23/08/2021
FLOWER POWER| Long are the days where I use to keep cut flowers and vegetables in their own separate growing areas. These days you’re most likely to find an eggplant popping up between coneflowers or peppers surrounded by pansies. Not only is it visually beautiful (especially when you plant complimentary color pallets to allow your vegetable blooms to sing), but certain flowers actually make for quite the companion plants providing pest control, lurring in beneficial pollinators and offering the dappled shade for young autumn seedlings during the last of the summer heat.
Purple tends to be a color theme for my garden this time of year. There’s nothing better than seeing an eggplant blossom next to striking purple echinacea or the sway of lavender near ripening blue beauty tomatoes. I’m all about making the garden a feast for the eyes before it becomes a feast for your table. Want to give them a try in your garden? Here are a few companion ideas to inspire a late summer color palette refresh in your plot:
Lavender: A beneficial companion when located near squash, lettuce, brassicas, onions, tomatoes and other herbs such as oregano, thyme, marjoram, sage, rosemary, basil, lemon balm and chamomile. (Bonus: buggies be gone! Repels mosquitoes, ticks, spiders, ants and fleas...not to mention having some success in keeping the mice, deer and rabbits away).
Purple Echinacea (Coneflower): Dripping with nectar that will attract all the bees and butterflies, these striking plants do best near brassicas, eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, marigolds, sage and catmint. (Bonus: the petals of Echinacea angustifolia are edible and can be used fresh on a salad for a colorful pop, or dried and brewed as a medicinal tea - flavor profile is similar to to pine with a powerful floral note)
Have you tried companion planting with flowers!? I want to know all about your favorite combos below.
