permaculture

[Robyn Francis <erda@nor.com.au>]

On 2/11/07 2:52 PM, "Nancy Bracewell" <Cather39@bham.rr.com> wrote:

> I have always heard "vegetables for the body, flowers for the soul . . ."
> about gardens. Should we add "and the bees"?
> Is there anything negative about growing flowers among the vegetables?
> 
> Nancy 

Hi Nancy -  Bill once spoke eloquently about how all food producing systems
need to be designed as floristic (flowering) systems to attract not only
pollinators but a whole arsenal of beneficial insects into the system.
Flowering plants can also function as host plants, catch-crops and serve to
confuse and/or repel many pests when inter-planted with food crops.

There's a lot of common 'ornamental' garden flowers that are edible, herbal,
aroma-therapeutic and otherwise useful, and many are excellent companions
plants and dynamic accumulators in the veg garden. Salvias (sages),
asteraceae (daisies), apaiaceae (carrot family) and amaranthus spp are
particularly good attractants for a range of valuable pest-predatory
insects.  

I encourage plenty of flowers with the vegies and vegies with the flowers,
and flowers under the fruit trees -- an integrated garden will feed body,
spirit and all the senses and provide important ecosystem services through
feeding bees and butterflies and other little critters above and below
ground. 

Negatives? Just make sure you select appropriate flowers and monitor/control
them re invasive and weed potential. The Louise Riotte companion planting
books are worth tracking down- Carrots Love Tomatoes and Roses love Garlic

And don't forget to celebrate the beautiful flowers of many veg and herbs as
they go full cycle to produce fruit and seed.

Ciao Robyn