Flowers for the plot

[carrot-cruncher]

Due to the weather I didn't get any flowers sown on the plot per my original plan.   I wanted flowers to pretty the place up & attract bees etc.

I've been have a mosey around my local nurseries & they've got some good offers on their bedding plants. 

Would bedding plants work just as well down the plot, intersown with my veg?

One nursery has 6-packs of petunias, surfinas etc for £2.25 each or 10 packs for £11 & it's these I'm considering buying.

All advice welcome

CC

[carrot-cruncher]

[Robert_Brenchley]

They will, but at the same time, why don't you get some packets of perennial seed and grow it on for next year? Then you won't have to keep messing about buying bedding plants.

[carrot-cruncher]

Rb

I bought a load of seeds ready to plant this year but between waiting for the plot to dry out & then waiting for the council to rotovate it for me I didn't get any sown.

I've got something in the region of twenty packets of flower & green manure seeds but they're now mainly waiting for next year.

One or two of the green manure I will be sowing later in the year.

CC

[Robert_Brenchley]

Can you start some of the perennials off in pots? That way they'd have a good start for next year.

[Mrs Ava]

The only thing with some of the fancy bedding plants is they are scentless and not really designed for the bees but for our critical eye.  What about some flowering herbs - some of mine are swarming now and my chives look great!  If you can, try to get scented flowers, or more natural flowers rather than those that have been bred purely for look rather than scent and bee food.

[aquilegia]

How about getting some that are good as companion plants? eg tagetes with tomatoes (and other things I can't remember), nasturiums for beans, etc. Also they are edible.

[redimp]

I am growing french marigolds (for my cabbages), nasturtians (also for my cabbages) and I am now going to grow tagetes msomethingorother because I have a lot of ground elder waiting by the edge of my plot.  I am also growing sunflowers for the birds.

[wardy]

RC   Let me know how you get on with the tagetes minuta sommat with a long name under your ground elder.  I am fighting a losing battle with the s o d d in g stuff and it's driving me crazy.  Have weed killed it twice alread and it's back.  Got to tackle it again this week  :(

Flowers on my plot are (or will be) sweetpeas up my beans and hedge, sunflowers, old fashioned marigolds, french marigolds for companion planting, foxgloves, nasturtiums.  I will be planting some chives (fingers crossed)  This is my first summer on the plot so I've only got a few yet but hoping to plant lots of stuff around the edges which attracts insects, bees and birds.  I have a packet of poached egg seed which I have forgotten to sow  :(

[Roy Bham UK]

I am growing french marigolds (for my cabbages), nasturtians (also for my cabbages) and I am now going to grow tagetes msomethingorother because I have a lot of ground elder waiting by the edge of my plot.  I am also growing sunflowers for the birds.

;D Hi RC ;D How far apart do you plant your marigolds from your cabbage ??? ;D I've planted some but they look a little sparse at 18" apart. ???

[redimp]

Only about every three or four cabbages and then some planted at the ends of rows and in between.  Its a good job you get a lot of marigolds for your money.  Next year I'll be mostly planting non f1 varieties so I can collect the seed.

[teresa]

Like EJ, I go with herbs, these will cope better with conditions off lottie than the garden plants do.
I have mints, rosemary, feverfew and comphrey. Also from the local birds I have forget-me-nots. 1 nasturtium and lots of viola's but I still have to plant my sweet peas up the beans yet.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I planted feverfew and borage when I first had the plot, now I have them selfsown all over the place. As long as they're not in the way I leave them.

[redimp]

Is Borage good for anything - we have a lot around the borders of our allotments and I have wondered if it has any uses.  All I have done is pull some for the compost heaps as being a newbie, mine are quite empty.

[teresa]

flowers frozen in icecubes for pimms and the leaves taste of cucumber in salards I think would love to have some.

[Mothy]

Wardy,
If you have poached eggplant seeds it's great for attracting bees. i went to Ryton Organic gardens the other day and they had a bed of it that was covered in them. I mean alive with bees!!  :o

[Robert_Brenchley]

I've planted some, still waiting for it to come up. Meanwhile I have a murmuration of bees that can sometimes be heard on the other side of the plot! The young ones will all come out together for a cleansing and orientation flight (meaning a poo and a look around) and if you're not used to bees it's quite spectacular.

[Multiveg]

My phacelia is nearly in flower. Have an area of it less the area of my keyboard! Have sown in trays other flowers but the slugs & snails have had most of them. Got 6 remaining tagetes in greenhouse, and 4 destined for allotment, plus one marigold {Edit - boooo hooo, I caught a slug tooo late, it had my marigold, boo hooo}.  In the plot, got nasturtiums. Some seeds haven't appeared yet - sowed some flax, what else did I sow? Ah yes, poached egg and candytuft - though where I put them is another question and what they look like as seedlings!

Want perennials to border my plot. They had aquilegias in Machynlleth (Centre for Alternative Technology) - might have a go at those next year, but they had erm, how shall I put this, GROUND ELDER growing (deliberately) in one of their borders {edit - apparently nice in omelettes}.

[Robert_Brenchley]

The Romans grew it as a vegetable. I wonder what it tastes like.

[moonbells]

The Romans grew it as a vegetable. I wonder what it tastes like.

yes, they did, didn't they... and introduced snails, and rabbits... what did the Romans ever do for us, I ask you?
;)

Seriously, I grow calendula on my plot as a bee-attractor. Works a treat.  Have loads of seedlings from one year to the next...

moonbells

[Bambi.1]

Rb



I've got something in the region of twenty packets of flower & green manure seeds but they're now mainly waiting for next year.

One or two of the green manure I will be sowing later in the year.

CC

I've never heard of green manure seeds ??? what are they please ? and what do they look like ?