The Flavorful Herb You Should Plant Near Zinnias For All Of Its Benefits

When planning out your garden, it can be tempting to designate one bed for flowers and another bed for herbs. However, organizing your plants like this can cause you to miss out on some of the fantastic benefits of companion planting, including increasing your garden's biodiversity and even minimizing weeds. Consider, instead, planting your beautiful zinnia flowers next to your dill. Planting your dill and zinnias together doesn't just look great; it can also lead to a healthier and less pest-prone garden. 

Zinnias can provide color all season long and make a huge statement in the garden. Unfortunately, aphids, spider mites, and whiteflies are all known for infesting zinnia plants. These infestations don't just look horrible; in some cases, bugs may even transmit diseases from plant to plant. Fortunately, dill has a reputation for keeping away both aphids and spider mites. Even better, its charming flowers are known for attracting predatory wasps and other beneficial insects that will happily chase pests from your garden.

It's easy to grow dill and zinnias together, as they both thrive in full sun locations and are relatively flexible about their soil conditions. Dill often reaches heights of 5 feet, so you may want to grow it behind your zinnias if you are growing shorter cultivars like those in the 'Profusion' series, which generally only grow to less than 2 feet. If you're growing larger zinnia cultivars, which can grow to around 4 feet, you may instead want to alternate your dill and zinnia plants. Just remember not to crowd the plants, as allowing them plenty of air flow decreases the chance of problems with powdery mildew and other fungi.

If you primarily grow dill for culinary purposes, you might not pay much attention to its golden flowers, but these blooms are actually what attract beneficial insects like hoverflies and predatory wasps to your garden, so be sure to allow your dill to flower. The golden umbel shaped blooms of dill plants could look stunning if paired with a zinnia cultivar with flower colors similar to 'Sun Gold'. Alternatively, you could pair your golden dill flowers with a complementary colored zinnia flower like 'Purple Prince'.