Do you want to learn how to plant can you plant flowers next to vegetables? The flowers that you see on a garden bed may be beautiful, but they’re not very practical if you’re growing a garden of plants that eat up soil. On the other hand, plants such as spinach and lettuce can also be grown on a tiny space without needing much land. Still, they do take up more space, so be sure to plan your flower garden very carefully before planting flowers next to vegetables. Everyone loves beautiful flowers in their flower garden, but maybe you didn’t know there are also some great reasons for planting flowers next to vegetables.
One reason is to protect your plants from bad weather. No matter how beautiful the flowers in your flower garden are, they can all be gone in one rainstorm. Even the best, hardiest vegetable gardeners need to be careful about the weather conditions surrounding them. Most of us live in areas where it rains a lot, sometimes even during the summer. If you’re planting flowers or other plants too close to your vegetable garden beds, you’ll be inviting both soil erosion and unwelcome pests into your home.
Besides just being uncomfortable, a garden bed full of wet soil needs careful planning. There’s nothing worse than planting a flower garden and only to have it ruined by a sudden downpour. Vegetables will grow better in a well-drained soil, as well as being healthier in the long run. Soil that has been compacted and turned black by water may not hold as many nutrients as seed packets, and planting seeds in waterlogged soil will result in fewer germination seeds. You need to make sure that your flower garden will grow well no matter what Mother Nature decides to throw at it.
It’s important to plant companion planting flowers and vegetables that will work well together. Although you want to grow lots of flowers in your garden, that doesn’t mean you have to grow a huge garden. In fact, most flower gardens can easily be maintained with a small bed of annuals and perennials, along with a few flowering plants on the edges of beds or along fences. Vegetables can even be started in pots, if space won’t be an issue in your yard.
When you’re adding flowers to your garden, you can do so several ways. You can start by simply planting cut flowers next to your vegetable garden beds. Bushes and shrubs make ideal growing grounds for cut flowers, especially in containers. Make sure to dig the holes a little deeper than you would for planting vegetables, and add some compost to the soil to help the cut flowers thrive. Just make sure the plants you add to your gardening bed aren’t invasive species. Also, don’t put too many flowering plants next to one another; otherwise your garden will get overcrowded and look messy.
Another way to make gardening more fun is to plant your vegetables and then have them follow a landscape design pattern. If you’re planting annuals around your garden bed, put them in the back or among the annuals when you’re planning to cut them back. Perennials, on the other hand, can provide consistent sunlight exposure over the entire season, so they’ll be ready to sprout when you need them. Some perennials, like the blue bells of the Incense tree and the crabgrass plant, also love the afternoon sun.
One great option to consider when planting flowers near vegetables is to incorporate pots into your flower garden. Many perennials and biennials are available in small pots and can grow quite nicely as a self-supporting plant. Make sure you choose containers that are well-suited for your type of garden bed, because some varieties can do poorly in container gardening.
When planting vegetable gardens, be sure to think carefully about the position of your plants. If you want your flowers to get the proper amount of sunlight, be sure to plant them in an area facing away from your home and not too close to street traffic. This means using trellis or some other method of shading to protect your plants during the hottest parts of the day. Be sure to use mulch on the plants that aren’t going to get direct sunlight, either. Also, be careful where you put your cutting roses and bushes. Remember that certain types of flowers, like blue bells, can actually poison your crops if they get into your vegetable garden.