[karooba007]

I got an allotment plot and it’s my first time planting things. I wanted to plant all kinds of flowers in between the veg. is this ok or will the flowers take the nutrients from the soil and the cause the vegetables to not do well?

[penance]

I would think they will be competing for food and space.

[lucywil]

i put dwarf sunflowers around the runner beans last year, and marrigolds around the carrots, there are lots of things you can companion plant, they help to attract the bees as well.

[Parsnip]

i put dwarf sunflowers around the runner beans last year, and marrigolds around the carrots, there are lots of things you can companion plant, they help to attract the bees as well.

I'm trying to think what programme it was I saw the other day, they were saying exactly that! You need certain amount of flowering stuff for the Bees and other chaps to pollinate.

[peapod]

Lots of people companion plant with marigolds ....they attract the bees and help with pollination. As long as you dont have too many leafy or tall flowers I would think that theyd benefit your plot  

[strangerachael]

I agree - I put flowers between my veg areas as marker rows to demarcate the different crop rotation areas. Make sure they're not too big though or they will swamp the veg. I made that mistake last year with borage and large marigolds. Small marigolds, lavender, chives etc are all good. Borage is great for bees though.

[madcat]

Nasturtiums are good for the end of rows - they don't mind the rougher life, attract the bees, the blackfly prefered them to anything else edible and they are good for salads.  

Ours loved life with the dwarf beans - not so sure the beans loved them back!  

[compostqueen]

I love growing flowers between my veggies. In nature nothing grows in serried ranks of all one variety so I like to mix things up.   I always grow calendula, especially with cabbages, nasturtiums, Californian poppies and those gorgeous Jekyll Blue nigellas.  If I have bedding plants spare I bung them round too

[peterjf]

we plant companion beds all over our plot , mainly african marigolds,

the garden preditors love them , in turn the preditors eat the little pests ha ha ha ha ha ha

[chimaera]

I am growing flowers as a crop in the lottie this year; worked out that we spend a fair bit a year on flowers (maybe nearly as much as on green veg) before I got the lottie, so will be having them as a crop. Already planted 200 daffs of 4 varieties, 100 anemones and 200 irises; if these give me flowers for 3 months the bulbs have paid for themselves, so next year's will be free. Later will do annuals like sunflowers and larkspur. As the daffs die back should be able to get salad veg in over the top of them.

[annie b]

I am growing flowers as a crop in the lottie this year; worked out that we spend a fair bit a year on flowers (maybe nearly as much as on green veg) before I got the lottie, so will be having them as a crop. Already planted 200 daffs of 4 varieties, 100 anemones and 200 irises; if these give me flowers for 3 months the bulbs have paid for themselves, so next year's will be free. Later will do annuals like sunflowers and larkspur. As the daffs die back should be able to get salad veg in over the top of them.

What a brilliant idea......right ,that's something else to do....

[milkman]

the bumble bees will love you if you make space for a little phacelia  

[noshed]

I just like to hear the bees buzzing when I'm pottering about in the summer. Borage is great for that but it seeds itself everywhere.

[SnooziSuzi]

I sowed some french marigolds last year as an experiment to see how big they got etc and noticed that they had particularly pungeant leaves so I planted them near to my carrots which were all affected by the carrot fly last year.

I was surprised at how big and prolific they were and have saved a lot of the seed for this year but the bonus to me was that in '07 all of my brassicas were plagued with clouds of whitefly but last year there were hardly any.  My carrots didn't germinate, but I have a feeling that the seed may have gone off so couldn't compare with the fly problem but this year I'm going to do the same.

One word of warning though;  if you don't dead head them and they manage to set seed you'll have the devils job getting rid of them again!  :roll:

This year I'm going to be planting all sorts of flowers in amongst my veg to brighten the place up and also for the confusion it causes the pests!