Tansy in the garden?

Hey everyone!

I am trying to make my garden a bit more filled with perrenial plants, also that which attract/catch/repell pests... I am in brainstorming mode and for now I am thinking of tansy. It's a invasive plant I've heard but could it work well in the garden as a repellent? What do you think? Is it a good idea or a nonsense? I don't want to deal with having 20 square meters of it later and having to think of how to get rid of it

Please let me know if you have some experience with it

For now I am planning to put there bee balm, satureja montana (herb), Tanacetum parthenium, and achillea millefolium - sorry for the latin names but I only know the names in German If you also have any idea if the these ones are good in the garden let me know!

hugs!
Marta

Great project!  In colonial times, they planted Tansy near the door of the house to repel ants.

It can be invasive, like mint, but just plant it in a container to contain its spread.  

Hi Marta, gutentag, nice set up! Walls look great! I got Tansy and other things you mentioned. Tansy is great, it does spreads outwards, i was worried mine wouldn't get bigger the first two years, but it did and now it's six times the size. It's standing next to another plant that spreads, don't laugh it's called black horehound, which is very common, but attracts so many of the smaller cute flying insects from august till late autumn i wouldn't want to get rid of it. They keep each other in check. Or i dig some out to put on the compost with my hori hori, or i keep cutting it and using it as a mulch. Which keeps the earth much wetter, saving watering and enriching my soil biomes. Millefolium spreads through seeds as well, i'm less happy with that, as well it grows agressively through rootstocks, it's work to keep in check.
I can't really say if it repels insects and plagues really, but all this biodiversity in plant life in general does attract biodiversity in insect life, and many a time, i noticed in my garden a newcomer arrived that keeps some kind of "pest" in check. The bio diversity in insect life makes that a biodiversity of birds come into my garden, dropping manure all over my garden, making my plants grow, when i keep them in check it's feeding my compost piles, leading to easier gardening.
I had a very bad infestation of aphids on my peach trees, when the frost had killed of all my blossom. It was horrendous. I didn't notice until the flies started buzzing every time i passed there. They were there because the ants had been moving aphids like cattle, creating a ant paradise, sugar droppings every where. It was able to get this bad, i reckon because there was no fruit that year, leading to a boost in fresh green shoots. Anyway, i decided not to care, because i had other stuff to do and don't want to be busy with aphids. So i observed and noticed first huge flocks of ladybugs arriving, then they ate the aphids, but it was too big of an ifestation, they couldn't get it under control, the parasitic wasps came and laid eggs inside the aphids, horrendous, but that's nature, it was full of these, then some other aphid eater came to flourish.
Next year, no frost, no aphids, record peach year.
I noticed these aphid eaters have found a place to survive in my garden, somehow, thanks to my biodiversity, i got more than 200 plant species in my small garden and thanks to not cleaning everything like it should be humanwise, i got piles of stuff rotting away here and there.
I hope this answer helps you a bit.

Beautiful terrace.

How about Achillea millefolium, yarrow.  Beneficials love it.  You can get it in a mix of colors now.  I've got white, yellow and red growing.  It was slow to get going but the second year it exploded with growth.

Here is my solution, just let them fight it out. There's Tansy in between horehound and Eberraute (german) , Southernwood, lad's love, Old man. I hardly ever water this patch, because it's so full of plants, sun can't reach the soil. There's physalis as well, don't get that either, it's Chinese lampionplant, it's bothersom.
Look into thyme and Calendula, they're great, medicinally as well...

Marta—-Like you, I am wanting to fill my young garden with perennials.  I do have tansy and I do not find it invasive.  Yes, it spreads easily, but for me it does not spread quickly and it is easy to remove.  

I also have bee balm.  Two years ago it was in full sun and grew tall and wide.  Then I moved it to a shaded area and the growth slowed remarkably.  This was my solution to both having this plant and wanting it to be better behaved.  

Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia) is attractive, tough, useful, and well-liked by bees.  It will have pups so you can dig up the little babies and plant them elsewhere in your garden.  Anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) has leaves and blossoms which can be made into a tea, blooms late in summer so the bees have nectar and pollen as the growing season comes to a close.  I’m also very fond of some of the salvias.  They are mostly ornamental but some have edible flowers and leaves and have long blooming periods.  One of my favorites is Salvis darcyii.  It has triangular, gray-green leaves and red flowers which the bumble bees love.

Jane Reed wrote:Marta—-Like you, I am wanting to fill my young garden with perennials.  I do have tansy and I do not find it invasive.  Yes, it spreads easily, but for me it does not spread quickly and it is easy to remove.  

I also have bee balm.  Two years ago it was in full sun and grew tall and wide.  Then I moved it to a shaded area and the growth slowed remarkably.  This was my solution to both having this plant and wanting it to be better behaved.  

Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia) is attractive, tough, useful, and well-liked by bees.  It will have pups so you can dig up the little babies and plant them elsewhere in your garden.  Anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) has leaves and blossoms which can be made into a tea, blooms late in summer so the bees have nectar and pollen as the growing season comes to a close.  I’m also very fond of some of the salvias.  They are mostly ornamental but some have edible flowers and leaves and have long blooming periods.  One of my favorites is Salvis darcyii.  It has triangular, gray-green leaves and red flowers which the bumble bees love.

I have Korean Hyssop and it's beautiful.  My version gets almost 6ft tall.  I second Salvias the bumbles love it.  (Actually, both of these are usually loaded with pollinators.)  I've made mint teas but I haven't actually tried the hyssop.

Marta Martecka wrote:

For now I am planning to put there bee balm, satureja montana (herb), Tanacetum parthenium, and achillea millefolium - sorry for the latin names but I only know the names in German If you also have any idea if the these ones are good in the garden let me know!

hugs!
Marta

Names in English:
Satureja montana: winter savory
Tanacetum parthenium: tansy
Achillea millefolium: yarrow

So if your "tansy" is different from Tanacetum parthenium,  what is it?

Marta, not sure what you are trying to repel, and repel away from what, so some herb-type plants only work with some vegetables, etc.

I have stumbled on letting nasturtiums grow thick and go everywhere, and they suppress weeds, bring in beneficials.   They would look great tumbling over your rock walls.   They reseed easily.

Or trailing or creeping rosemary would tumble down over the rock and bloom spring through fall.   It's much more tolerant of soil and drought than lavender, and blooms much longer, brings in beneficials, nothing grazes on it.