So many people are starting vegetable gardens to grow their own food right now, which is awesome! Did you know that growing flowers with your vegetables can help your vegetable garden thrive even more? Here are the 10 best flowers for vegetable gardens.
If you have been following me for a while, you know how much I LOVE growing flowers. With the coronavirus keeping me home, I decided to start a vegetable garden.
Why Plant Flowers with Vegetables?
You might be wondering what the purpose is in planting flowers in the vegetable garden. Besides looking pretty, there are plenty of benefits to using flowers for vegetable gardens.
Flowers can act as a repellent to certain insects and animals that are attracted to your vegetables. Flowers also attract pollinators such as bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds, which can fertilize flowers for certain vegetable crops.
I’m still growing plenty of flowers though. Some of mine are even the perfect flowers for vegetable gardens. Do yours make the list below?
Flowers for Vegetable Gardens
Here are the top 10 flowers for vegetable gardens to add to your garden. You might already have some in your garden right now!
Marigold
Marigolds are a well known flower to add to vegetable gardens. These are some of the best flowers to plant with vegetables since they keep pests away above and below soil, and are beautiful to look at as well!
Planting marigolds near vegetables can keep away rabbits, whiteflies, and Mexican bean beetles. There are even types of marigolds that can kill nematodes in the soil.
Daisies
Daisies are popular plants to add to any garden. They are beautiful and attract wasps and hoverflies to them. Grow your own colorful daisies in a small raised flower bed near your vegetable garden or grow together in a raised garden bed.
Cosmos
Cosmos are beautifully colored flowers that are easy to grow. These companion planting flowers attract insects that can help deter pests who would otherwise eat away at your vegetables.
Certain cosmos are known to attract green lacewings, which eat aphids, thrips, and scale. Consider adding cosmos flowers to your vegetable garden as companion planting for pest control.
California Poppies
California poppies are plentiful here in the southern part of the state. These brightly colored gold flowers don’t need much water, add color to your raised garden bed, and attract insects that are good for your garden.
Check out 5 of the Best Places to See California Wildflowers for more information about California Poppies!
Nasturtium
Nasturtium plants produce brightly colored flowers that can attract bees and pollinators. They are a new addition to my garden and I love how vividly colorful the flowers are.
Aphids love nasturtiums, as well as beetles and squash bugs. Plant nasturtiums in several areas if you don’t want these pests to eat all of them.
Nasturtium flowers and their leaves are all edible as well. They love to spread out, so make sure you have plenty of room for them in your garden!
Zinnias
Zinnias, like cosmos, are easy to grow and produce colorful flowers in all kinds of hues. Hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies love feeding off the nectar from these flowers.
Japanese beetles love zinnias, so if you don’t want the beetles feeding off your vegetables, grow plenty of zinnias in your vegetable garden.
Lavender
Lavender is a sweet smelling herb that can also act as a garden pest repellent. Grow lavender in a small raised garden bed to keep away ticks, deer, moth and mice.
There are also plenty of different uses to lavender, as well as different types you can grow in your garden space.
Sunflowers
Sunflowers make a beautiful addition to a vegetable garden. The brightly colored flowers are attractive, attract certain pollinators due to their nectar, and can act as a living trellis for vegetables that tend to climb.
Certain garden pests, such as squirrels, like sunflowers, so be mindful where you plant these flowers for the vegetable garden.
Alyssium
Alyssum plants bloom tiny flowers in white and purple that are perfect to add as a border or filler plant. The sweet smelling white alyssium is loved by hoverflies and is also great to use as a mulch in your vegetable garden due to roots growing just below the surface.
Calendula
Calendula flowers are also known as pot marigolds, although not related to marigolds, but daisies. Calendula flowers keep plenty of garden pests away but can attract some, such as aphids.
By growing calendula flowers in your raised garden bed, you can keep aphids away from your good garden plants, such as your vegetables.
Conclusion
These are the 10 best flowers for vegetable gardens. Most of these are already popular with many gardeners. Which flowers do you already grow or do you plan on growing with your vegetables this year? Let me know in the comments section below!
Sarah - Insecure Housewife says
For the longest time, the only flower I would grow in the garden was marigolds. But this year, I decided to grow more flowers to attract pollinators and add some more color. I have some nasturtium seeds sprouting at the moment. Lavender is another one I plan to have this year, as I’ve grown them for the past few years. I will look into adding some of these other flowers this year if I can find seedlings.
Ann says
I use to be the opposite, where I would grow vegetables and herbs sparingly, but go crazy growing flowers. I know many stores are hit or miss with seeds and seedling availability. I recently wrote a post about buying plants online. I also just added a page with places to buy seeds and seedlings online. Good luck!
Jamilyn Lambert says
This is beyond enlightening to me. I have a very small vegetable garden in my backyard, but I never thought to put some flowers in there too! Very cool! Thanks for sharing!
Ann says
Flowers are great to have if you don’t want pests eating your veggies. Flowers are also great at attracting pollinators too. Thank you for stopping by!
Melanie says
Thank you for these suggestions! We have a raised bed for the first time, so are going to try planting a few more vegetables. It’s been fun learning about the strategy with plants that will promote cross-pollination and what might ward off pesky visitors. Will be adding these ideas to the list as we get caught up with spring planting!
Ann says
Sounds like fun! I’m just starting to see sprouts from our raised garden bed and can’t wait to see how our vegetables benefit from the flowers growing nearby. Enjoy your new raised garden!
Jenisha says
My mother loves gardening she grew vegetables, fruit, flowers and also herbs. It’s great to have garden at home. Bdw I love Cosmo flower. They are so pretty. I’ll make sure I can find them for my mother.
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Ann says
It is great to have a garden at home, especially during these uncertain times. I’m sure your mother would love some cosmos! Thank you for stopping by!