The Best Companion Planting Flowers to Grow in Your Spring Garden • Gardenary (2024)

Your Spring Vegetable Garden Needs More Flowers

Did you know you can use flowers to make your kitchen garden more productive and actually much healthier overall, in addition to adding color and beauty?

One key thing that I talk about in my book, Leaves, Roots, and Fruit, is how to work with nature. Many gardeners feel like they have to be constantly fighting against nature in their gardens to protect their plants from things like pests and disease. But being on the defense every single day is not very enjoyable.

It's much better to stay on the offense in the garden, and one way we can do this is with flowers.

If you plant a bunch of flowers around the outside of your raised garden beds, those flowers will have plenty of room to grow. Many flowers have vining growth habits and can drape over the edge of your raised bed. This means they don't take up much space in the interior of your bed—that's precious real estate you want to save for your fruiting plants and veggies, right?—but their roots still have all the space they need to dig down deep.

There, on the outside of the bed, these flowers will serve several purposes. Let's look at three reasons you should add flowers to your spring garden, and then I'll tell you my favorite flowers to plant in the cool season in my garden so that you can add them to your vegetable garden, too.

One: Spring Flowers Attract Pollinators

In the cool growing season, there aren't many plants that need pollination. It's mostly just fruiting plants like sugar snap peas, fava beans, and snow peas. These gals might need a little help from your friendly neighborhood pollinators to go from flower to fruit. Flowers are a great way to attract those pollinators and ensure you get as many little pods as possible.

It's also just great to provide food for our springtime pollinators, those bees and butterflies that help our world go round. Some of their normal food sources might not be available yet in early spring, so you can make sure they find some pollen and do your small part to#savethebees.

One key thing to prioritize is adding flowers to your garden space that haven't been grown with pesticides or fungicides or herbicides or chemical fertilizers. That way, our pollinators have a natural food source to help them survive. They are, after all, critical to our survival. Bonus, they'll ensure your fruiting plants are even more fruitful.

Two: Spring Flowers Provide Organic Pest Protection

Spring flowers play two different roles in protecting our gardens from pests. Several of my favorite spring flowers are what we call trap crops. That means they'll attract pests to themselves. You might be thinking, "Uh... why would I want to plant anything that's going to bring pests to my garden?"

Well, here's the thing: Pests are coming to your garden no matter what, especially if you're not using pesticides and all that bad stuff. So the name of the game is to distract those pests with other things to eat so they don't mess with the plants you enjoy eating the most. Trap crops are appealing to pests, and they won't be killed by those pests. Two examples are calendula and nasturtiums. Both of these flowering plants will attract some of the pests that might otherwise attack your leafy greens. The bugs will hang out on their stems and leaves; meanwhile, you get to harvest pest-free kale and cabbage and lettuce leaves. So that's one way flowers help with pests.

The other way they help is by actually repelling pests. Some flowers put off a scent that keeps pests away from your vegetable garden. This is one reason I love putting flowers around the perimeter of my garden beds. Creepy crawlies would have to pass through these fragrant flowers to reach the things they want to eat. In this way, flowers are like beautiful bodyguards for your garden.

Three: Spring Flowers Make Your Garden More Beautiful

Spring is my favorite season in the garden because I love all the vibrant flowers that are garden eye candy. Last year, I loved all my spring flowers so much, I wanted to go out to my garden every day to enjoy them.

And that's really important when it comes to being successful as a gardener—going out to your garden every single day. So think about which colors you love most and which would compliment your home and landscape so that you can fill your garden with flowers that will speak to you and your space. That way, you'll want to go out to your garden more and enjoy the beauty. And you'll feel so proud of your space.

I've found over the years that clients who admired the beauty of their garden made the most successful gardeners. They're drawn to spend time in the place they love, and flowers definitely help add to a garden's appeal.

It's nice that we're not just working with nature, we're also creating super stunning gardens!

