I am starting to realize that planting flowers in the garden is really important to keep pests away and attract pollinators. Many vegetables and herbs also flower after producing their crop. They usually have lots of small flowers.
I accidentally discovered a few years ago that if you let a radish plant go to seed, it creates seed pods that are very tasty. You get the flavour of the radish without the heat. Here are my three radish plantings at different stages of growth. As you can see, lots of flowers to attract pollinators.
Here is a close up of the seed pods. I like them when they are green but they get spicer as they turn red.
Another vegetable that I would plant just to go to seed is arugula. It was the first thing ready to eat this spring and it started to go to seed within a short amount of time. I couldn’t seem to harvest it fast enough. At one point I decided to just let it go. It has lovely flowers and would be a good thing to plant near something that needs pollination early as most flowers planted from seed don’t come till the end of July.
I had planted turnip because I enjoy it in soups. The bugs went crazy on the leaves early on and there was no coming back. Instead of digging them up though, I left them in the ground as they kept the bugs away from the neighbouring kohlrabi plants. The turnip started to go to seed and have a lovely yellow flower on them.
I planted cilantro last year just to try it. It flowers a lot as well. This year I planted a row next to my zucchini and tomato plants as cilantro is also supposed to be a pest deterrent. Only a few of the plants came up but it still does its job. We don’t really eat cilantro but it looks nice enough in the garden.
I planted dill, harvested some to dry and will let the rest go to seed and either plant again next year or use the dill seed in recipes. Dill next to my cucumbers is attracting pollinators as it flowers which is resulting in a lot of cucumbers. I am sure that the calendula on the other side of the dill is also helping.
We noticed that the Haskap bushes are the first thing to flower in the spring, along with the aspen trees. The bees get so busy in the trees that they don’t spend much time over by the Haskaps. We’ll have more bushes next spring thus more flowers and maybe that will mean more bees? I might try to plant the arugula early next to the haskaps and cover it if necessary at night just to get more flowers in that area. I wish the dandelions would flower a few weeks earlier than they do as they grow in and around the Haskaps.
I read somewhere that one should plant climbing beans, winter squash and corn in the same patch. The beans produce nitrogen for the corn and the squash give ground cover to keep weeds down and hold moisture. I like this idea of plants helping plants and I think I will try it next year.
In the height of summer we also have an abundance of clover growing in the garden. Truthfully, there is very little grass around the garden beds and it is mostly clover or weeds. The bees definitely love the clover so it does help the other plants get noticed.
I am excited to learn about things that do better with others planted nearby. If you have any advice please pass it on.
Sounds interesting! 🧐