Is it cheating to put a post about flowers in a kitchen gardening blog? Hmmm, not sure but I’m going to anyway – my excuse is that the flowers are attracting bees to pollinate the edible parts of the garden. Also this is my last Photo-Vember post and as I have posted every day (except for the evening I spent in A&E with my partner and his dislocated shoulder) I’m feeling rather pleased with myself. Thus I should be allowed a bit of an indulgence.
It’s funny I hardly grew any flowers last year, but thanks to pressure from a flower loving 5 year old this year I have (or in many cases she has) planted quite a few. My personal favourite is Cosmos – I love the foliage and simplicity of the flower itself:
I have been very taken with the sweet peas my daughter sowed for me at Kindergarten as a Mothers Day present – the colour is lovely (and a nice break from the pink my daughter normally favours):
These dianthus are probably more representative of my daughters normal colour preference:
I do think that flowers work well planted amongst the veggies – I particularly like them against the texture of the herbs – in this case Snap dragons with Thyme:
Marigolds are thought to repel nematodes and so are often planted with tomatoes (although there are a lot of differing views about the truth of this). I planted some just in case it works but also because I like them.
One of the simplest flowers I have in the garden is also one of my favourites – I have been enjoying these seaside daisies for months now:
And just so you can see that these flowers are just punctuations amongst the green of the veggies – towering over them in the background are chillies and potatoes.
All I need now is to have a few more chillies ripening and then I can get my colour fix in a lovely digestible form.
I started my blog on a purely veg-gardening theme, but I haved moved on to other things – flowers, foliage plants, cookery, travel, family etc. I think a blog needs to be personal: whatever you are interested in writing about. A website is different.
I do think your right but I also think I personally need some boundaries otherwise you may end up reading Suburban Soapbox (oooh I like the name) rather than Suburban Tomato……
I agree with mark. Just being too rigid can make you seem one dimensional – if it doesn’t interest someone they don’t have to read it do they? It’s your blog so you decide what you want to write about!
I grow lots of flowers on our allotment plot – as you say they attract insects but they also add colour which is good when you spend a lot of time gardening there.
I’m really enjoying the flowers – I am finding it really fun to find little places to put them in and they seem to consume less space that the veggies which is very useful indeed. You make an interesting point about being one-dimensional I’ll need to have a think about that – I do think I need boundaries but I guess I should give some thought to what they should be…..
It is your blog and you should be able to do what you like with it. I love seeing the colour of flowers. I have flowers everywhere. After so many years of not being able to grow much because of the tree in the yard, it is nice to look out the window and just look at all the colour everywhere. I love to just stand there and stare, I’m sure the neighbours think I’m staring at them.
I am really enjoying the flowers – it is lovely to just lok at them – fortunately our fences are high enough that the nieghbours can’t see me.
Beautiful flowers! 🙂 I love that you wrote about them. A change of pace is never bad.
Lynn
Thanks Lynn
Well I started with only veggies. But somewhere along the gardening journey, I got addicted trying to match growing flower and vegetable together. It does make the garden much more colourful and attracts many benificial insects. Those are lovely collection of flowers growing in your garden.
It is nice isn’t it – I’m already thinking about what I’m going to grow next year.
Lovely, take the approach of the potager – flowers and veg together.