Hi!
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The last frost date for my area was April 15 but I actually put my veggies out a few weeks earlier than that and as a result they’ve really growing beautifully already. Time will tell if this was a good move on my part or not. I used an old clear shower curtain to make a cold frame on nights where we had close to freezing temps and it worked amazingly well at protecting my starts!
This year I decided to use an arbor to support some of my vining veggies. I have two Sweet 100’s (cherry tomatoes) on one side. The cherry tomatoes always grow way beyond the tomato cages I have (and I have tall ones). I’ll just keep tying my plants to the arbor as they grow.
This year I don’t have room to let the pumpkins spread all over the place so I have a sugar pie pumpkin on the other side of the arbor.
Growing your vining plants up is a good way to utilize the growing space you have and I also think it’ll look really pretty once the arbor is covered in veggies. The tomatoes might become a temptation to birds, but I don’t usually have problems with them pecking the little tomatoes. They seem to like to take a peck out of the big red ripe ones! The ones I’m just about to pick to use and then discover they’ve been pecked into. Does that happen to you too?
I have two pots filled with perennial flowers on either side of the arbor. BTW, my husband thought it would be funny to sit my scarecrows on the fence in various poses!
I also have some nasturtiums (which are edible) and 4 o’clocks seeded in those pots.
I bought one six pack of petunias and I think they’ll look really pretty once they fill in and cascade over the pots.
Some may think that having flowers growing in a vegetable garden is a waste of space. But it’s not!
Having flowers in your veggie garden is a good way to help bring in those pollinators that we need and also beneficial insects (ones that help control garden pests). Did you know that butterflies are pollinators as well as bees?
I used to feel odd about having something other than vegetables in my veggie garden. It seemed so impractical and wasteful. Until I realized that I want my garden to not only feed my family but I also to feed our souls. I want to feel good when I’m in my vegetable garden and I want it to be pretty. So yes you’ll find flowers, you’ll find “stuff” hanging on the fence, you’ll probably even find a ” tacky” garden ornament or two! Use those arbors, trellises and obelisks for more than roses. They’re great for growing all kinds of veggies that vine and they give a veggie garden structure just as they do in a flower garden. Think of all of these little extra things as “garden decor” and don’t be afraid to let your personality shine through.
“Decorate” your vegetable garden if it makes you happy! I may paint the outsides of my raised beds one day!
I love your garden! You have inspired me to add more flowers to mine!
I want to be you when I grow up…I have always admired all the things you could do!
Xo, Meme
BWT, i am having a $100.000 giveaway…ok $100…;) If you get a chance stop by and sign up!!! 😀
I always enjoy seeing your gardens! Everything is looking so good for early May! We are just now planting ours for the season, so it’ll be a late harvest here. Adding flowers is such a great idea. I have mixed several of my herbs into my flower gardens this year. What a great combination!
BTW…. Love the posed scarecrows! What a fun touch =)
Jen
They make me chuckle each time I go in the garden (plus he keeps moving their arms)!
Manuela
Your garden looks great! I just started planting mine, it sure is a fun time of year! And I add flowers in with my veggies too, it’s just prettier:@)
Love your garden pics! I have a lot of the same elements (raised beds, little fence, pots, arbors). I understand flowers in the vegetable garden! You’ve got to have flowers in the south, so that when the drought and the 100 degree temps come July-September (at least here in Memphis), something still looks good when the vegetable plants all get pitiful because it’s too hot to set fruit, too hot to weed, too hot to . . . .
But for now, May and June — garden bliss!
Diana
You are so right. By July the veggies start looking a bit bedraggled and in August….well forget about it!
Manuela
I do the same thing with flowers in my veggie garden. I love the idea of your sweet 100’s climbing an arbor.
Hugs,
Penny
Your garden looks so pretty and inspiring. Making the most of garden space is important and a way to add more creativity xoxo Clarice
Your garden is pretty and healthy looking. Hope to produces well for you.
Once my cool season vegatables are done I will plant zinnias and cosmo seeds and I have an instant cutting garden. For some reason I don’t mind cutting the flowers in my vegatable patch like I do in the flower garden. Not strange at all.
Oh, I’m the same way! I rarely cut the flowers in my garden. I only cut they hydrangeas (I have a lot of them). A raised bed used as a cutting garden is on my to do list.
Manuela
We will be putting our garden out in a week or so. Hubs has been tilling the ground this week. We live in Michigan, 1/2 up, and we wait until the frosts are behind us. And even then, you may find us the 3rd week of May running around with plastic jugs and plastic sheets covering up our very large garden because of a frost warning. We add a lot of marigolds and nasturtiums to our vege gardens and who can not add some sunflowers and zinnias it just seems to pale without them.
Oh my goodness – it’s already in the 90’s here! I did start some sunflowers and zinnias from seed and have them in the garden. I’ll post those pictures next week.
Manuela
Lovely garden! I wish you were here so you could do mine! LOL
Love your garden! Last year we planted nasturtiums among the tomatoes – they are a natural bug repellant and they are edible! Their color was so pretty in salad!
Very pretty Manuela! We can’t plant here til May 15th. If it stops raining I hope to get out to my garden next week. Did you know that flies can also do some pollinating? Mimi
Also a good thing to add to those veggie gardens are herbs. They help keep some of the “critters” away. Just like planting I think it is marigolds next to your tomatoes.
Brenda
Yes, I have marigolds (supposed to be great for the tomatoes) and other herbs interplanted.
Manuela
I love the idea of planting pumpkins up on a trellis, gonna have to try that! Thanks!!
I’m going to try it with beans also.
Manuela
I love the trellis idea Manuela, I think I can get a metal one like this for cheap at Big Lots. The new website looks great!
I’ve been checking Big Lots and so far mine doesn’t have any in. I need at least one more – I have some loofas I want to plant!
Manuela
Hi, Manuela –
I L-O-V-E your new blog! It’s such a wonderful place to visit – as your other blog has been. Your garden makes me a bit envious. I couldn’t plant mine as early as you did because our weather was so wet I couldn’t work the soil in time to plant early. I’m working on plans to see how I can handle that situation next year. I love your arbor and what you are doing with it. It would be a great addition to any garden. I’ll be back again often to visit.
~Adrienne~
Gorgeous flowers and the garden is the perfect place for flowers! My squash plants are flowering right now and are sooooo pretty! Have a blessed day Manuela, HUGS!
Hi Manuela! this is my first comment but i have been reading for about a year and a half. i love your style, your ideas, your attitude and i love your new direction! i always really enjoyed your homesteading type posts so this is great for me!
To tie up my vining plants, I cup up strips of old kid’s tights. It is free, plus they are really gentle on those delicate stems. My first tomato should be ready to pick today or tomorrow. I’m a little too excited about it.
One day you should come down my way and we will go to the Mennonite Restaurant outside Montezuma then ride about and look at the Mennonite gardens. They ALWAYS plant flowers and vegetables together.
Love the new blog. Sorry you’re not moving from your house yet, but you will when the time is right.