Leaves, Roots & Fruit Teaches You the Step by Step to Grow as a Gardener

Do you dream of walking through your own kitchen garden with baskets full of delicious food you grew yourself?

Nicole Johnsey Burke—founder of Gardenary, Inc., and author of Kitchen Garden Revival—is your expert guide for growing your own fresh, organic food every day of the year, no matter where you grow. More than just providing the how-to, she gives you the know-how for a more practical and intuitive gardening system.

My Five Favorite Spring Flowers for Companion Planting in the Vegetable Garden

Now, here are some of my favorite flowers to add to the garden in spring. These flowers thrive in the cool season, so they're perfect for you if your spring season means temps mostly in the 40s, 50s, and 60s.

Pansies Are So Easy to Grow in Spring

Pansies look heavenly along the edges of your raised beds. You can grow pansies from seed, or you can get flats of pansies at a great price from your local nursery. Make sure you're buying a variety that was grown naturally (no pesticides, no fertilizers).

You can find pansies in so many different colors: purples, yellows, oranges, blues, and reds. As pansies grow, they'll drape over the side of your bed and bring so much vivid color. Pansies do really well and will last until it grows warm at the start of summer.

Snapdragons Are Great Flowers to Plant for the Bees

I planted about 20 red snapdragons in my garden last spring, and I'm not exaggerating when I say I saw bees buzzing around every single petal. It was magical.

You can grow snapdragons from seed, but that's an advanced gardening skill. You'll have to start them indoors about two months before they'll go out to the garden. Here in Nashville, that would mean starting seeds back in December to have them ready to plant in February. I prefer to buy snapdragons so I can end up with lots of high-quality plants without having to start trays and trays of flowers in my house. It's totally worth the investment for me.

If you're shopping for snapdragons at the store, look for plants that are just starting to bud. They'll transplant better than plants already in bloom.

Calendula Is a Great Trap Crop for Your Spring Vegetable Garden

Calendula is a super easy flower to grow from seed. It's frost hardy, and it looks so beautiful growing along the edge of your raised bed.

This flowering herb is a perfect example of a trap crop because it'll attract aphids and other pests that would otherwise eat your leafy greens. And did you catch that this beautiful plant is an herb? You can actually make your own calendula teas, tinctures, and oils. Calendula is a must-grow thanks to its many uses in the garden and in your pantry.

Chamomile Is a Great Flowering Herb to Grow This Spring

Like calendula, chamomile is a flowering herb that can be used to make homemade tea. It's really easy to grow from seed—you can just scatter the super tiny chamomile seeds around your garden space at the start of the spring season. If you can find chamomile plants from a grower, they're also worth buying so you can enjoy the flowers sooner.

Chamomile is also frost hardy and low maintenance. The cheerful little daisy-like flowers will attract tons of pollinators and other beneficial insects to your garden. As if that weren't enough, chamomile is said to repel flying pests like mosquitos.

Violas Are Beautiful Little Flowers for the Spring Garden

Violas look like smaller pansies—they have the same growth habit and even come in similar colors—but violas are actually a bit more cold tolerant. They produce lots of seeds, so you'll probably get free violas next year, too.

Violas are totally worth purchasing from your local nursery. Each little plant will give your so many beautiful flowers, and the bees just love them. Other insects, the guys we don't want hanging around, are repelled by the same chemicals that give violas their stunning colors and lovely fragrance.

Time to Plant Some Flowers for Spring

ThosearetheflowersIlovetoaddtothegardenforthecoolseason,andnowyou know why I'd never ever try to grow a vegetable garden without flowers in it. Doing so would be like putting a whole bunch of dog treats on the ground and expecting your pet not to eat them when you turn your back. Flowers bring in all the right bugs and keep out all the bad ones, so you can grow more food for yourself all season long.

Thankyouforgrowinginthegardenwithme,andthanksforplantingsomeflowers.I'm proud of you, and so are the bees and butterflies!