Aside from looking simply gorgeous, flowers have so many other things to offer us. A garden full of flowers does wonders for our local wildlife and pollinators as well as offering us food and fodder at the same time.
Flowers can be grown just as ornamentals while others make valuable additions to our culinary and medicinal herb garden. They can also act as pest repellants and help protect our precious veggies.
If you want to learn a little more about how to not only beautify but also arm your garden with food, medicine, and insect repellants, then read these OGP planet articles that will help you on your way.
1. Fall and Winter Flowers
Fall flowers can be found in just about every plant form: herbaceous cultivars, beloved wildflowers, shrubs, vines, and even trees. They come in just about any color one could desire, and they have a collection of sizes and shapes. Rather than feeling misled for all these years, maybe now is the time to get some of these fall and winter flowers planted so that all of our seasons are wildly colorful and full of blossoms. Why not start with a dozen choices? Here is a list of 12 Flowers to Plant Now for Fall and Winter.
2. Sunflowers
Sunflowers in a garden are often the most mesmerizing plant going. Many of them tower over everything like watchful guardians, their fiery yellow blooms beaming toward the sun. For this reason alone, tons of gardeners, whether growing food or flowers, choose to cultivate sunflowers every year. That, and of course, they are extremely easy to grow from seed, making them an inexpensive, low-maintenance addition. They tower up quickly and have very little trouble with pests or diseases. Plus, they work just about everywhere, from the frigid USDA Zone 2 (as in much of Alaska) to the sweltering Zone 11 (southern Florida). Here is a convincing list of 7 Reasons to Include Sunflowers in Your Garden.
3. Edible Flowers
Edible flowers are great for adding a splash of color and a little elegance to the dinner plate. Many edible flowers might already be residents in your flower garden, or they might be growing wild right in your backyard or neighborhood. If you are looking for edible flowers in the wild, as well as making a 100% positive ID, make sure to be aware of the surroundings, and do not pick anything that might have been sprayed with pesticides or other harmful chemicals. The same goes for foraging in lawns or garden beds. Make sure that the owner of the yard uses organic practices. Here are 10 Edible Flowers to Beautify Your Plate.
4. Winter Flowers
Winter can be a tough time for gardeners. Sure, there are evergreen plants that provide plenty of green in the landscape, but by and large, the color palette gets a little bland. However, several plants will put out amazing flowers in the winter months, snow be damned. And, let’s be honest, as lovely as a snowy winter can be, it helps to see something on the horizon, some reminder that there is a world out there full of bright hues and pleasant smells. What if the garden didn’t just give out in autumn and continued to surprise our senses? Check out these 10 Plants to Grow for Flowers in Winter.
5. Veggie Garden Flowers
There is plenty of information out there about companion planting for your vegetable garden. You know how it goes–plant basil with your tomatoes and carrots with your onions. There are many benefits to doing this kind of planting from improving the flavor of one or both of the companions, to controlling the types of insects that choose to hang around. If you love to grow veggies and want to have pretty flowers at the same time, you could think about interspersing some of these otherwise ornamental flowers into your veggie patch. They can do some great jobs for you and your harvest. Check out this list of 5 of the Best Flowers to Grow in Your Veggie Garden.
6. Edible Tree Blossoms
Just as we can grow great cut-flower gardens and pollinator gardens with an assortment of edible blooms, we can also grow flowering trees that will provide food as well as beauty. Some of our most cherished fruit trees are renowned for their flowers as well, often with ornamental versions more focused on flowers than fruit. Well, why not get the best of both worlds? Loads of trees are well-suited for flower aficionados as well as productive for those of us looking to grow edible landscapes. Here are 10 Edible Trees to Grow for Beautiful Flowers.
7. Flowers for Drying
Drying flowers is an age-old art of preserving the colors, shapes, and textures of summer and celebrating the enduring beauty of garden flora. If you have the space, time, and inclination, you can grow a garden of flowers, especially for drying. It is essential to know that not all flowers dry equally! Certain flowers are known for holding their shape and color much better than others. As fragile and delicate as dried flowers look, in the end, you need something that won’t disintegrate and the drop of a hat! Take a look at these 5 Best Flowers To Grow for Preserving or Drying.
8. Dried Flower Projects
If you have some flowers around you that you want to preserve, then you are in luck. There are a few ways to dry flowers that help to preserve their color and shape so that you can use them for all kinds of projects. Some projects are going to require flowers that are still quite young and fresh. With other projects, such as making your own potpourri, you might get away with using petals from flowers that have expired. Here are a bunch of ideas for Things to Do with Dried Flowers that will keep you busy and help beautify your home cheaply and cheerfully.
9. Cut Flowers
For those who like to have fresh flowers in the house, not only does growing flowers at home cut back on the flower miles, but the local ecosystem will get a boon as well. Pollinators like bees and butterflies will have more flowers to enjoy. Our lawns and gardens will have greater biodiversity. Our environments will have appreciated flashes of color and seasonal change as opposed to mown paddocks of grass year-round. Ultimately, enjoying cut flowers needn’t be a guilt-ridden venture. Instead, a cut-flower gardener gets to delight in the showy displays outdoors and has the pleasure of a vase in every room, for a fraction of the cost no less. Here is a Guide to Sustainably Growing Your Own Cut Flowers.
10. Edible Flower Garden
There are also wonderful flowers we can grow for food. While many grow flowers for the beautiful colors and aromas they provide, many stunning flowers provide healthy, often medicinal food as well. These edible flowers can make great additions to ornamental gardens and vegetable gardens alike. There is absolutely nothing wrong with admiring their beauty and flavor, and usually, harvesting the flowers just means they’ll produce that many more. Check out these 7 Wonderful Edible Flowers to Grow in Your Garden.
11. Wildflowers
Wildflowers come in many shapes and sizes. They come at different times of the year, blending a huge array of colors across the landscape. They do all of this without being planted, watered, or preened over at all. So, perhaps a valid question is: Why should we plant them? It would be easy to simply say that adding more beauty to the planet is enough to warrant planting wildflowers, but the reality is so much more complicated and persuasive. The fact is that, whether or not wildflowers happen in the wild, we can encourage and foster their growth. We can put them in our gardens and yards to enjoy at home, as well as benefit our local area. There are plenty of reasons to plant them. Read on to learn more as to Why You Should Grow a Patch of Wildflowers.
12. Early Blooming Flowers
For those of us who use the flowers to move quickly into spring, it’s best to choose those that bloom earliest. By and large, that means that bulbs and perennials are likely going to be in the flower beds. Conveniently, these flowers don’t require cultivating year in and year out, and because they are in the ground waiting for the first opportunity to bloom, they’ll do it as early as possible. Considering the garden’s vertical and horizontal spacing and the need for some color variety and mid-March excitement, here are ten early bloomers to include in the flower bed. The bees will like them, too. Here is a list of 10 Early Blooming Flowers for Your Spring Flower Bed.
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