Sunflower-Beautiful and complementary

Flowers that help 

Flowering plants can be great Companions, helping to repel pests, enhancing the flavour of your Vegetables, attracting bees for pollination and just helping with colour in the Garden.

Plant them near the Vegetables you are looking to help, the numbers are not absolute but I generally plant one flowering plant for two Vegetables. Splash them through the whole Garden.

As with Herbs mixing and matching both the beneficial flowering Companions and your Vegetables is advantageous.

Listed below is a list of the more common flowering Companion Plants.

Geraniums:

Corn, Peppers, Roses, Tomatoes.

Lupin:

Brassica, Cucurbits, Lettuce, Rosemary, Strawberry, avoid Tomatoes. Lupin is normally grown as a winter crop to be turned in for added Organic Matter in the soil but is quite happy to grow amongst your Vegetables during the growing season. Its roots contain a Bacteria that fix Nitrogen in the soil to help the growth of plants.

Marigold:

Plant them everywhere, they repel Insects, Nematodes and attract Beneficial Insects. Especially good around Brassica, Cucurbits, Peppers and Tomatoes, they produce copious seed for future sowings, “the” flowering Companion.

Petunia:

Asparagus, Cucurbits. Like Geranium acts as a Trap crop, attracting pests away from your Vegetables.

Nasturtium:

The perfect Insect Trap Companion, plant in an unproductive part of the garden such as a bank or the likes. Commercial Vegetable Growers plant Nasturtium to cover banks and old tree stumps, not only do they create a mass of colour but they attract pests away from the crop being grown.

Sunflower:

Corn, Tomatoes. When finished cut the plant off at ground level, leaving the roots to break down to rich Organic matter to help the soil for the next crop. They are prolific feeders so be prepared to feed the plants around them a little extra fertiliser to compensate.

Pick the best plant and dry the seed head for next year’s seed.

Be Happy,

Barry.

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