Flowers
Flowers are a vital part of any natural ecosystem and are essential if you have the need for attendant pollinators or beneficial preditory insects. This in turn can also attract birds and other wild life to your plot, having a positive effect on the local environment.
They also serve wonderfuly as a beautiful backdrop to your vegetables and cropping plants helping to liven up the area at the same time. Even in the depths of the gloomiest winter, it is easy to see how even the smallest most delicate wildflower can bring to life a rather dowdy and mucky plot as it fortells of the spring on its way.
Allotment or vegetable garden flowers do not have to be expensive and in themselves can epitomise the allotmenteers philosophy of maximum output for minimum effort or cost as they are easy & often free to gather from the wild, propogate from adult plants or miltiply themselves from small specimines into fabulous displays.
These Hints and tips have been forumlated from our experiences from our years of allotment gardening, and of course should be followed with consideration of your own soil and land type, we hope you find them helpful. All tips should be followed with care and attention should always be payed to manufacturer or sowing instructions.
Below are some of our favorite flowers and permanent residents of our plot who help to see us through the summer and the darker months beyond.
Gladioli's Beautiful summer flowering bulbs which provide spectacular shows in June to August, self perpetuating and multiplyng, they can easily and cheaply provide a wonderful display and attract bees and other insects to the plot. All they need is plating deep, occasional digging up and dividing and sometimes a stake to support the flowers. OUR FAVORITE
Poppies Although short lived poppies can be one of the most attractive plants on an allotment or vegetable garden. Harvest seed once the pods have dried and crinkle in your fngers as you hold them, then you can either save it and sow it everywhere in the spring, or just let it disperse naturally as the plant & pods weather over the autumn and winter months for a more natural display. You cant really get cheaper than a free show of flowers and they come in such a plethora of colours and varieties to choose from.
Laveteria This Perennial plant can come back with its flowers year after year and can grow into a monster if you let it. Sow originally straight into the ground in late spring, in the first year they will reach about 3 foot high and produce some flowers, you can then cut these down to the ground in autumn after you have harvested thier seeds and in spring youll find it will shoot up again and create a woody trunk at its base whch you need to keep well pruned every year to prevent it from taking over.
Nasturtium This is an annual flower but has good self sowing properties so it is very unlikely you will need to re-sow more than once. Initially you will see a flush of lovely lilly-pad like leaves and shortly afterwards some compact beautifully coloured flowers that will be with you all the way through to autumn. These plants also provide good ground cover to supress otehr weeds and the flowers are actually eddible.
Daffodils One of the first flowering plants of the year and believe me by late february youll be glad to have sight of anything cheery and pretty on your allotment after the dull muddy months. Bulbs are slower to reproduce than those of the gladioli but do eventually form good clumps and clusters of flowers which are very pelasing, also need dividing every so often to ensure the health of the clump. A FAVORITE
Marigolds Pretty pom pom like flowers which show themselves towards the middle of summer and can endure harsher weather conditions, these will need sowing/planting as young plants every year but also have other uses such as the distraction of pests such as carrot fly so can be very beenficial.
Hyacinths These bulb flowers are also an early variety and are attractive in the spring, hoewever do not seem to do well at self perpetuating and the flowers heads tend to deteriorate in quality as each year passes.
Sweet Peas An obligatory plant for vegetable gardening, can be hard to raise from seed correctly so we find it ibest to buy them as small plants. Profuse in flowers and wall cover once they get going so if you have an ugly patch you want to cover stick a few in with some mesh for them to climb up and let them do the job for you as well as attract a lot of pollinating insects at the same time. A FAVORITE
Tulips Pretty, elegant & delicate summer flowering bulbs which seem to do well at coming back every year but are reluctant to reproduce underground. Plant in rows or clumps for pretty if short lived displays in the summer, we would suggest adding and building up your numbers by planting bulbs of these each year until you get the desired effect.
Irises Gorgeous bulb and seed reproducing plant, has always been one of our floral favorites but especiall since we fond a wild supply of them on our lottie which has been slowy increasing each year every since we took it on. Wiht its architectural and elegant leaves followed by a beautifully coloured floral spke they always give a nice show and seem to do well at multiplying benetah the soil and also produce seed pods which can be left to mature and ahrvested easily for yuor own propogation. A FAVORITE
Sunflowers With a huge range of sizes, colours and shapes to choose from you are sure to be able to find a sunflower to fit your needs for whatever purpose. Whether its from small border loving plants to enormous specimines with giant seedheads they will serve your purpose and look stunning, with the added bonus of being an attractor of insects and a fodder for birds and other wildlife over the winter via the seedheads which form. This means it is also very easy and once again - free to build up a stock of these plants and thier seed without spending a penny.
Night Scented Stocks These wonderful bushy annual plants have delighful delicate flowers in large numbers which produce a beautiful scent come dusk. They provide good ground cover but do need to eb sown each year as they seem to struggle with setting thier own seed.
Snowdrops These are the very first flowers you will see in a growing year and like daffodils will be a welcome sight come early springtme. They have a tendency to form clumps and reproduce well in the soil so do need regular dividing to ensure thier health.