If you *had* to choose....

[Florence Fennel]

Absolutely and categorically Veg.

[piskieinboots]

I had some tomato plants in a wall hay-style basket - they has beautiful flowers on, then they had tons of lovely veg on, then the rain came and bashed them hard and they have all broken

Oh how I wished I'd 'braced' them

[Nicos]

I NEED flowers in my life...something so uplifting about them....and I really don't like to see bare soil.
Could I 'accidentally' sow some poppy seeds amongst my veg


Do we HAVE to choose???...if so I'll choose perennial flowers ...cos I know my OH would choose veg for his ....then we'd get both!!!!


.....if that's cheating then I'll choose veg

[piskieinboots]

Do we HAVE to choose???..

only for this exercise think of it as a bad dream, you will wake up

[Bigmallly]

Well at the risk of being put in the stocks, I get a lot more pleasure out of flowers than veg, less beasties & easier to maintain. Also nicer to look at & beautiful fragrances on some flowers.

[lynda66]

well definitely categorically ..... flowers .... i tried the veggies, spent a fortune, got more and more frustrated that i still had to buy veg .... so gave up .... looks so pretty with all the cabbage whites fluttering round the flowers

[piskieinboots]

Well at the risk of being put in the stocks....

well definitely categorically ..... flowers

Phew - twice

I was starting to feel like a lepper

[lynda66]

Phew - twice

I was starting to feel like a lepper

we could always start a colony lol

[bobleponge]

If I cant eat it I dont grow it, so for me its veg.
Mme Pastis has told me though that if she cant have tons and tons of flowers all over my house she isnt moving in, so she would be flowers.

[Alison]

When I first moved into this house it was the first house I had with a garden since I'd lived with mum and dad and I only put in ornamentals. The following year I bought some fruit bushes and started growing in pots. The year after that I got a greenhouse and split the garden in two for flowers and veg. Over the next few years I gradually put more veg into the flower half and the year before I had the plot the front garden was a mass of squash and bean wigwam and my hanging baskets were mange tout and nasturtiums or strawberries. Now I have the lottie the front garden has been reclaimed by ornamentals and the back garden is more flower based although I still have a nursery area and the greenhouse as well as some soft fruit and an apple tree. Think this is about the right balance for me although I am growing on some lavendar for the lottie so that I can harvest it for gifts - will make a lovely low hedge down one side and will smell gorgeous.

By the way, do try to grow flowers I can eat quite a bit too, does that still count as flowers or are they crops then?

[piskieinboots]

I think that is what I need to focus on Alison - getting the balance right

[zebedee]

VEG!!! I wanna eat it!!!

[Brengirl]

I only have a small garden but my aim was to have an edible one. The pagoda is trailing with blackberry, grape, winter squash and runner bean. I have a small area for raspberry, blackcurrant with winter squash trailed against a rear wall above the garlic and p*****p. Strawberries everywhere and anywhere and of course the Jenny kiwi making a bower over the garden shed. Not forgetting the peach tree which sadly fruited too early and gave split stones.

[Flummery]

You can't eat flowers.

Oh, you can! I use them in salads in summer. In fact I've been asked to do one of my 'pretty' salads for the village lunch tomorrow. It will have borage (blue) nasturtium (mainly yellow on my allotment - they are at the end of the plot between the rasps and the path) pot marigold petals (orange), day lily petals (my yellow ones have gone over but the dark brick coloured one is still pumping them out.) and a few pink and white rose petals. They are sprinkled onto a green salad and look really 'Wow'!

I do grow mainly vegetables and fruit but I like a bit of colour. I also grow cutting flowers as I like a bit of the old Flower Arranging. So, I wouldn't choose - but I'd try to use dual purpose where I can.

As Alsion said though, if you grow the right varieties (mainly heritage) you can get some cracking pea flowers and crimson broadies.

[maytreefrannie]

If I had to choose, it's veg for me - beautiful and relaxing to look at and the bonus is, you can eat them too.