Easy Flowers for the Vegetable Garden
Why plant flowers in the vegetable garden? Flowering plants
attract beneficial insects and birds, suppress invasive weeds, help prevent
soil erosion, discourage unwanted insects from destroying crops, and improve
the soil. Planting flowers among or alongside rows of vegetable plants can be
mutually beneficial. However, flowers with large, showy blooms aren't always
best; so a gardener should concentrate on what benefits each plant brings to
the garden.
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pink clover is one of the easiest flowers to grow in
the garden, and one of the most beneficial. In addition to attracting bees and
other pollinators, clover improves the soil in a variety of ways. Since clover
recovers quickly from foot traffic, it can be planted directly on walkways.
This helps to prevent soil erosion while saving the planting beds for
vegetables and other plants.
Clover's taproot, which can grow three feet long or longer,
helps to loosen the soil and bring nutrients to the surface that would
otherwise remain unused. All varieties of clover are legumes, meaning that they
take nitrogen gas from the air and convert it into a nitrogen compound that is
easily used by plants. Once the clover dies, it releases the nitrogen into the
ground for the benefit of surrounding plants.
sunflower sunflowers attract a wide range of beneficial
insects, as well as birds; which use the tall stalks as perches while hunting
for cabbage worms, various caterpillars, and other pests. One caution, however:
Many varieties of sunflowers grown for flower arrangements do not produce
pollen because pollen will stain. Without pollen, these specially bred flowers do
not attract beneficial insects. Make sure the variety you plant produces
pollen.
chivesMost flower gardeners would turn up their collective
noses at the flowers produced by onions and garlic, as they are generally
small, plain, and do not produce a sweet scent. However, all alliums, including
onions, garlic, and chives, have a pungent odor that seems to deter all but the
most determined deer and rabbits. Therefore, including members of the allium
family in a vegetable garden can help to protect it from the predations of
these larger animals.
pink zinniaDaisies are hardy perennials that are easy to
grow in almost any soil. They attract pollinators such as bees, butterflies, and
moths, and add color to the garden. In addition, calendula can be used as a
"trap crop" by attracting aphids away from vegetable plants. Zinnias
are annuals and can add a wonderful burst of color; pollinators love them, too.
Marigolds
marigolds are very easy to grow and come in a wide
range of yellows, oranges, and even reds. They're even great companion plants
to keep pests away from such vegetables as basil, cucumbers, eggplant, kale,
squash, and tomatoes and potatoes. They act as insect deterrents which is a
great benefit when planted next to cucumbers and other squash-related veggies.
dandelionYou may think me daft for bringing up dandelions as
a suitable flower for the vegetable garden. But, hear me out... Although you
may consider dandelions to be nothing more than noxious weeds, they are
actually good for the garden.
Like clover, their long taproots bring calcium and other
minerals from deep in the soil to the surface, making these nutrients available
for nearby plants with shallower root systems. Since dandelions grow wild
nearly everywhere, planting and cultivating is not required. Just make sure to
pick off the flower heads before they go to seed!
Adding flowers to your vegetable garden is a simple, often
beautiful way to increase your crop yield. So go ahead and mix flowers with
your veggies. You'll be glad you did.
Let's Talk About Flower Gardens.
Annuals and perennials can work very well together in the
same flower garden.
The picture that first comes to many people when the word
"garden" is mentioned as an arrangement of brilliantly colorful
flowers, varying in types, textures, sizes, and habits of growth, but so placed
and cared for as to give maximum pleasure to all the senses that a garden
delights.
But garden effects can be created in many ways. There are
formal and informal gardens in which additional effects are contributed by
flowering shrubs, evergreens, trees, or vines. Such gardens can be extensive or
limited, close to one's house, or at a distance.
A flower garden can be a small, intimate grouping of
flowering plants, perhaps planned to enhance a special piece of sculpture. It
can be open so that neighbors and passersby can enjoy its beauty, or it can be
a private retreat screened from the public by fences, walls, or shrubs.
In the main, flower gardens are made up of 3 groups of
flowering plants: perennials, annuals, and bulbs and tubers. A perennial has
roots that live over from year to year, usually sending forth new growth above
ground in the spring. Some perennials live longer than others: the peony is an
example of a perennial that will outlast generations. Others, like the
temperamental delphinium, have short lives.
An annual plant - the petunia is a popular example - lasts
only for a season, growing from seed in the spring, flowering in the summer,
and dying in the fall. In mild climates, and over mild winters in colder areas,
some annuals, like the snapdragon, behave in perennial fashion, their roots
surviving, with the result that the second-year plants are even bushier and
more bountiful in their flower production.
mixed snapdragons
Depending on the climate snapdragons can be a short-lived
perennial. Image Wikimedia commons.
In between perennials and annuals is a lesser group of
plants (in terms of numbers) called biennials that are grown from seed. They
last for two years, making roots and above-ground leafy growth the first
season. The second-year they produce flowers, then gradually die. Common
favorites among the biennials are pansies, hollyhocks, and foxgloves.
