Why Every Vegetable Garden Needs Flowers – Flowers for Pollinators & Beauty

Flowers are not my strong point however last year I managed to grow a number of flowers from seed alongside my vegetables – Calendula, Marigolds, Rudbeckia.

I had a lightbulb moment realising how easy it was to sow flowers from seed, and how the flowers attract bees and insects into the garden to help with pollinating your peas, beans, tomatoes, sweet peppers and mini melons.

My conclusion is Every Vegetable Garden Needs Flowers.

This year will be no exception, I’m sowing more flowers this year from seed and interplanting with herbs as well. This is to have a bright colourful vegetable garden and attract the pollinators. This is called Companion Planting.

Different Types of Flowers

I’m still learning about flowers, but they are similar to vegetables with different types to sow in different months of the year.

Hardy Annuals

Calendula

Annuals are flowers that live and die in one year so you will have to sow them again next year. There are two types of Annuals, Hardy and Half Hardy.

Hardy Annuals can be sown twice in the year. Once in January to March and once in August to December. In the UK, these months are cold, wet and there’s frost.

Hardy Annuals are as their name suggests Hardy. They can grow through the frosts, grow through winter and they grow strong deep roots.

  • Sow Months: 1st Sowings = January, February, March. Second Sowings: August, Sept, Oct Nov, Dec.
  • Can they survive through Frosts? Yes
  • Flowering Months: 1st Sowings = June to November. Second Sowings: May to October.
  • Examples: Some Marigolds, Snapdragon, some Nasturtiums, Borage, Cornflower, Nigella, Delphinium, Calendula, Sweet Peas, Poppies, Poached egg plant, chamomile, Clary Sage, Gypsophila.

Half Hardy Annuals

Sunflowers

Half Hardy Annuals as the name suggests is only half hardy to frost which means they don’t like frost. These types of flowers love a bit of heat indoors to get growing and then after the last frost, they can be planted outside.

They can be sown from March to June so they can flower in the 4 to 5 months before the next frosts in Late October to November.

  • Sow Months: March, April, May, June.
  • Can they survive through Frosts? No, plant out after the last frost in your area. Need to find your last frost date? Plantmaps.com
  • Flowering Months: July, August, September, October, November.
  • Examples: Rudbeckia, Marigolds, Petunias, Nicotiana, Cleome, Cosmos, Zinnia, Nasturtiums, Sunflowers, Dahlias, Osteospermum, morning glory, lobelia, Aster, Gazania, Dianthus, Gaillardia, Busy Lizzie, Begonia.

Biennials

Foxgloves

Biennials means flowers complete their life cycle in 2 years (instead of 1 like Annuals).

Sowing Biennials in June and July means you won’t be seeing any flowers until April in the next year.

However the advantages of sowing these seed so far in advance, is they have to survive three seasons – autumn, winter and spring so they will be hardy and you’ll get flowers from April to November, that’s approximately 6-7 months of the year.

  • Sow Months: June, July.
  • Can they survive through Frosts? Yes
  • Flowering Months: April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November.
  • Examples: Foxgloves, Stock, Forget me not, Wallflower, Hollyhocks, Evening Primrose, Lavender, Peonies.

Why Every Vegetable Garden Needs Flowers

Pollinators

Hover fly on white flowers of coriander plant
Hover fly on white flowers of coriander plant in my garden

If you are growing vegetables like peas, beans, Mange tout, tomatoes or another other flowering vegetable, you’ll need pollinators like bees, wasps, flies, hover flies, and other insects.

These pollinators collect the pollen by touching the flowers with their legs, arms and bodies and transferring it to the next flower and next flower etc.

For your fruits or vegetables to form, we rely on bees and insects to move the pollen from a male to female flower (or vice versa).

The Beauty of Colour

Fly on Cornflower from my garden

Vegetables are mostly different shades of green and to brighten up the growing area, you can infuse a bright pop of striking colour that draws your eyes and the eyes of pollinators.

Reds, Oranges, Yellows

The heat colours are very bold and striking and these colours are excellent for pollinators.

Examples: Rudbeckia, marigolds, nasturtiums, sunflowers,

Blues, pinks, purples

The calm colours can put flow, peace and calm to the vegetable garden. They still attract pollinators especially hover flies.

Examples: Cornflowers, dianthus, alliums.

Height & Structures

Flowers can bring height into the vegetable garden with taller slender flowers like hollyhocks, delphiniums and foxgloves.

Structures like obelisks and arches can also bring height into the vegetable garden and flowers like sweet peas are one of the easiest climbing flowers to start with. There are so many pastel or bright colour mixes to choose from and they can be grown up a structure like peas. They can also bring a cottage garden feel to your vegetable plot.

Pest Control

Tomato plant with green tomato and marigolds in background
Tomato plant with marigolds in background

Growing flowers in your raised beds or borders can help with Pest Control in your vegetable garden.

Cabbage White Butterflies can be distracted from cabbages with Nasturtiums.

Marigolds can keep aphids, greenfly and Blackfly away from Tomatoes and Broad Beans.

Calendula can attract insects that eat pests in your vegetable garden.

A Garden Ecosystem

Your Vegetable Garden, allotment or container garden is an ecosystem of insects, bees, birds, and yes slugs, soil bacteria, and earthworms which all play a part in interacting with one another.

Each of these insects, bacteria and creatures need vegetable plants and flowers for food, shelter, a habitat i.e. somewhere to live, somewhere to fly and to even recycle and re-using plant material. By adding flowers to your vegetable growing environment, you are adding more of these things to your Garden Ecosystem. You should be proud to have this small part of biodiversity in your garden.

Safety with Flowers for Pets & Children

Please note some of the flowers discussed in this article are toxic to pets like cats or dogs and toxic if touched or eaten by adults and children.

Please read the links below to determine which are the best flowers to avoid if you have pets and children.

Adults need to be aware when handling some plants, as the sap, stem or leaves could irritate your skin and cause a rash, sometimes it safer to always wear gloves. Please read the RHS link below for more details.

Plants Poisonous to Dogs by Blue Cross.

Plants Poisonous to Cats by Cats Protection.

Potentially Harmful Garden Plants for Adults & Children by RHS.

Other Resources from my Website

Sowing Sunflower Seeds with Children

Nature does it best – Pest Control in the Vegetable Garden

Beneficial Garden Insects – The Ladybird

Flowers in the Vegetable Garden to attract Wildlife



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