Flowers in My Vegetable Garden

Every gardener knows there are certain flowers to be planted somewhere within or near the vegetable garden for the purpose of enhancing the productivity of the garden in some way, even if the reason is obscure. "My grandmother always planted zinnias around her garden," or "My mother always planted marigolds near the tomatoes."

 

When I started my garden, I did some reasearch on interplanting - what "companion plants" are reported to be good to grow together, whether it be two vegetables or a vegetable and a flower or herb. Of course I could't remember half the information, and since most of it is anecdotal, or possibly site specific, plus the fact that my garden is not enormous, I've quit trying, and just reduced the flowers and flowering herbs to ones I particularly like, and to ones that drop seed and show up the following spring, like borage and marigolds.

One of the main reasons for having flowering plants near the vegetables is to attract beneficial insects to the garden. For this purpose, it's normally the small-flowering plants that work best. Herbs that have bolted and flowered are good, but by the time they have, plenty of plant-feeding insects have already been long at work. Direct-seeded flowering plants have the same drawback, so starting indoors or buying already flowering plants are ways to get early helpers. Later flowering is not to be dismissed, however, because the beneficials who are attracted at later stages will feed on eggs and later generations of pest species, reducing the next year's population.

I went kind of crazy the first year, attracted (like an insect) to all the pretty pictures in the seed catalogs. I planted delphinium, poppy 'Hungarian Blue', California poppy, nemophila 'Penny Black' (aka Baby Blue Eyes), feverfew, sweet pea 'Captain of the Blues', borage, calendula, lavender, nasturtium 'Whirleybird Mix' and 'Milkmaid', marigold 'Lemon Gem', sunflower 'Velvet Queen', alyssum 'Royal Carpet', verbena, monarda and glade coneflower. Whew.

Nasturtium 'Lemon Gem'

What I have left over to this year is volunteer borage, a couple of volunteer marigolds and Hungarian Blue poppies from saved seed. The nemophila had such tiny dark flowers that they couldn't even be seen without getting on your knees. The feverfew was very slow to germinate, and if it didn't come up on its own, I would never choose to plant more. The calendula looked like hell by late July, so they got nixed. The sweet peas and delphinium never even came up.  Perhaps they didn't think it would be worth the effort considering how many others I tossed aside.

The second year (2015) I planted Lauren's Grape poppy along with the seed I'd saved from the previous year's Hungarian Blue, and in addition to the Velvet Queen sunflower I planted again, I also planted Lemon Queen. This year, I wanted to get Oriental Scarlet poppy growing amongst the two blues, but nothing germinated.

Lemon Queen sunflower

Velvet Queen sunflower

We got a boatload of rain several times this year, and once was on July 1.  The sunflowers I planted couldn't handle the combination wind/rain event and fell over.  I moved them to another location to get them off my vegetable plots, and amazingly, they survived, even though I had to bury their root balls in mud about twice as deep as they had been growing.

I also planted hyacinth bean 'Moonshadow' in 2015 after having seen it blooming at Powell Gardens in Kansas City. Mine didn't look nearly as impressive, but I saved the seed, which is really striking, and planted it again this year on an old stubbed off fence post.

I felt certain I'd taken pictures of the flowers last year, but I can't find them.  I was able to take one today of the seeds, however, since I didn't plant all that I saved.  They're so cute.  Little treats with the frosting centers squishing out.  But don't eat them.  I think they're poisonous.  The pods are.

Isn't this spectacular?  It's 'Ruby Moon'.

Mine won't look that good.  (picture from Swallowtail Garden Seeds)

The picture of the pods is posted at Wild Foodies of Philly as  "Plant of the Week".  

I apologize for not requesting permission to post these pictures.  As long as I'm not making any money from it and I'm providing the links to the sites, I think it's okay.  And, if you click on the links and go have a look at their sites, it's even better.  (Wild Foodies of Philly.  I like that.)  I'll try to be sure I get some pictures of my own when they flower and set fruit this year.

One of my new favorites this year is Mexican sunflower. I planted it in the center circle of the garden and am collecting seed now as the first flowers start to die.



There were only a few seeds in the packet I bought, and in the end, only three plants survived direct seeding on April 4. They seem to need a lot of water - at least in the direct sun where I have them. Next year I'm going to plant some in the shadier area of the garden and see how they compare. One of the plants got huge, and the other two are still quite small and not flowering. The plant reminds me of a giant marigold, even the seeds, so I looked it up to see what family it's in.

Tithonia rotundifolia is in the aster family (Asteraceae) and native to Mexico and Central America. According to the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, its water requirements are "dry to medium" and light requirements are "full sun". So, I don't know what the deal was with mine.

Common marigolds - Calendula officinalis - and French marigolds - Targetes patula - are also in the aster family. African (sometimes called Mexican) marigolds are also a Targetes (erecta). I think we can be right at least 90% of the time if we find a multi-petaled flower with a center made up of smaller petals and guess it's in the Asteraceae family: like daisies and sunflowers. The Asteraceae family is also known as Compositae. Try not to be confused. But if you are, just know that the botanists argue about this stuff, but we don't have to. And, don't always trust me. I have forgotten almost as much as I ever learned.

Among the flowering, often purportedly medicinal, herbs I planted that first ambitious year was feverfew. It has lovely foliage, but a rather unimpressive, weedy looking flower. It will seed itself and come up every spring, but since it gets rather large, taking up vegetable space, and I don't find the flower to be an asset in the garden, now I only let it come back on the compost hill.

Flowering feverfew at the base of okra

Like feverfew, borage plants get big - very big. But, I love the delicate blue flowers it produces, so if it comes up at the perimeter of my vegetable garden or in a spot that's not very much in the way, I leave it. You're supposed to be able to eat borage, and I've tasted the flower. As claimed, it has a kind of cucumber taste. You're supposed to be able to eat the leaves as well, but they're hairy, so I'm guessing you'd want to cook them. At any rate, I don't eat borage. I just look at it. And, the first year, I used some of the lower leaves, which are quite large, for mulch/weed control. The flowers hang their heads downward, so you have to look up at them to get a surprise:  lovely little blue double stars.

Some of my favorite flowers are on cooking herbs: Mexican tarragon, chives, sage and basil spikes. And right up at the top of the list is Kent Beauty ornamental oregano.

Chives

Mexican tarragon

Kent Beauty oregano in front of Thai basil

I also have some strictly ornamental flower beds near the house, but that's maybe a winter post when things are bleak and there's nothing to do in the vegetable patch. I'll just add one flower here that I got at the Columbia farmers' market the first year and saved seed to plant the next year. I wish I'd saved some from those flowers to plant this year, but I failed to do that. I'm going to have to try to find some seed or that lady at the farmers' market next year. Lisianthus, aka prairie gentian - gorgeous.

'Til next time.