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Q. As I add plantings to my vegetable plots, a question has arisen: What annual flowers are considered most appropriate for planting in food gardens?
A. Flowers add colour and interest to vegetable plots and, chosen carefully, they attract and nurture beneficial insects that pollinate our food plants and help to control the insect pests that damage them.
Many of the best flowers to feed beneficial insects self-sow to maintain repeat appearances in the garden. Among these are sweet alyssum, calendula, borage (also called bee bush), cilantro and cosmos.
I seed cilantro in patches several times over the growing season, and let the plants self-sow for a constant supply of fresh greens, flowers, and seeds to set up the next wave of fresh growth. In bloom, the plants become alive with the movement of hover flies, whose larvae are voracious aphid predators.
Hover flies are usually the first beneficial insects to appear in the spring. The more food the adult flies have, in the form of pollen and nectar, the more eggs they lay. The eggs hatch into the larvae that prey on insect pests.
Simple, single daisy type flowers like most shasta daisies, marguerite daisies sunflowers and calendulas give the easiest possible access to the food all sorts of beneficial insects need to flourish and multiply.
Calendulas both self-sow and act as perennials in some gardens. Their cheery flowers brighten a food garden, and the yellow that predominates in the blooms is a powerful attractant for most beneficial insects.
I’m fond of nasturtiums as another brightly coloured flower
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For the last 19 years I have spent the third week in May at the Chelsea Flower show. It's one of those Great British institutions that just has to be experienced — a chance to see the country's best horticultural performers all in one space, to glean ideas, spot trends and talk to the people who make our gardens grow.
This year we are celebrating 30 years of 2-for-1 Gardens, and we have 407 gardens taking part, from local hidden gems to national landmarks! To kick off your year of garden visits, we’ve picked out some of the 2-for-1 Gardens in the scheme this year which are perfect for a visit this month. Head out with your 2-for-1 Gardens card and enjoy saving money on days out with friends and family, whilst gathering lots of garden inspiration!
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Why have boring fences and hedges around your house when you can fill them up with different shades of colors nature has on offer with its stunning blossoms!
The Best Flowering Vines and Climbers to Grow in Garden & Containers can add vertical interest, frame doorways, or even create privacy screens. And the best part? They’re really easy to take care of.
Twenty-five years ago when my wife Kathy and I started searching for a new home for our growing family, she focused on all the qualities one looks for in a new house. I, of course, looked at what every gardener considers imperative—the lot. Thanks to Kathy, we ended up with a wonderful new place. And much to my delight, the property had one particularly important feature—good soil. The other nice bonus was that the backyard bordered a small city park, with lots of open space for the kids to play, so my garden design did not have to include an area for kicking a soccer ball. Plant-wise, however, there wasn’t much other than invasive shrubs and trees. So after removing all the nasty invasives, I had a clean slate to work with.
Starting a new garden from scratch can be daunting, but it’s also a fantastic opportunity to create exactly what you want. The vision I had for my new garden (two decades ago) was based on the many small English gardens that I was lucky enough to visit—not the gardens with impeccably maintained lawns and neatly clipped hedges, but those that had plants spilling out of every nook and cranny. Since its inception, the landscape has been slowly undergoing a transformation over the past decade, from a traditional shade garden to a more naturalistic one that embraces an ecology-first mindset. This evolution, however, hasn’t sacrificed the original intention of my dream garden—that it be a visually appealing space with plenty of activity.
Like many northern gardeners, I had red-hot poker envy for many years but ruled out growing them because of their iffy -chances of surviving winter in my region. However, I am very excited about some of the newer Kniphofia introductions we are growing at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Being able to overwinter a South African plant in the Midwest is pretty cool, right?
Cucumbers are among the most popular crops for home gardeners. They’re easy to grow and just a handful of vines can provide enough cucumbers for fresh eating from mid-summer through late fall. But proper cucumber plant spacing can mean the difference between healthy, productive plants and disease ridden, low yielding ones. Let’s take a look at how far apart to plant cucumbers based on your growing technique and the method you use to plant them. Why properly spacing cucumber plants matters Before we dive into the details on proper plant spacing for cucumbers, let’s take a