Why do you grow flowers?

[Sara]

Flowers might not be the first plants associated with veg plots but, after a couple of minutes of head scratching, the GYO team came up with a whole range of reasons for growing them alongside your crops.

Do you place few flowers alongside your veg? Maybe you've even made a complete cutting garden? GYO would love to know what you grow and why!



Your comments may be edited and published in GYO's March issue.

[Alison]

I've not interest in doing a full cutting bed as OH suffers badly from hayfever so flowers round the house are a bit of a no no, also I prefer them in their natural setting. However I do love flowers in the garden and also grow quite a lot on the lottie. In particular I have sweet peas amongst the beans and loads of bee / insect attracting ones near the pond and fruit trees. Over the last few years I've been growing more edible flowers such as marigolds, nasturtiums etc as they look so lovely in salads and in some cases can be used to colour my handmade soaps. Next year I'm intending plant out a whole load of lavendar bushes along the boundary of the plot which should smell divine.

[Piggle]

I make a special place in my lotty for a three flower beds.

I have an annual one which houses sweet peas , rudbeckia and stocks and anything else I fancy and a perm on for coneflowers and roses. The last one is more of an area rather than a bed and is planted up purely with british native wildflowers
I plant them to make sure there are plenty of bees, butterflies and hoverflies but also to pick for the house and to give to my mum.

[rustylady]

It's a pity we can't choose more than one answer. I've gone for "attract wildlife and pollinators", but I also grow them because they are beautiful and I cut some for the house.

[veggiechicken]

I grow old fashioned flowers, not the modern variants that have so many petals that the pollinating insects can't find their way in to the pollen. Bedding plants leave me cold - you can't eat Busy Lizzies! I also mix up the flowers with the fruit and vegetables, believing that this is the best way to attract beneficial insects whilst making the garden look more natural and beautiful. There are always enough flowers to pick for the house and a vase of wild flowers and foliage is, in my eyes, the ultimate!

[pauco]

I grow Marigold between my Onion sets, & a few rows of Foxgloves in their own border, also mixed
flowers Roses in borders of front garden, a good mix for the Bees.

paul.

[Aberdeenplotter]

If asked, I tell people I don't grow anything I can't eat on my allotment but that isn't strictly true. I too use marigolds (french) as companion plants among my onions but shock horror, I also have sweet peas at the door of my polytunnel (cut very regularly and taken home to her indoors) and I also grow gladioli along the outside of the tunnel. I never lift them and even up here in our weather they survive. Probably insulated with the snow sliding off and also very well appreciated by my loved one. I also grow painted lady runner bean. An old variety with very pretty flowers and they look super grown up a wigwam structure.

[piskieinboots]

It's a pity we can't choose more than one answer. I've gone for "attract wildlife and pollinators", but I also grow them because they are beautiful and I cut some for the house.

I really need the same two answers as Rusty Lady

[Snadger]

The only answer that doesn't apply to me is the first one!

Flowers DO look attractive on my plot, I DO grow some for cut flowers (in fact I shall be going into the greenhouse on Christmas morning and cutting a selection of late flowering Chrysanths for the christmas table) I do grow flowers like tagetes to deter pests and i grow a varied selection on the plot to gladden the heart and attract pollinators! I love growing gladioli for no other reason than they are a showy cut flower. This year I intwerplanted among them with beetroot and they looked stunning backed with the red foliage. Cornflowers look nice in between sweetcorn also.

Yes..................I like growing flowers with my veg!

My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

If they were good enough for king Tut...........they are good enough for me

[bearded bloke]

Can you add to the poll ............... I love the smell that would be my main reason I do appreciate that they look pretty & they can attract pollinators & my wife likes fresh cut flowers on the dining table.
I grow sweet peas,gladioli (sniffing & cutting),honeysuckle (sniffing only),peonies,pansies,marigolds,daisies,foxgloves & Michaelmas daisies (look & attractor)

[solway cropper]

I've grown Alderman peas for the last few years but this year I also planted a mixed selection of sweet peas among them. The resulting 'wigwam' was not just productive but looked beautiful and produced a gorgeous scent whenever I walked past.

[VirginVegGrower]

I grow Saffron Crocus, Nasturtiums and Marigolds. The latter two aid me in the war against pests but also attract pollinators.

[Nicos]

Sorry-as I can't choose several options- I've not voted
BUT- my reasons are 2,3,4&5

[snakeshack]

I grow pot marigolds for their insect repellant properties,but I also grow echinacea both for the flowers and for the roots to make herbal tea/tincture,I also let some green manures flower as the bees love them and they need all the help they can get

[taff]

I dont know what a cutting bed is, and 3 years ago I wouldnt have been able to tell you why we should have flowers around as well as veg. Having learned through observation and reading here. there and somewhere else, I now know it's to attract various pollinators, and thanks to that, I'm growing more and more flowers, not so much as sacrificial plants, but to attract various insects.