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June 24, 2025

This Week's Garden Gab:
​FLOWER EDITION

Hi Reader!

When I started gardening I thought little about flowers. My whole mind was set on growing food. It didn't register that flowers would be an automatic and necessary part of the process. I soon realized flowers were an integral part of growing and enjoying a vegetable garden.

In this edition:

• Why add flowers to your vegetable garden
• A tour of the Flowers in my garden

Education:

We all know that flowers add beauty to your yard, landscape, etc. But they have other significant purposes. Check it out!

​15 Benefits of Planting Flowers in Your Vegetable Garden​

​13 Flowers You Should Grow in Your Vegetable Garden​

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Application:

Early in my gardening days, I gave no thought to flowers. I bought no flower seeds nor plants for the garden. My sole focus was to grow vegetables. Boy, was I unlearned.

My first realization of the connection between flowers and food was when my okra and my potatoes started growing and then produced the most beautiful flower. Surprise!

The okra produced a flower that dropped it's petals to reveal the okra. The potatoes grew and grew, produced a flower and died off indicating that the potatoes in the soil were ready for harvest.

My next level of flower education came I started growing tomatoes. I'd seen tomato flowers before but what I didn't know was that Marigolds would help deter hornworms. I then intentionally purchased flowers and flower seeds for my garden. I put Marigolds everywhere, which also brought a lot of pollinators.

I grew California Poppies by accident. I didn't know how they looked because I got a free packet of seeds in a clear zipbag so I just tossed them in soil on the ground and they germinated over the summer.

Oddly, I haven't been able to grow them again... .they have never germinated again. Go figure. I'm not sure what I did the first time. I wonder if those darn rabbits are eating them just as they start to grow. Uuugh!

Next, I learned about Sunflowers! I tried my hand at growing the Mammoth Sunflowers that grow 12 to 15 feet tall. I found out that these sunflowers serve as a Trap Plant when you grow squashes. The squash bug (not the same as the squash vine borer) loves the sunflower even more than your squash plants so they gravitate to the sunflower RATHER THAN your squash!

Squash bugs enjoying my sunflower (Trap plant), which is better than them destroying my squash.

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All squash plants have such a pretty flower and the bees love them!

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I learned about Nasturtiums and decided to add these to my garden too but the rabbits are relentless! They will eat them to the ground. I've tried growing them in containers but they don't seem to do as well. Currently I have one plant in the ground with a screen over it. So it's growing and I'll post a photo once it flowers.

Here is what they look like though. I hear they are edible. They are a bit spicy and are good in salads. I've never tried it though.

This year I purposely planted COSMOS all over my yard because I like them ... tall, colorful, airy. They add coziness to my garden.

I hope you enjoyed this little flower tour. It's early in the season still so hopefully as the summer progresses I'll have more flowers to show you in an upcoming edition.

For 'Laffs':😜

That's all I have for this edition. Feel free to write me at jangardener@gardenease.org if you have any questions or comments.

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I'll see you in the next edition!

Jan🤗

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If you have questions, comments, praises, complaints, or ideas about gardening or about the newsletter, you can reach me at: jangardener@gardenease.org