great way for plants to help each other grow. It's also a great way for some plants to protect others from bugs and other pests. That is why we came up with the Plants for Bug Control Chart Freebie!

Here are 10 helpful plants for bug control in your kitchen garden:

• Basil repels house flies, mosquitos, asparagus beetle, and the tomato hornworm, just to name a few.
• Chives repel pesky bugs like carrot flies, Japanese beetles, and aphids.
• Coriander/Cilantro repels Aphids, Colorado potato beetle, and spider mites.
• Fennell is a licorice-scented plant that becomes a deadly weapon against aphids, slugs, and snails.
• Dill in your kitchen garden will help keep aphids, squash bugs, spider mites, and cabbage loopers at bay.
• Garlic will help repel root maggots, cabbage loopers, Mexican bean beetles, and peach tree borers.
• Radish keeps cabbage maggots and cucumber beetles from invading your veggies.
• Rosemary repels cabbage loopers, carrot flies, cockroaches, mosquitos, slugs, snails, and Mexican beetles.
• Thyme will help stave off cabbage loopers, cabbage maggots, corn earworms, whiteflies, and tomato hornworms.
• Tomato can help any neighboring asparagus by repelling asparagus beetles.

What herbs and vegetables do you plant in your kitchen garden for bug control? Are any of ours on your list? Let's dig into all of these beneficial plants with Food Gardening Network's Freebie Plants for Bug Control Chart at https://foodgardening.mequoda.com/freebies/plants-for-bug-control-chart/!

More on Boston Chron

• Boston: March 2023: Latest Updates from the Mayor's Office of Housing
• Boston: April Allston/Brighton Community Center Study Meeting
• Boston: Mayor Wu Launches $750,000 Grant Fund to Support Growth of Businesses and Access to City Contracts
• Mayor Wu Announces $4 Million Investment to Expand Boston's Tuition Free Community College Program
• Boston: Meet the Fine Arts Work Center Scholarship Recipients