Slow Flowers for the Vegetable Garden

Many of us already put at least some locally grown food on our tables. A logical next step? Making sure that the cut flowers that adorn our tables are locally grown as well.

Just as Slow Food proponents advocate a focus on regional, seasonal, farm-fresh cuisine, the new “slow flower” movement urges consumers to seek regional, seasonal, farm-fresh flowers. Nearly 80% of the cut flowers and greens sold in the United States today are imported from South America. Most of the rest are supplied by California cut flower growers. For us, it should not be that difficult to source bouquets from within state lines, especially since some of those commercial growers are here in Santa Barbara County.

But there’s also a certain satisfaction in taking the idea hyper-local and growing your own.

In the Garden

What does this have to do with the edible garden?

Cut flowers and seasonal vegetables are both crops and, in general, have interchangeable cultural requirements. Summer growers of both typically require six to eight hours of daily sunlight, along with rich, fertile, well-draining soil and a reliable source of water to sustain their energetic burst from seed to fruit or flower.

It’s convenient and efficient to grow them together. As with vegetables, scattering cut flowers throughout a yard can make their care erratic and leave ragged holes at harvest time. Consolidating your crops allows you to grow them more intensively and enhances their productivity. In addition, planting flowers with your vegetables provides nectar and pollen for beneficial insects.

If you grow companion plants or sunflowers, you’re already on your way. Really, applying the “slow flower” mantra to your garden is simply giving old-fashioned cutting gardens a modern, ecologically minded twist.

Getting Started

A true back yard urban flower farm requires more space—and water—than most folks have, and features foliage plants, larger perennials, shrubs and even trees. From that diversity, you can forage not only flowers, but leaves, berries, rose hips, seed pods and the like.

On a more realistic level, plan to devote a few rows in your vegetable garden. Better yet, designate a three- by eight-foot or four- by eight-foot raised bed. In either space, build up the soil with fine-textured compost. Along with supplying nutrients, the material works like a sponge in sandy soil, holding moisture longer to reduce watering. In tightly packed clay soil, it creates nooks and crannies to improve drainage.

Decide whether you want to grow your cut flowers from seed or pony packs. Many annuals are easy to start from seed and you can have fun tracking down unusual varieties online. But if you have limited space and sow entire seed packets, you may end up with only a few different types. For greater selection, either reduce the quantity of seeds from each packet or amass a broader collection of this and that from pony packs.

Either way—seed or transplant—start now. The earlier you get going, the sturdier your plants and the faster the results. Your little guys may get stalled in any May gray or June gloom. But if they go in the ground soon, they’ll rebound quickly when summer days do warm up.

Also cut the recommended spacing between your plants by up to half. Since you’re created such a hospitable, fertile environment, squeeze the gaps to boost your harvests. Plan to stake your plants later on, to keep them in bounds.

What to Grow

With the focus on flowers, choose shades and combinations that you like and are compatible with your home decor.

Classic cutting gardens contain daisy-like flowers such as bachelor’s button or cornflower, black-eyed Susan, yellow coreopsis, cosmos, dahlia, Shasta daisy, pincushion flower, sunflower and zinnia. Spiky flowers include delphinium, penstemon and snapdragon. Domed flowers include cleome, heliotrope, throatwort and purpletop verbena. Consider herbs, too, such as dill, fennel and parsley. Some of these candidates are perennials. But they can be treated as annuals, to be yanked out at the end of the season when you turn over the soil.

To whittle your choices, select a few dominant colors, such as saturated purples or reds, or pastel yellows or soft pinks. Next, choose other plants that bear flowers in lighter or darker shades of the dominant colors. Or shortcut the process by selecting a single flower that blooms in a range of colors, such as dahlia, snapdragon or zinnia.

Then look for plants that bloom in complementary colors (opposites on the color wheel) such as yellow with purple, orange with blue or red with green. It’s nice to throw in some white as well.

Take into account the shape and growing style. For instance, cosmos and Shasta daisy both produce daisy-like flowers, but cosmos has wispy foliage, while Shasta bears slender, defined green leaves.

Finally, choose flowers that bloom on stems long enough to arrange in a vase.

Harvest

Collect your bouquets first thing in the morning, just as the dew begins to dry. The stems, leaves and flowers will be at their freshest and foraging bees won’t have had time to pollinate newly opening blossoms. Once pollinated, a flower starts to form seed and isn’t likely to last as long in an arrangement.

Cut the stems long, then immediately plunge them into a bucket of water. Indoors, trim the stems at an angle to maximize the surface area for each flower to take up water in the vase. Back in the garden, snip any flowers that don’t make the cut. Annuals are programmed to convert declining flowers to seed, then die. Deadheading flowers will slow the process.