Are you 'breaking the rules' by growing fruit or vegetables in your flower beds?

[Laura from MomsRetro.com]

Who has a few veggies tucked in their flower beds? My mom always sneaks a container with a tomato plant into her side yard. She grows a bush variety so it doesn't take up too much space. It gets watered by the sprinklers automatically so she doesn't have to worry about it.

I've got a pepper growing in a side plot too. You don't notice it's a veggie until the peppers start turning colors. I've also got culinary sage growing, it has beautiful blue flowers in the spring too.

Who else is 'breaking the rules'? What are you growing?

[Puckdropper]

"Laura from MomsRetro.com" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I've thought about putting some onion in my mother's flower bed (more for bug and pest control than anything else), but I've got my own garden to tend. I did plant marigolds in my "edible" garden, though. They seemed to have lots of positive things they did for the garden with very little negative.

Breaking the rules? I guess, if you believe in pure flower and vegetable gardens. Gardeners for years have planted flowers as companions to vegetables.

We might still plant onion in the flower garden, if we start getting too many pests...

Puckdropper

[David Hare-Scott]

Globe artichokes, great geometric folliage for the ornamental garden.

David

[Mary Fisher]

WHAT rules?

Mary

[Pat Kiewicz]

I like to tuck herbs and edible* ornamental peppers in my container arrangements.

The only edibles in my flower beds (these days) are the daylilies.

But I do grow my giant zinnias (for cutting) in one of the beds of the veggie garden, as that's the only place they are protected from the local herbivores, who have demonstrated in the past that zinnias are on their "to be eaten first" list.

*Not by everyone's standard. They are hot, hot, HOT

[Omelet]

Okra... ;-d

[Omelet]

A mix of garlic and marigolds actually seems to work pretty well.

[Omelet]

I've never been able to get artichokes to stay alive. :-( Not even potted 2 year old plants from the nursery...

What conditions do you give them? I live in South Central Texas near Austin.

[Omelet]

[Robert Lewis]

Every year, my parents have a "mystery plant" come up in the flower bed near their side door. They toss kitchen scraps into this garden. Some years it's squash. Some years it's gourds of some kind. They've had okra & usually a few tomatoes every year. It's all volunteer.

Robert

[jellybean stonerfish]

Most of my decorative plants are edible.

stonerfish

[David Hare-Scott]

The climate here is warm temperate but can be very hot in summer (100F or more is fairly common) and cool in winter (around freezing) but it never snows or freezes. Artichokes quite like the cooler months here but go backwards when it is very hot. They also dislike it when it is very dry and I have to water carefully then. The soil is heavy and fertile.

The flowers are also rather attactive but if you leave them go that long I would have to come and scold you for inattention and carelessness.

David

[Omelet]

I'm guessing the mistake I made then was leaving them in a pot. ;-)

I'd rarely let flowers mature. Too tasty! ;-d

[Billy]

I would guess it would be a good time to call the Ag advisor, to ask what you can do to remediate your garden to the likes of an artichoke.

[Omelet]

Probably a good idea. I did also once try putting them in one of the raised garden beds. They still died.

North side of the house tho', they might not have gotten enough sunlight. I should probably amend one of the "free" areas up front in the driveway and try some there.

[Billy]

With water restrictions it's tough. The only idea I had was for misting on particularly hot days.

[Omelet]

Mm , good idea.

It needs to be kept wet then? As a thistle, I was always afraid of overwatering them. Perhaps that is what I did wrong???

[Billy]

Look at

biggest problem with them was snail and slug predation. More recently, it seems to be curiosity from our dogs and cats. A tomato arbor and chicken wire fixed that:-)

[Laura from MomsRetro.com]

I put garlic in my flower beds when they sprout, they help with aphids, so I guess I forgot to include those.

I've also heard that marigolds are good companions for vegetables. Plus, they'll attract bees and benificial insects.

[David Hare-Scott]

It sounds like it to me. We often have hot dry summers and the 'chokes struggle. This year we had a wet warm summer and they did fine while many curcurbits, tomatos, etc suffered a multitude of fungal problems.

David