Brighten your vegetable patch with brilliant blooms

I’m a vegetable gardener at heart, but I also love growing flowers. In the past, I’ve kept those areas within my garden separate — as many gardeners tend to do — having a dedicated area specifically for vegetables and another for annual and perennial flowers. 

But in recent years, I’ve mixed it up a bit with beautiful results. Now zinnias and zucchini coexist in the same bed. You’ll also find calendula and tomatoes, nasturtiums and lettuces and marigolds tucked in among it all. 

Adding flowers to your vegetable garden creates a feast for the eyes and for all those hungry beneficial insects and pollinators.   

Eye candy

Flowering blooms bring an aesthetic beauty to any space where they are grown, be it cozy cottage garden or a cluster of patio pots by the back door. 

But that beauty is especially amplified when flowers are grown in the vegetable garden. Their vibrant colors, shapes and textures add striking visual interest to the often-monochromatic greens of the vegetable garden. 

Please, eat the daisies

Another benefit is that many flowers are edible. Beauty and great taste? Yes, please. Make summer salads pop with the spicy zing of nasturtium flowers and leaves. Pansies, violets and lavender do the same for baked-goods, and many flowers and herbs can spice up summer drinks and cocktails … including daisies!

Diversity at its best

Beyond adding splashes of color and flavor, flowers serve a much greater purpose in the vegetable garden. Flowers increase plant diversity, are magnets for attracting an abundance of beneficial insects and pollinators and many serve as natural pest deterrents. All of which promotes a healthy vegetable garden ecosystem.

One of the best flowers to plant in your vegetable garden is the humble marigold. Its strong scent naturally repels garden pests such as aphids, nematodes and whiteflies. Marigolds also attract beneficial insects like ladybugs and hoverflies, which are voracious consumers of garden pests. 

Other pest-deterring flowers include geraniums, borage, lavender, sage and catmint. 

While some flowers repel pests, others attract beneficial predators. Ladybugs, lacewings, syrphid flies and various parasitic wasps will swarm to flowers in both the carrot family (Umbellifers) and aster family (Asteraceae). 

Add a few plants of Queen Anne’s Lace, fennel, dill or cilantro (carrot family), or zinnias, coneflowers, cosmos or goldenrod (aster family) to increase beneficials in your veggie patch.  

To increase populations of native bees, honeybees and butterflies, plant milkweed, bee balm, salvias and black-eyed Susans. When pollinators are abundant, so too is the productiveness of the vegetable garden.  

Flower care in the veggie patch

Choose flower varieties that complement the growth habits of your vegetables. Most vegetables require at least six hours of sunlight, so select flower varieties with similar needs. In addition, pay attention to the size and spacing of the plants, both flower and vegetable, to avoid overshadowing and crowding of plants.

A simple way to get started is to add a low-growing border of dwarf marigolds around a bed of tomatoes or peppers. Another option is to plant a few zinnias or cosmos among shorter-growing bush beans or squashes to add height and dazzling color.

You might even consider growing tall sunflowers in a cluster of three to create a unique vertical support structure for pole beans. 

If you’re short on space in the vegetable bed, utilize garden structures like fences, trellises or arches to grow vertically. Vining flowers like sweet peas or clematis can provide a stunning backdrop while attracting beneficials and pollinators.    

Stay away from the spray

When it comes to using pesticide, just don’t. Many products are indiscriminate and will kill both pests and beneficial insects. And, do you really want to spray harmful chemicals in your food-producing garden? 

A better way is to let nature do her work. Be patient; beneficial insects will come. You may see some insect damage, but keep in mind that in order to have beneficials, they need something to eat. 

If you see an unfamiliar insect, take the time to identify it before reacting. Often, good insects have various life stages that most gardeners are unfamiliar with. For example, the ladybug in its larval stage looks quite different than the adult, but eats many times more insects than the adult does. 

I encourage you to mix it up this season and add a few flowers to your vegetable garden. You’ll create a beautiful growing space that attracts pollinators and beneficial insects, and will result in a more productive and healthier vegetable garden.

• • •

Candace Godwin is a certified Idaho Master Gardener and the owner of The Coeur d’Alene Coop (thecoeurdalenecoop.com), offering seasonal plant sales and advice on gardening and raising backyard chickens.

    Flowers can add a pop of color to the monochromatic green of the vegetable garden.
  

    Many flowers are edible, like these nasturtium flowers and leaves. It adds color and a spicy crunch to a spring salad.
  

    The humble marigold not only attracts pollinators; it also helps repel pests from vegetables like tomatoes and peppers.
  

    Ladybugs are one of the most common of the beneficial insects, eating many times its weight in aphids.
  

    Entice pollinators into your garden with flowers such as Black-eyed Susans and Coneflowers. The results are a more productive garden.
  

    Before using any pesticide, identify the insect at hand. This scary looking insect is actually an immature ladybug. It will consume many more aphids than an adult ladybug.