As someone who previously had the mentality that I would only grow plants in my garden that would feed my family, I feel like I have grown a lot over the years, but especially over the last decade. There's nothing inherently wrong with wanting to focus on just growing food, but as I've learned, and as I'd like to share with you, it's a bit narrow-minded to garden without any consideration for plants that serve purposes other than human consumption. Gardens that consist solely of the same crops of vegetables over the course of many years can be healthy and thrive, and especially if you're just starting out in the world of growing your own food and everything garden related is news to you, I don't want to say you're doing anything wrong if all you're growing is a few tomato and pepper plants. But if you have any sizable space where you're growing food, chances are good you can also grow at least a flower or two without sacrificing a vegetable.
I grew up gardening with my mother, who had a vegetable garden every spring and summer in the back yard of our home in Kansas City. She would use aged cow manure from my grandparents' dairy farm to amend the soil, and then she would plant all of the garden staples that we are all most familiar with- tomatoes, peppers, squash, beans, cucumbers... I grew up loving the taste of those homegrown veggies on my dinner plate. And my green-thumbed mother also had a love of flowers and houseplants. For as long as I can remember, there were spider plants and pothos or philodendron and others in a corner of our dining room near the window. And every spring she was planting flowers around the house about the same time that she was planting the vegetable garden.
My first garden as an adult, in the back yard of a duplex we were renting in the KC metro area. Ray tilled the ground, we added compost and months later we were harvesting our first home grown vegetables!
Fast forward to my early days as a self-proclaimed homesteader, and I had vowed to only expend energy and space growing the plants that would serve as sustenance for our bodies. My first gardens in the KC metro area were grown the same way I learned from my mother- till the soil, add amendments like compost I could get free from the city and till them in, then plant my started plants and seeds directly in the ground and watch them thrive.
That same first garden in full production with big healthy plants and the only flowers were sunflowers grown for eating their seeds. My brother, Chris, is standing in front of the sunflowers to show how tall they were.
Once I moved to Georgia where the weather and soil composition was much different, I realized I had to learn how to garden all over again from scratch and I experimented with different methods of amending the soil, dealing with weeds and pests, and how to deal with the constant weather extremes. Some of my new gardening methods seemed to work, at least for a while. Others, like growing anything in a PVC planter that Ray was sweet enough to make for me, didn't last a full season (the shallow soil just dried too fast for anything other than the native 'weeds' to grow in it). And so I continued experimenting and learning from others who have been there, done that.
I started following a lot of gardeners and homesteaders on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, and I would implement some of the strategies I learned from them to improve my garden's output. The more I learned from some of these social-media-famous folks though, the more I realized that gardening and growing food is just one small piece of a much bigger picture.
Some of the harvests from my first garden, pictured above. Lots of healthy tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers, cucumbers, green beans and zucchini squash... all grown successfully in a garden that didn't contain a wide variety of flowers. There is absolutely nothing wrong with my first garden or the abundant harvests from it, and I'm still super proud of our first garden!
Providing healthier and fresher food on the dinner table is a benefit of growing a garden... not the sole purpose. The purpose of gardening, at least to me at this stage in my life, is to be a better steward of the land I am blessed to be living on. But while that purpose seems very vague at face value, it entails a number of benefits... food is just the most obvious benefit of gardening. Improving the health of the soil and the plants growing in it is my main goal- to leave this little chunk of ground in better condition than it was in when I moved here.
In striving to improve the health of the soil and the plants on our five acres, I have learned that I need to be growing more than just plants to eat, although those still have a lot of importance to me. Perennial plants, in particular. I decided that my main garden space closest to the house would be transformed from an annual vegetable garden into a perennial potager or kitchen garden. My goal is to have mostly perennial and biennial plants, such as herbs and fruits, planted here with some of the annual veggies sprinkled in so that I can come out and pick what I need as I need it- a sprig of Rosemary or some fresh Oregano, a few stalks of celery, a Roma tomato or a Poblano pepper to go in the dish cooking on the stove.
One of six raised garden beds Ray helped me install this spring- it contains biennial plants kale and celery, a first planting of cilantro, an annual, and a small Salvia flower in the middle (Salvia can be annual or perennial, but I'm not yet sure which this variety is!).
