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Bloemen

Flowers in the vegetable garden

Bloemen in de moestuin

Flowers for the vegetable garden

All plants

Flowers and vegetables. Both are actually just plants. One plant has a short growth cycle and we grow it for the flowers. Other plants take a little longer to reach a flower. Along the way, some plants produce leaves or roots that we can eat or they give a fruit after flowering (tomato). We call those plants vegetables. But vegetables and flowers are just plants :)

I am more of a practical vegetable gardener than one who wants everything to be aesthetically beautiful. I have relatively little time for my vegetable garden and still want a return. So it has to go smoothly and practically. I will also not sow or plant flowers just because I think they are beautiful. I sow and plant them because they are useful in the garden. If they are also beautiful, then there are only smiling faces in that respect.

A bee full of pollen A bee full of pollen, ready to fertilize your vegetables

Flowers play a very important role in the vegetable garden, but their selection is completely different from the selection of flowers for ornamental gardens. We are not going to select flowers for size or colour, but for their attractiveness to the insects that we want in our garden. In this article you can read which flowers are best for practical reasons in the vegetable garden. It will help you to plant the right flowers with the right crops.

Look here for useful flowers in the Moestuinweetjes webshop.

Doctors and transporters
There are two types of beneficial insects that you want to attract to your vegetable garden using flowers:
  • Insects that fight or prevent harmful insects and diseases: hoverflies (these flies mimic wasps, bumblebees and bees while they are actually completely defenseless), lacewings (laceflies feast on thousands of aphids, spider mites and whiteflies), ladybirds and many others. Later I will write an article about useful insects.
  • Insects that help with pollination : In some plants, the pollen from a male plant fertilizes a female plant. Sometimes this happens by the wind, but usually insects are the transporters. Bees are the kings of pollination (both honeybees and bumblebees). You should offer them as many sources of nectar as possible, especially when you know that their numbers are decreasing. Many other insects also contribute to pollination, such as wasps, moths, butterflies and some beetles.
Ladybugs in the vegetable garden Ladybugs eat up to 60 aphids per day
which types?
So how do you select the best flowers for your vegetable garden? It is important to choose flowers whose pollen is rich in protein pollen. Many commonly grown flowers in ornamental gardens have too little of this pollen, so it is important to choose the right flowers that attract the right beneficial insects. Here is a list of the best flowers for your vegetable garden. This list also takes into account that the flowers must be easy to grow, that they must be beautiful and that they must have the right properties to attract beneficial insects.
Marigold : Also called calendula after its Latin name. Marigold is easy to grow yourself and keeps producing flowers until deep into the summer, early fall. I personally do not cut away the faded flowers before they throw their seeds, since I work mostly on root cloth . If you work on bare ground, it is best to cut away the faded flowers. Otherwise you will have marigold for life.
Marigolds : The bright yellow, brown and red colours of the various types of Marigolds are excellent for attracting hoverflies, bees and butterflies. The sharp smell of the Marigolds deters nematodes. Like marigolds , they thrive in almost any soil and are ideal for planting crops between the crops in your vegetable garden.
Chamomile and Daisy : Most composite flowers will attract a wide range of insects. The flowers are not spectacular but hoverflies and parasitic wasps love them. An added benefit of chamomile is that you can make a delicious tea from it.
Onions and garlic : Sometimes onions and garlic bolt. Instead of harvesting the onions or garlic bulbs that are too small, it is better to let them flower. Leave them in the ground and let the flowers develop fully. You will be amazed at how beautiful they are and what a variety of insects they attract. Hoverflies love them.
Parsley and carrots . (and by extension all umbellifers) Same story again, you can leave surplus plants. The following year they will produce flowers that attract hoverflies. Despite the fact that they do not have such bright colours, you often see very beautiful patterns in the flowers.
comfrey : Bees love comfrey . In addition, the leaves of comfrey are superfood for your compost and you can use them as mulch. It must be said that comfrey swarms very much. So it is best to keep the roots of the plant in check. You can grow them in a buried bucket or mason's tub. Also read the article that appeared earlier about comfrey .
Nasturtium : This plant actually does the opposite of all the previous plants. They are very successful in attracting black bean aphids. The plant loses its beauty because it is eventually full of black bean aphids, but you can remove the young branches where the aphids are and destroy them outside the vegetable garden. Your chickens will also love them.
Also leave some early flowers in your beds. Beneficial insects love dandelions. Look here for useful flowers in the Moestuinweetjes webshop. Good luck and long live the beneficial insects. Tom

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