Flowers make a beautiful addition to your edible garden, but they are more than just an ornamental addition. For those looking for ways to improve garden yield, fight off pests, and improve the quality of your soil, flowers for vegetable gardens are a simple way to achieve your goals. Keep reading to find out which flowers are good for vegetable gardens and why.
Why Plant Flowers for Vegetable Gardens?
It might at first seem counterintuitive to add non-edible plants in your vegetable or herb garden, but there’s also quite a bit of precedence for it. Permaculturists often use a variety of different plants to create a well-rounded garden for which many different plants provide nutritional support for one another.
Adding flowers to your vegetable garden not only provides additional biodiversity, but it can also bring in the beneficial insects you need to keep your beautifully delicious garden thriving. Flowers entice birds and beneficial insects, which can locate and remove pests that ruin your hard-won crops.
In addition to fighting off pests, some of the best flowers for a vegetable garden also help maintain and improve the quality of the soil. By providing added stability to the root system below the surface and providing beneficial organisms to the soil when they die down each season, vegetable garden flowers provide ample benefit to your vegetable garden.
Petal Pairings for Your Vegetable Garden
While there is nearly an endless list of flowers that provide nutritional and pest-fighting benefits to your vegetable garden, there are several that we’ve had great luck within our own vegetable gardens.
1. Calendula
Calendula officinalis is a beautiful annual flower you can grow right alongside your favorite vegetables. The annual herb is edible and can be made into a delicious and nutritious tea. With bright yellow flowers that grow up to 24 inches tall, calendula attracts whiteflies and aphids and keeps them off your hard-won crop.
Because of its bright flowers, calendula also attracts your favorite local pollinators and insects that are beneficial to your garden such as ladybugs and bees. This petal pairing can be grown alongside your plants throughout the season or used as a cover crop over winter to maintain the stability of the soil over the season.
2. Chamomile
Matricaria chamomilla or matricaria recutita is another edible flower perfect for your vegetable garden. With its yellow and white blooms, this daisy-like herb can grow to up to approximately 12 inches in height.
With deep roots, chamomile is excellent at maintaining root stability and has a great ability to bring much-needed nutrients back up to a usable level for your veggies. After the growing season, chamomile can be cut back and allowed to fertilize the soil until the next season begins.
3. Cilantro
Coriandrum sativum is a deliciously spicy herb you can grow in your vegetable garden to repel pests and add nutrients. Whether you absolutely love or absolutely detest the taste of this popular garden herb, cilantro provides several great benefits to your vegetable garden.
With deep roots, cilantro naturally aerates the lower region of your soil, which allows nutrients to flow into your beloved vegetables. This plant grows to about 24 inches in height, providing ample opportunity for beneficial pollinators to check out its ample foliage and hang around your other plants as well. Cilantro is an excellent addition as well because it can be used in no-till gardens, which provide ample opportunity to continue improving soil health without backbreaking seasonal tilling.
Flowers are beautiful in the garden, but they’re also beautiful when arranged in your home. Check out the beautiful floral options available from The Bouqs Company today to add a little beauty to your favorite indoor space.
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