In preparation for this garden to become the kitchen garden of my imagination, I threw out some of my old ways of thinking, namely the act of tilling and compost needing to be mixed into the top 12 inches of soil, but also the idea of only including plants that we will eat. I decided that amending the soil would mean covering it in a thick layer of wood chips (weed barrier fabric had already done most of the work of killing off existing grass and weeds) and letting nature do the work of breaking down those wood chips into top soil and feeding the microbiology that makes top soil alive and healthy in order for plant life to thrive. And in wanting this garden space to be a healthier micro-ecosystem, I decided that I would grow a variety of plants for a variety of benefits, and various flowers are a part of that plan... and they add beauty to the space for personal enjoyment... just another benefit to these non-edibles!
These are just a sample of some of the flowers that are in and around my garden this year. Some are edible or medicinal, but some are there for their other numerous benefits.
So, now that we've gotten through my journey from never growing flowers to probably having as many flowers and other plants as I have edibles this year, let's talk about why we are here today- what are some of the other benefits to growing flowers in and around your vegetable garden? I think it's safe to say that most of us, regardless of our gardening experience, are aware that flowers attract pollinators and most of our garden vegetables rely on pollinators in order to produce the part of the plant we harvest as food. But there are six other major reasons why I am planting flowers in my garden and I think you should too:
- Deterring Pests- Strong scented flowers and plants repel certain garden pests like thrips, aphids, and sometimes even certain mammals that can wreck havoc on our veggie plants. Using flowers as companion plants in your veggie garden to repel pests also decreases the need to control pests in other ways (specifically pesticides that don't discriminate between good and bad bugs).
Aphids covering a plant and sucking on the sap, which causes stunting, curling, yellowing of leaves and potentially transmitting plant viruses.
Photo by Gualberto Valderrama on Unsplash
- Inviting beneficial insects and animals-yes, there's the obvious pollinators already mentioned. But there is another benefit that a variety of insects can bring- namely predatory wasps lay eggs in tomato hornworms, killing them and breaking the cycle of battling these pests on your tomatoes every year, and lady bugs or lady beetles and lacewings feast on aphids and white flies that damage numerous garden plants. Use flowers to attract these 'good bugs' that will eat the 'bad bugs' instead of using the synthetic chemicals that again, don't discriminate and kill both nuisance AND beneficial bugs.
A ladybug feasts on aphids that are causing damage to this plant.
Photo by Milly Silverthorne on Unsplash
- Weed suppression- plant flowers in between your vegetables or use a low, sprawling cover crop like creeping thyme or clover (bonus- these both produce flowers!) to cover the ground. Mother Earth doesn't like to be naked. She prefers to be covered with SOMETHING, and if you don't give her a cover in the form of plants or mulch, she will cover herself with plants, and chances are good you will not like the plants and where she puts them, AKA weeds. If you use a ground cover like sweet potato vines, be sure to look up the best companion plants, as they can compete for nutrients with thiings like tomatoes or peppers but would work great under corn. Marigolds planted between tomatoes are multi purpose, as they cover the space between tomato plants but also deter tomato pests and attract ladybugs and pollinators. Using flowers and flowering cover crops cover the ground that isn't covered by your vegetable plants, meaning there's less ground available for weeds to pop up. This reduces the time you spend pulling weeds, as well as the temptation to pull out the synthetic herbicides that, just like pesticides, don't know how to discriminate between the 'weeds' and the vegetables you've planted. Generally. I'll avoid going into my rant against herbicides and pesticides at length, as that is a topic for an article all on its own.
- Improving soil structure- There are many flowers and plants (especially native plants!), like coneflowers, butterfly weed, wild lupine, burdock and comfrey that have long taproots- some as deep as 10-15 feet. These long and strong root systems do two main things- first, they break up compacted soil (think clay-heavy soils, which exist all over the country), allowing better water penetration and airflow to the soil microbiology and root systems of other plants. Secondly, their robust root systems anchor the soil in place, preventing it from washing/blowing away during heavy rains and winds. Regardless of whether you believe climate change is effected by man's actions or not, it's hard to deny that severe storms are becoming stronger and more frequent- and without soil having something to anchor it in place, it will wash/blow away. If you don't believe that poor gardening/farming methods can have a major impact on the landscape, I suggest you visit Providence Canyon State Park in Stewart County, Georgia, AKA 'Georgia's Little Grand Canyon'.
Ray and I recently went on our second hike in Providence Canyon State Park. These visually captivating canyons didn't always exist- they are the result of poor farming practices in the 1800's and are still changing due to continuous erosion of the sediments.
