Should flowers be part of your garden?

When I head out to my gardens in the morning, I always walk towards the flower patch, first. Not that my vegetables don’t hold a great importance―they do!―but because in every spectacular bloom there is such intricate beauty and color to see and it brings such inspiration for the day.

The other highly important reason has to do with pollination. Without insects, especially bees, our gardens would not thrive. Adding flowers around gardens is a necessity, as they attract a host of bees that pollinate fruit shrubs and trees, as well as vegetables that grow from a flower, such as cucumbers, squash, beans and peppers―to name a few.  

I love flowers and I used to purchase them as seedlings or full-grown plants at nurseries, and I still do, however, I also wanted to explore a new venue by starting flowers from seed. I was always intimidated by this, fearing I’d fail. We do not have the kindest climate and there are so many pests that I thought it would be a waste of energy.

Then, I began to do research and found information on flower farms in colder climates and just as with fruit and vegetables, it’s all about experimenting and connecting with those who had the courage to begin the process before us.

This has been our first year of growing flowers, and at first, I thought I had failed―big time! The little sprouts were taking forever to grow and by mid-august, I thought there’s no way these flowers will ever grow into full, beautiful blooms. But I kept watering them and clearing out the weeds to give them a chance to grow. About two weeks later, the whole flower patch flourished! I was ecstatic to see these beautiful flowers opening to the sun. Of course, they never grew very tall, and we were too advanced in the season for a large harvest of cut flowers, but I did learn a lot from this first year. I am already planning next year’s expansion of our flower beds and excited to add new varieties!