I am going to be doing a nice amount of veggies this year also. I moved an entire bed of iris in order to make it into a veggie garden for this year. I will grow more tomatoes and my beans in the former iris garden. But I absolutly have no room to buy more daylily plants or iris plants either for that matter. Full up in my garden beds. That is why I have been buying lots of spring bulbs to plant each fall. They fit between and around my daylilies and give me lots of spring color.

Rita, Do you have Hot Tamales and Red Hots? I'm wonderng if the color holds in the heat?

Yes!!!! Yes, yes, I have it and it is FABULOUS!!! Stunning, stunning and the color holds up well.

I wanted it for years since the year of introduction. Finially got it when they had a sale two years ago. Of course, it wasn't the only one I got at that time and everything I have is just so very beautiful.

I split this apart as a separate thread because I wondered how many people plant veggies in with their flowers and daylilies. I started to last year, and plan to do more of it this year. My space is so limited, and it is easier to find a place for things if I don't dedicate a big area for veggies.

Was wondering what other people do?

Hits palm of hand to forehead -- now I wish I had not split this the same way I did --- I should have left the posts about Hot Tamales and Red Hots WITH the John Rice intros thread.



Sorry, ladies.... I have not done that much "thread splitting" and I didn't think it through.

Oh, yes. I do. At least I plant tomatoes in the back of some of my daylily beds. I have a garden bed that runns along side of my driveway and in front of the wooden fence that is my property line. That garden is very ornimental with daylilies, lilies, tall bearded iris, phlox, an ornimental shrub or two and lots and lots of spring bulbs. In a section of it I have tomato plants back by the fence. In fact it worked out so well that I am going to plant the tomato plants there again this year.

Then upstairs in the big, big backyard bed I have my main path that goes thru it. I put up posts and trellis netting and grew cucumbers vertically last summer.I had no place else to put the cucumbers. Well, I am going to do the same this year, already have better (stronger) netting to use. And on the other side of the path, late last summer I moved about 6 iris plants so that I could set a small section of vertical trellis there and get it back out of the pathway. So I have planned already for this year.

In my terraces garden near my kitchen I plan on putting peas in the very back of the main section for an early crop this spring. I moved some of the very back daylilies forward so I could do this as I planned ahead last summer.

So that is a lot of veggies mixed in with my flowers, mainly my daylily beds. And that square garden I had in iris is now totally going to be a veggie garden. Tomatoes on the outside and beans (yard long beans) to be planted in the vertical middle section. I plan on lots of veggies this year.

No problem Juli, I will just repost it in the other thread!

With heirloom tomatoes at $5.99 lb last year, and organic produce higher, I have considered getting rid of a bed of daylilies for vegetables.

My backyard is only 1/8 acre with every inch of ground and planters planted so if veg's come, daylilies go. But still, my own pesticide vegetables would be wonderful. It's the same conversation I have with myself every year and have not acted.


Thanks Rita, I bought HTRH and look forward to seeng the blooms, hopefully this year.

No worry, Juli.

I am thinking of putting a row of lettuce in between rows of daylilies. I think the lettuce would be winding down by the time the daylily foliage would be tall enough to shade it out.

Lettuce is an early crop, needs the cool weather. Bolts in the heat. How about sugar snap peas? I have a nice spot picked out to plant peas in back of daylilies. By the time the daylilies are blooming the peas (another early spring crop) will be long gone. Maybe some of you have room in back of those daylily beds to but in some veggies.

I don't have that much room here myself. Last year when I got the veggie crazies back strongly (after some years of cutting back) I had to really get creative about how I could fit in more veggies in my garden.

Another issue I just though of is rabbits multiplying by the millions here. They shear the daylily foliage at nose level and I wonder if they would eat the lettuce.

Oh yes, they would definatly eat the lettuce. Rabbits love lettuce! Maybe plant lettuce and they might leave your daylilies alone.

Ladies I didn't give up tomatoes when the garden became full of flowers. We have a very large half moon shaped patio the entire lenght of our house on which I have a couple tomatoes growing large pots. My DH made a long rectangular cedar planter box with attached supports for more tomatoes it fits next to a garage entrance door then extends to the end of the garage which extends beyond the house. This gives us plenty of tomatoes plus I also have plenty of space for some potted annuals on the patio creating privacy when we sit out there. I do have more yard space that could be used for tomatoes but I like having them in planters as it works well for me in our northern climate. This sounds silly but I don't mind weeding flowers but do very much mind weeding veggies in the ground.

I have daylilies "temporarily" planted in with my asparagus & blueberries...... well, those temporary daylilies have been in that bed for 3 or 4 years now!

Then last year I planted tomatoes and sweet peppers in a daylily bed - and they were HUGE! When they finally did ripen, they were monsters!

And this year, I will continue the practice..... ~Jan

Edible landscaping is all about having pretties in with edibles.

http://www.rosalindcreasy.com/...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

I love Rosalind! Great ideas.

I don't mix that much but since the daylilies have taken over, I have fewer veggies. A dozen tomato plants and I love peppers so about 2 doz of those. Then rhubarb is a garden design staple. Herbs often go in mixed beds. Cukes and zuchinni grew up a trellis kinda thing to separate the tomato and lined out daylily beds.

This year though (since last year's border didn't work out so well) I am going to use two wash tins - you know those big old things - to grow my lettuce in. And keep them closer to the door so I do spot picking each day!

Hmmm, what shall I put in them for the rest of the season? I wonder if it would be too late for carrots?

I've never mixed my veggies in with my flowers since I have enough room for both here, but I'll have to do that this year if I hope to get any veggies. The only place fenced in at the house in Idaho, is the large veggie garden. I'm probably going to have to park my daylilies in there until I get flower beds made and fenced off so that the critters (deer & rabbits mostly) can't get to them. I can't imagine not having fresh veggies, so I hope the area is large enough for all of it. I also hope we get moved in time to get the garden planted! I've bought tomatoes about 3 times this winter, and thought they tasted horrible. I'm so spoiled by my own home-grown tomatoes. Same with zucchini. I can't stand the tasteless ones from the store! I love the tall fence around the garden, and I'm hoping that I can grow cucumbers up the fence!

My veggies have their own small plot. My herbs are in pots. I usually only plant tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and some years kale and lettuce. Last summer I planted potatoes but for the space they took, I didn't get enough yield. I probably won't plant them again. I also have a garlic patch.

We do a few tomatoes and peppers in their own space. Herbs and leaf lettuce go in pots near the grill and patio which is surrounded by a big daylily bed. An occasional volunteer cherry or grape tomatoe will turn up in the daylily beds but thats it for mixing. Unless of course you count my mom planting spinach and Radishes in a corner of my raised seedling bed I was not pleased about that.
Here is a pic of the grill in the bed from last summer Click to embiggen as Mary says