I'm right there with you, Sharon!

Each year I add more veggies and herbs to my flower beds, and more flowers to my veggie/herb patch. Pretty soon I'll need to come up with different names to tell them apart!

I don't mind renaming, however; I'm loving the results way too much!


Great article!


I need to go back and read it again to gather a few more ideas for happy combos.

Have fun with your seeding!

It sure does make a pretty landscape, doesn't it?

I've done this with herbs for years and only last summer - because of the drought - did I add a few potted veggies to the roses, mostly because the tomatoes and peppers were scorching. This year I'll do away with many of the pots, I think.

Thanks, Chelle, I love seeing pictures of your combos. They are encouraging me to do even more.

This combination in one of our raised beds was from 3 years ago. We planted scented geraniums at the near end of this bed around the sweet potatoes, and nasturiums at the far end behind the squash and sunflowers. We had a great crop from all.

This bed held artichoke and dill, along with onions.


We have also planted our blueberry bushes in the perennial beds. Now after reading your article I will be planting even more eatables in the the perennial borders. You have me all excited about trying this.

I'm getting excited, too, Lynn.
Great pictures! Amazing how when we think about it, most of them really help each other. I think there are a few vegetables and ornamentals that don't get along well, but most of them do.

Good for you!

I never tried that until recent years. The results far surpassed out old way of row gardening.

Looks prettier, too!
And I know the vegetables have a larger product and a higher yield.

It was interesting that the tomatoes that I placed near the bee balm and roses did so much better than the tomatoes that remained on my deck in a large pot during last summer's drought. I attribute it to the community contact because I watered them all the same and they got the same amount of sunlight. I sure lost a lot to the drought though.

I'll mix them all up a little more next season.

Great Story Sharon

I need to read it again too. Loved your drawing

Lynn, our blueberry bushes are in our perennial beds too

I can't wait to try more ways to plant my beds with both blooms and veggies/fruit.

Thanks Vic.

I had to revitalize the drawing, thanks to a little color enhancement, it was pretty well faded. I couldn't do much about that brownish cardboard, no doubt the back of one of those old school tablets. Remember them?

As for combinations, search the internet. There are tons of possibilities and a lot of them I'm just now finding. I can't wait to grow beans with my clematis and if I can get the sunflowers started early enough, well, lots of possibilities there. Thinking about cucumbers, maybe. Summer squash. But they might be too heavy for sunflowers.

Squash can grow on a simple tree limb tripod, and the flowers and others can cluster around its base.

More pictures are here The thread ""Non-traditional places to grow vegetables"" in Planning, Designing and Growing a Vegetable Garden .


Love your mixed beds, Lynn!

Great Chelle!
Sure wish I'd known, I'd have asked to use those wonderful pictures in the article.

And I love the one of Lynn's tomatoes, too. I should have remembered it.

Thanks Chelle, I sure got some great ideas from your above link. Amazing what both you and Dave have done.

Sharon, any photos I have you are more than welcome to use anytime you need them.

Thanks Lynn.
I will remember.

Great article, good ideas. Even way back then, you were putting your ideas on paper, er, cardboard. try planting some of that rainbow chard where you want a nice splash of color.

I too need to read the story again. I've never tried planting flowers with my veggies, maybe this is the year to give it a try. Haven't had much luck with tomatoes and squash the last couple of years so flowers may be a great help. Ya Think!! Thanks for the wonderful article Sharon!

I am going to plant rainbow chard, Mary. I hope mine grows as well as yours.
Truth is, I was lazy. I had to stake a lot of beans and tomatoes and I really got tangled in that wire fencing, and have you ever tried to tie knots in that old hemp twine? The kind that scratched fingers and left splinters? They didn't have tomato cages up in my holler. Anyway, I was just trying to figure out an easier way.

And sadly I put my ideas in a lot of places where they shouldn't have been. The concrete sidewalk, the window facings. Walls.

Pegi, this method is the answer for me and I'm getting excited about trying more of it. I don't need all the work that goes with a large vegetable garden plus I don't have the space. What I do have is flower beds that I work in a lot, so maybe this will give me the edibles that I love so much too, with no extra effort.

I think you can do it, Pegi!

Thanks Ladies.

I DO remember the school tablets

I've also printed all the suggestions here too

Love the idea Sharon . My mind is now in overdrive with the possibilities, as it is it is faster then my limbs . More used to formal gardens.
Regards,
Arif.

I think we are all used to more formal gardens with rows of this and beds of that, Arif. Sometimes change is good and for me it is necessary. I also think it will be beautiful.

Right now I can hardly imagine how it will be because we've had so much rain in such a short time water is standing in my gardens and I'm beginning to feel a little like an island in the stream.