Where do you put flowers in your potager?

15 years ago

Where do you plant flowers in your potager? Do you put them in a separate area or mix them in with the vegetables? Do you have a lot of flowers or just a few? Are they perennials, annuals or both? Do you have any roses?

I had roses, but I'm moving them all into other areas, due to the deer. However, I do have perennials on the outside beds, so I put perennial flowers in with the blueberry bushes, raspberries, strawberries and herbs. I might add some asparagus this year, too. For flowers, I have coneflowers, daisies, clematis, phlox, pincushion flowers, bee balm, and I add a few annuals for extra color.

In the front beds and middle beds, I have annual vegetables and herbs, with annual flowers all mixed together, for color, to shade the weeds...and keep the deer out of my veggies. I use a lot of alyssum, to keep down the weeds and keep the ground shaded, which means less watering. I also love zinnias, marigolds, nasturtiums, stock, evening stock, sunflowers, snapdragons and cosmos.

On the arches I have clematis and sweet peas, except in the front, where I'm using climbing beans...with purple flowers. The arbor has clematis too, but I'm not sure what I want to put in the beds, since I moved the roses. More space :)

What about your garden?

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Comments (6)

riverfarm
15 years ago
I plant flowers in my potager, often along one row, and always at the beginning of each row by the brick path. Among my tomato tripods I alternate marigolds, Victoria blue salvia, and basil. I also plant zinnias and other flowers around the greenhouse. It gives the garden a really nice look.

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peachymomo
15 years ago
I like to have annual flowers mixed in liberally with the vegetables, a nice mix that attracts pollinators and other beneficial insects. Borage, cosmos, cleome, nasturtium, sunflowers, etc. I also like to have a perennial area near the vegetable beds, a spot for salvia, penstamon, chives, lavender, rosemary, etc. And of course I have to have some roses planted here and there. I keep my fruiting plants in a separate area because I'm pretty serious about growing fruit and so I like to give them plenty of space.

In general I like to have lots of flowers scattered about providing color and attracting insects all around the garden. I like a wild look, slightly unkempt and with a few pretty weeds allowed to grow here and there.
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wirosarian_z4b_WI
15 years ago
If you have a very design controlled potager like some you see in those "pretty coffee table garden picture books" then you would want to plant them where the design tells you to put them. But if your potager is informal like mine, I put them where ever I can find a spot after the veggies & herbs are planted. 2 exceptions, I have some mini roses that are perennials so they stay in the same spot plus I like to grow some glads & they need some support to keep from blowing over in the wind so they are planted together for installing the support sticks.
ali-b
15 years ago
riverfarm-- I have potager envy. More pics please!

I group my perennials together. I have a bed up front with aster, coneflower, yarrow, blazing star, chives, bee balm, speedwell. And, I moved out the catmint and added two landscape roses. I also have a center circle with mini-roses and lavender.

I usually mix in some annuals like marigolds, zinnias, dwarf sunflowers, amaranth, borage with the veggies. This year I'm trying some nasturtiums too. Keeping the annual veggies and flowers together lets me clear the entire bed at the end of the season.
nancyjane_gardener
15 years ago
Lets see, I do the marigolds mixed in with the tomatoes.
Then I have a small( 1'x however long the bed is) of annuals at the end of most beds.
I have pots and long planters all along the fence (can't have climbers due to goats next door), and as many flowers as I can in the herb garden.
On the outskirts right now are the most FAB irises! Purple and yellow, white and purple and white. OH MY SO PRETTY!!!!!
Nancy
riverfarm
15 years ago
Ali, I try to keep my flowers to annuals too, in my rows, but I have a flower garden around a small brick patio next to my greenhouse, and those are perennials. I plant nasturtiums in among my squash because it's supposed to deter squash bugs. I intersperse radishes for the same reason. Here's a photo taken a couple of years ago before we got our new greenhouse; the one you see to the right is an old Rion.

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