- Improving soil chemistry/fertility- while most biological nitrogen fixation in nature is performed by bacteria and cyanobacteria, some bacteria like Rhizobium form symbiotic relationships with plants, particularly legumes like peas, beans, clover and alfalfa. If you are at all familiar with the macronutrients needed to feed your gardens (and us, ultimately), you know that Nitrogen is one of the three main nutrients along with Potassium and Phosphorus. Most nutrients need to be added to our garden in some way, but these plants work with the microbiology in the soil to take atmospheric Nitrogen, and convert it into a form that the plant can use. In return, the plant provides the bacteria with sugars as their food source. This nitrogen fixation via symbiotic relationship between plant and bacteria means that these plants utilize less of the nitrogen added to the soil by other means (compost or other amendments), leaving it for other plants to utilize.
Carbon sequestration is another process that improves soil fertility- plants absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere during photosynthesis and then store it in their tissues and in the soil (side note- this carbon sequestration also reduces greenhouse gases that affect climate change, albeit a tiny amount). This increased carbon content in soil enhances the soil structure, it improves water retention and boosts nutrient availability, and it increases microbial activity, which is essential for nutrient cycling and overall soil health.
Another way that flowers improve soil chemistry is simply by adding diversity. Plant diversity promotes a more diverse and balanced ecosystem in the soil, with a wider variety of microbes and organisms contributing to the soil health. And as those diverse flowers and plants take up nutrients from various depths in the soil, those nutrients are eventually recycled back to the top of the soil when those plants drop leaves or die and are utilized as a chop and drop ground cover or ingredients in your compost pile that will be added back to the surface of the soil. Shallow rooted plants are then able to utilize those nutrients that were previously out of their reach.
Healthy soil is teeming with microbial life, and plant diversity encourages microbiological diversity.
Photo by Santosh Kumar on Unsplash
- Beauty- This seems like it's a no-brainer, but I am the perfect example of someone who didn't put much thought into the visual beauty of my garden even just five years ago. Sure, I didn't want my garden to be an embarrassing mess of tangled vines and diseased plants, but even though I can spend hours a day in my garden working on various tasks, I didn't put any work into make it a place I would want to sit in and relax and enjoy the views around me. Planting a variety of flowers adds beauty to your garden in so many ways- it not only adds a more varied color palette to your space, but it adds height, depth, and a whole lot more character. I have always enjoyed the work aspect of having a vegetable garden, and I've always enjoyed the excitement of harvesting home grown tomatoes and squash, and I've had many lunches of warm cucumbers straight off the vine while I was tending to the garden. But I can count on one hand how many times I have sat in my garden or even in the yard near it and just admired the beauty growing there... and I want to do more sitting outside just admiring the beauty around me! I want to have a garden (and eventually the entire property, for that matter) that is an oasis of relaxation and zen for anyone entering it.
If you're like me and not the type to want a garden for the visual appeal initially and you need some good, scientific facts to persuade you that a beautiful garden has it's benefits, here's a new term for you: "shinrin-yoku". This is a Japanese expression that can be translated to "forest bathing"... a term that describes the experience of being immersed in nature. Leave it to Eastern cultures to have a name for something so simple yet so profoundly impactful on our physical and mental health! There is a growing number of studies that show being in nature, or even being able to look out onto a natural landscape, results in all kinds of benefits from better and faster recovery after surgery, to less anxiety and depression, to better stress management. I will admit that any of us can sit outside anywhere and partake in these benefits..... but isn't it much easier to convince yourself to sit out in your yard when your yard is visually appealing?
This AI created image might be a bit extreme and unrealistic, but it gives you an idea of the zen feeling you can create in your own garden with some flowers to add height, depth, and a whole lot of character. The possibilities are endless with the vast array of flowers and seeds available to us at the click of a button!
So now that we have gone over the abundant benefits of adding flowers to your vegetable gardens and yards, it's time to put this new knowledge to action! Spring may be nearing its end with summer right around the corner, but there is still plenty of time to add some pops of color to your garden. Add some perennial flowers to the edge of your vegetable garden that can return year after year, buy that pretty hanging basket and place it near your porch, sprinkle some seeds for some fast growing varieties of marigolds, sunflowers, nasturtiums, cosmos or zinnias around the garden!
As a gardener who is newer to growing flowers, I want to learn more from all of you, and maybe your advice shared here can help out other fellow gardeners as well. Share in the comments below what your favorite flowers are, what you love about them so much, and don't forget to add your growing zone!
Until next time, thank you for joining me, and always remember that gardening is a journey, not a destination. Not every seed will sprout, but every effort brings you closer to nature. Keep tending, keep growing, and keep learning.
