I Know, Shocking… ME talking about flowers.. I do herbs and they flower, I do garden plants and they flower, I have wild area’s and they have all kinds of native flowers and I am good with it.. I grow some things that are flowers because you can eat them, like my Lily’s or my violets.
But flowers for the sake of pretty.. o now that is just not really done on the farm.. other then Marigolds, I am Marigold crazy, I love them, all shapes, sizes, colors and patterns, they are without a doubt “my flower”
If someone said, what is your second favorite, it would have to be pansy, such pretty little things, they are not heavy and sturdy like my marigolds, a good wind can mess with these pretties but I still tend to find a bit of room for them, even if its only for six plants..
Someone wrote in an said that a full round bale covered in flowers would be a sight behold, I agree with her, adding flowers to the straw bale hugelculture bed is a good idea.. the question for me is, how do I make them be more then a pretty face..
O yes, If I am going to have flowers in there, they must earn their keep.. I am thinking I will mix up the whole bed with flowers and garden plants, and focus on companion planting, drawing the bee’s to the area and helping keep the non-wanted bugs out..
The big issue there is that it must be annuals or at least treated like annuals, as I don’t believe anything can overwinter in the bales, sitting up as high off the ground as they do.
The first thing is to figure out what I am growing in the bales
I am leaning towards bush beans on top, with stagger side plantings of bushy cucumbers to partly run down the sides, and then planted pretty flowers on the front of the main bale, with a flower on each corner of the top for a bright splash of color, with one larger planting of a hanging type plant in the middle of the two cucumber plants..
I am thinking a mix of orange and white with green on the flower of the bale you see from the driveway, with bright orange/white marigolds on the corners and a orange/cream nasturtium called Strawberry cream, these dark, soft orange and creams will offset to the dark greens of the beans and the cucumber plants. Both the marigolds and the nasturtiums are good choices to as bug helping plants and it should be a very pretty effect to look at our my window 🙂
What do you think, will it be worth the work to see if I can make it happen?
Just another Day on the Farm 
Absolutely!! Just the pollinator value alone would be worth the time involved. A couple of other suggestions might include the climbing type of Nasturtium, Scarlet Runner Beans and Morning Glories; or upright plants like Calendula (also a healer and will reseed: ) or how about other self-seeders like Nigella, Dill, Coriander or Summer Savoury? Oh yeah, this is an awesome idea FG: )
Oh, or maybe Evening Scented Stocks? There are just so MANY to choose from…
I agree, so many different choices.. its wonderful that there is, and I agre, so good for all the pollinators..
I don’t think I want to go herbs in the bale’s, I want to stay with flowers, I really liked the idea of Nasturtium but my mom was talking about the fact that in alberta, she has often seen real issues with cabbage moths liking them, has anyone else found this to be true here in Ontario?
my understanding with nasturtium is that in theory the predator bugs are more attracted to the nasturtium and leave your other plants alone. in theory….in practice….i donnow. i manage to kill my nasturium
lol, but if that is the case, then you would want to put them close by but not interplanted, so they would act as a draw, interesting..
Aphids ADORE them (so much so, that it almost makes me feel guilty; )
There’s a Companion Planting book kicking around here somewhere – haven’t thought of it in years – from either Rodale (Organic Gardening) or Harrowsmith. Hmm…
I have one of those companion planting books kicking around as well, I guess I should dig it out.. I can handle it its aphids, that will just bring out my preying mantis by the dozens, I am more worried about the cabbage moth issue.
Yup, they are particular about too much moisture (I’ve killed a few too):
That was in fact part of the reason I was leaning towards them, I wanted something that could handle the drying out of the bale between rains etc, I thought it would do very well in that regard.
I second the comment about the nasturtium. They just don’t stay pretty, as the bugs swarm them.
Even ‘non working’ flowers are good for bees and butterflies, and beauty has value, too! I planted over 500 bulbs last fall, and I am really excited to see what survives the winter.
As for annuals, I really like zinnias and calendulas. Some of the tender bulbs that you treat as annuals are really gorgeous, too, though you need to be willing to dig them in the fall, as they’re relatively expensive. I’ve been considering planting a bed of gladioli. It would be so easy to dig them out of straw! Veseys has some reasonably priced farm-sized packages: http://www.veseys.com/ca/en/store/springbulbs1/gladiolus/cutflower1
I know, I just don’t feel that I can really give that much space to just pretty plants, they need have some purpose, be it herbal, bee food, pest help or animal fodder or compost help etc. I know that I should allow myself to just have some flowers for the sake of bee’s, butterflies and the pretty but I have tried it, and when I run out of time, they are the ones that I let go, and then I get mad that I gave them space and time.. If they have something to offer me, then I find I give them much more better time, because I know there is a payout.
I think if I was going to do a small flower garden, I would consider a cutting garden, I tend to do walk-about all garden season long and pick a little bit of wild flowers from spring to late fall for the kitchen table, so if I had a cutting garden, I would have pretty with a purpose 🙂
Thanks for the link on the spring bulbs, I just find it really had to plant in the front yard when it comes to bulbs that the chickens don’t get in the spring.. Look forward to hearing how yours turn out 🙂
NOT just a pretty face… Nasturtium: http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Tropaeolum+majus
I mostly got super-hardy stuff, and planted things in no-maintenance plantings. Like crocuses throughout my lawn, and daffodils under the lilac hedge. No weeding or tending for me. I’m not sure if they’ll survive, but if they don’t, I won’t be replanting.
It sounds pretty but as a short person I wonder about reaching to harvest the veggies. Are you planning to plant a bean for dry use on top?
The bales are four feet, and I would expect at least a three to four inch compost reduction on the bales, but the base was six to eight inches and I doubt that its sunk much at all.. so call it four feet, bush beans can get around two feet or so, I am 5, 10 with hubby being one inch taller then me, I don’t expect it to be a issue, if it really was, I could use my single step up that hubby has built for the old hound to get on the couch, its super heavy, stable and one foot in height. I can see your point if it was a six to eight foot bed, but as we make our beds by hand, the tallest we have gotten is five year and it dropped a solid foot within the first year.
You are a lot taller than me. I am 5′ with short arms. All I can think of is the height of the bale plus the crop growing out from that all over. Also I like to keep my feet on the ground.
I don’t mind being up, I’m not good anymore about climbing on roofs etc, but that is more being careful about weight/balance but given that Brandy is 16.2 hands high and Sam is 17 hands high, its a good thing I don’t mind being up there 🙂
Nasturtium are edible: flowers and peppery leaves in salads, flower buds pickled as capers PLUS the bait plant aspect as well: )
Hi Deb, while I have never eaten them, I had read that as well, which is part of why I picked them, pretty and edible but then like I said, mom said, they never did well and drew in the cabbage moths.
Better they eat the nasturtium than your brassicas; )
Oh FG I am so excited! I feel like there will be a whole pile of flowers on your farm just for me! Maybe you could plant a flower that would be helpful as a scent or coloring in your soaps and lotions. Something that you could extract the oils from.
I had planned on planting a few things just for that, will do a post on it.
Hmm, do dye plants work for soaps as well?