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Flowers in my garden

I've never been a flower gardener, my garden is all about eating, however I do recognise the importance of flowers in the vege garden for attracting bees and beneficial insects.  I think there's three kinds of flowers in my garden at the moment:
  1. The perennials: things like comfrey, arrowroot, sage, and lavender are flowering at the moment and they are the good flowers, because they let you know that the plant is happy enough in its surroundings to flower for you.
  2. The annuals: these are the bad flowers, these make you think "oh crap, you're bolting to seed and I haven't planted any seeds yet to replace you".  At the moment that would be the parsley and the broccoli, and over the past few months have also included lettuce and rocket.  The only consolation is at least you get to keep the seeds!  And they do look rather pretty.
  3. The plants that you actually want to flower: plants like peas, beans zucchini and tomato that you NEED to flower so you can grow your veges (of course then they're technically fruit) and I've indulged and planted some marigolds, calendula and nasturtiums, they so cheerful, and supposed to be good for the soil in various ways themselves :)
top row: lavender, comfrey, arrowroot, marigold, pea, bottom row: broccoli, sage, tomato, bean and zucchini
What's flowering in your garden at the moment?

Read more about seed saving here.

Comments

  1. I've planted borage this year for the first time to attract bees. Their flowers are apparently really pretty in ice cubes over summer.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have just found your blog and could not stop reading till I reached the start. I loved the story about the purple balls on the fence post. I nearly fell on the floor in fits of laughter.
    But seriously I don't think I've read a more interesting blog about self sufficiency(especially the cattle info) and the challenges it brings. Thankyou so much for sharing your experience.
    Mike

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh Liz, I haven't had a chance to get near the computer for a few weeks or so to check blogs and wow. Thankyou for so many wonderful links and facts - I love the 'how many people can fit on earth; link.
    I will be lurking in moments spare around here absorbing all this wonderful information - Thanks
    Emily

    ReplyDelete

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