Again, though, one can't be too rigid in classifying their
growth patterns - like snapdragon, they may be more perennial inhabit under
certain circumstances: some biennials may live a year or so beyond their
expected 2-year growth cycle.
Once you have an understanding of the various classes of
plants that make up a flower garden you can logically proceed to the next step
- deciding what kind of flower garden you want.
Planning the Perennial Border Garden
When we think of a garden, our visual image is fairly
certain to center around an English flower border composed of perennial plants
laid out in great drifts of flowing color, relieved by masses of white lilies
and accented with towering spires of blue. It expresses the beauty of form and
color that every real lover of flowers tries to create to the best of his
ability and resources.
Other Kinds of Gardens
A variation of the all-perennial border or garden is the
mixed border. This type of garden includes many basic perennials such as
daylily and phlox, but in addition utilizes groups of annuals and biennials,
and perhaps some of the spring-flowering bulbs like tulips and hyacinths. Its
advantages over the all-perennial garden are flexibility of design, greater
masses of color over a longer season, and often lower cost and easier
maintenance.
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The third type of flower garden may be one composed entirely
of annual plants. These can be arranged in artistic groups to make the best
visual impact possible, or they can be grown in practical rows, to serve mostly
as a source of cut flowers.
Of course styles of gardens change as do fashions in the
architecture of the houses they surround. And cultural patterns and economic
factors affect the types of gardens in vogue. Smaller properties and the demand
for low maintenance (proper maintenance is the great lack of most American
gardens when they are compared with their foreign counterparts) have resulted
in the fourth type of flower garden.
It involves the use of a few plants or as many as you wish,
annuals or perennials or both, in a variety of ways and situations, depending
on where you think your property can be enhanced by their addition. This kind
of the garden so prevalent over the entire nation today might be described as an
'accent garden'.
A beautiful perennial border set against a wood fence. Some
annual petunias are also used here to good effect. Even though the birch trees
are now on the small side, they may be too big one day. Image from The Garden
Guru.
Wherever and however flowers are used, they stand out as
color accents in the overall landscape. You are aware of this kind of garden
everywhere: it may be a small bed of petunia plants nestled against shrubbery
in a shopping mall. It may be one or three daylily plants that a friend has set
against an ancient boulder that existed long before her ranch-style house was
built.
Or it may be a narrow border of sweet alyssum along your
neighbor's front walk or around her flagstone patio. Its great merits are flexibility
and simplicity, and such a kind of flower gardening is suitable to any
property.
But in all these gardens, the basic principles of growing
the flowers, and the kinds that can be used, are much the same.
Now let's return to that first grand picture of a flower
garden - the all-perennial or mixed border, the epitome of the flower garden
today, yesterday, and tomorrow.
Start with a plan on paper drawn to a large scale so notes
may be made directly on the plan. Ideally, the border should be at least 5 to 8
feet deep.
The ideal site is close to the house; preferably it should
face south or south-west (in the northern hemisphere), but this is not of great
consequence if it has sun and is several feet from the robbing roots of trees
or shrubbery. Keep the border at least 2 to 3 feet away from any large tree.
In addition to a hedge, a good background may be a
rough-textured wall, a view of distant trees or shrubbery, or a low fence
covered with climbing roses. Above all, there should be surrounding relief, and
nothing sets off the border better than a stretch of lawn.
It is better to have a smaller border than to deprive it of
the grass setting. Free-form, "island" beds (roughly kidney or
crescent-shaped) may fit into the landscape scheme. They are most often planted
with shrubs, but there is no reason why perennials and annuals can't be used.
If such beds are used, plant the high-growing plants toward the center, then
the medium-sized ones and the edging plants on the sides.
Selection of Plants
The selection of plants for the flower border may seem like a
weighty problem, but it is really one of the most pleasant aspects of garden
planning. Studying the plant lists and looking up the descriptions of plants
will help you. Use nursery catalogs and reference books found in garden
centers, horticultural societies, and your public libraries.
10 points to guide you in the selection of plant material:
- Length of life of the plant. Is it annual, biennial, or perennial?
- Height and lateral spread of breadth.
- Growing habit: prostrate, erect, or climbing.
- Time and length of the flowering period.
- Color of flowers and foliage; persistence of foliage and decorative effect.
- Moisture, soil, and plant food requirements.
- Sun or shade-loving?
- Hardiness is a given region.
- Does the plant spread freely?
- Susceptibility to disease and insects.
In planning the material for an all-season, mixed border,
select key plants for line, mass, color, and dependability. Try to avoid
stiffness caused by too regular an arrangement. Do not place the plant groups
in regular lines, like rows of cabbages, but in sections that are wider than
they are deep. This gives each group a chance to be seen to a good advantage from
the front of the border.
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