6 Easy Flowers to Grow in Your Vegetable Garden for Bees, Bugs & Beauty

Happy Leap Day! As spring is nearly upon us, it’s time to think about the plants we want to grow this season. I love growing flowers on my allotment, both as companion plants for pollinators and predatory insects, and for beauty and cutting. Today I am sharing 6 of my favourite varieties to grow from seed, and the reasons why I love growing them.

Each of these varieties is very easy to grow from seed, and they’re all beginner friendly. I know this to be true, because last year was my first year with outdoor growing space after my husband and I started our allotment together in October 2022. If we could grow these flowers as beginners with poor, sandy, first year soil, then I have confidence recommending them to others!

There are so many reasons to grow flowers alongside your fruit and vegetables but I think many gardeners can be wary of planting flowers for fear that flowers take up precious growing space that could be used for edible crops.

Rather than seeing flowers as taking up space that could be used for food, try to think of them as useful crops to grow in their own right. They really do earn their space in your garden even though you might not eat them.

As companion plants, these flower species will encourage lots of pollinators to visit your garden, like bees, wasps, and butterflies. They will also provide foods for predatory insects, who will lay their eggs on or near these plants and then eat problem pests such as black bean aphids (blackfly) so that you don’t need to use pesticides to manage them.

Flowers are also beautiful, and making your vegetable garden look pretty will encourage you to spend more time there tending your food crops. A vegetable garden can be both functional and beautiful, it doesn’t have to be one or the other. I hope this video gives you some ideas for flowers you might grow this coming season, and helps you to dream about summer as the days noticeably lengthen.

If you’re new to my channel, hi! My name is Stéphanie and here on Eighteen and Cloudy I share peaceful, slow paced, ‘slow living’ videos about my organic vegetable garden (it’s a suburban allotment in the UK), the vegan recipes I make and bake, and heritage crafts projects and my hobbies. This channel is about my attempts to live simply and sustainably in a big city.

All of my videos have subtitles which are available in translation via YouTube’s [CC] settings. If you enjoy this video, take a look through my channel archives to see my other gardening and allotment videos, and subscribe for regular videos about gardening, (non-judgemental, non-preachy, very much practical) veganism, and sustainability.

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00:00 Intro
00:27 For bees, glaucous foliage, and as a bouquet filler.
01:30 Manage aphids the natural, organic way.
03:10 For glorious purple spires, bees, and your herb garden.
03:38 This one makes a lovely tea.
04:48 Green manure, cover crop, unconventional cut flowers.
07:20 For pollinators and months of cut flowers.

The little birds are singing and preparing to nest. Spring is nearly here, it’s time to make some plans! Today I want to talk about flowers for vegetable gardens, and share six varieties I love to grow on my allotment. 1. Cerinthe. This beautiful blue green plant is adored by bees,

Which is celebrated in the plant’s common name: ‘honeywort’. Cerinthe is an easy to grow hardy annual, it can be direct sown in late winter, and it self seeds. If you grow just one flower variety, make it cerinthe, it’ll encourage lots of bee species to visit your garden,

And they’ll help pollinate your fruit and vegetables too. I collected seeds last summer to sow again this spring. 2. Calendula. The common name for this plant is ‘pot marigold’. Like cerinthe, calendula is an easy to grow hardy annual, and I grow it as a companion plant.

I plant calendula alongside our beans and tomatoes, to attract predatory insects to our vegetable garden. Last spring we had a big problem with black bean aphids, but as soon as the calendula was in flower, ladybirds and hoverflies arrived, and feasted on them. Flowers aren’t just beautiful, they’re useful too.

Flowers attract pollinators and predatory insects, so that you don’t have to hand pollinate or use pesticides. Last year I grew the common orange variety of calendula, but this year I am going to grow ‘snow princess’ too. 3. Salvia, for beauty, as a herb, and for pollinators.

Last year I grew the annual and decorative ‘salvia viridis’, and this year I’m growing perennial ‘salvia nemorosa’ too, as well as culinary sage, ‘salvia officinalis’. 4. Chamomile. Like culinary sage, chamomile is edible. This variety is the German ‘matricaria chamomilla’. It’s an annual, but it self seeds.

The flowers can be used in herbal tea, but it’s also attractive to hoverflies, so like calendula, it’ll help you with an aphid problem. Hoverflies really are the unsung heroes of our gardens. 5. Phacelia. This fantastic plant is ‘phacelia tanacetifolia’. It’s in the ‘boraginaceae’ family of plants, with comfrey, borage, forget-me-nots, and cerinthe.

Last year, we grew phacelia as a cover crop or green manure. It’s a filler plant to use if you have any bare soil, to keep roots in the ground, and your soil healthy. Phacelia flowers prolifically for about two months, and the highly scented flowers attract pollinators. I also use phacelia stems in bouquets.

Some gardeners don’t let phacelia flower or set seed, because it will self sow if it is allowed to set seed. On a small scale, in a home garden or on an allotment, self seeding isn’t something you need to worry about. The lacy foliage is very easy to identify,

And the plants are shallow rooted, and easy to clear. You can easily pull volunteer seedlings if you need to, and letting phacelia flower provides food for pollinators. At the end of the season, the stems can be composted, providing you with lots of organic material for your heaps.

I plan to grow phacelia again this year. 6. Cosmos. I grow cosmos for cutting, and also for pollinators. There are so many different varieties of cosmos to try, and this one is called ‘cosmos cupcakes’. This one is a short variety called ‘cosmos antiquity’. Cosmos flowers have open centres,

So insects can easily access the nectar. Cosmos is a really beautiful addition to any garden, and really earns its bed space and upkeep, giving you cut flowers from July through until the frosts. I grew 1m2 of cosmos last summer, and just made sure to cut or dead head it regularly.

The more you cut, the more it flowers. I’m going to grow this cupcakes variety again, and I also grow ‘double click’ in rose and cranberry. I hope this has given you some ideas for the coming season, Thank you for watching, see you in my next video!