Growing: Edible Flowers
Each week Catherine Dupre contributes Growing, a column about learning to garden.
As I mentioned in a previous article, next year I want to make sure I have more color in my plot by adding flowers. I thought about growing some purely ornamental flowers, but it seems like it would be a waste of space in my vegetable plot. But both function and beauty are possible. Why not kill two birds in one stone and grow edible flowers?
As I walked through the community garden, a fellow gardener pointed out his edible flowers to me - nasturtium and borage. The nasturtium grows in a crawling vine, completely covered in yellow and orange blooms. Like an aphid, I was immediately attracted to it. In fact, my gardener neighbor uses these plants to attract aphids, thus keeping them away from the squash on the other side of his plot. The entire plant is edible and has a peppery taste. It would make a great addition to almost any salad. Borage plants look to me like a large fuzzy weed, but sport small bunches of cute star-shaped periwinkle flowers. These flowers pull neatly off the stem and taste like cucumber. I think they would be beautiful in a salad or as a garnish or floating in some iced tea. Perfect for a tea party!
While nasturtium and borage are great for garden plots, they would be much too big for smaller containers or planter boxes. I’ve taken charge of the planter box in front of Burien Press and have discovered that while few flowers can grow in this heavily shaded box, a few edible herbs grow well. A well-pruned mint plant grows in the middle of the box and is regularly cut back by a local bartender - I’ve heard it makes great mojitos. I also decided to try out wintergreen - a little shrub-like evergreen plant that will sport festive red berries in the wintertime. Whenever I pass by Burien Press (which is pretty much every day) I like to sample the wintergreen leaves.
I love the idea of multi-use plants. Though I think almost all plants are beautiful in their own way, I thoroughly enjoy the surprise of an edible flower. Next year, I’ll plan a little better and make sure to include these wonderful plants!
As I mentioned in a previous article, next year I want to make sure I have more color in my plot by adding flowers. I thought about growing some purely ornamental flowers, but it seems like it would be a waste of space in my vegetable plot. But both function and beauty are possible. Why not kill two birds in one stone and grow edible flowers?
As I walked through the community garden, a fellow gardener pointed out his edible flowers to me - nasturtium and borage. The nasturtium grows in a crawling vine, completely covered in yellow and orange blooms. Like an aphid, I was immediately attracted to it. In fact, my gardener neighbor uses these plants to attract aphids, thus keeping them away from the squash on the other side of his plot. The entire plant is edible and has a peppery taste. It would make a great addition to almost any salad. Borage plants look to me like a large fuzzy weed, but sport small bunches of cute star-shaped periwinkle flowers. These flowers pull neatly off the stem and taste like cucumber. I think they would be beautiful in a salad or as a garnish or floating in some iced tea. Perfect for a tea party!
While nasturtium and borage are great for garden plots, they would be much too big for smaller containers or planter boxes. I’ve taken charge of the planter box in front of Burien Press and have discovered that while few flowers can grow in this heavily shaded box, a few edible herbs grow well. A well-pruned mint plant grows in the middle of the box and is regularly cut back by a local bartender - I’ve heard it makes great mojitos. I also decided to try out wintergreen - a little shrub-like evergreen plant that will sport festive red berries in the wintertime. Whenever I pass by Burien Press (which is pretty much every day) I like to sample the wintergreen leaves.
I love the idea of multi-use plants. Though I think almost all plants are beautiful in their own way, I thoroughly enjoy the surprise of an edible flower. Next year, I’ll plan a little better and make sure to include these wonderful plants!
Catherine Dupre is a Burien Daily columnist who is writing about learning to garden in Burien. Most of her gardening is done at the Burien community garden known as the B-Patch. Catherine is a life long Burien resident, a geography student at UW, and a world class barista at Burien Press on SW. 152nd St.
You can read her articles as they are posted on our home page, or you can see them alone by clicking this link.
You can read her articles as they are posted on our home page, or you can see them alone by clicking this link.
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