I’ve always wanted to have a space in the garden dedicated to cut flowers for the table. Somehow, the vegetables always take over and demand all of my time and the cutting garden gets moved to the bottom of the to-do list. This past fall, I was a little overzealous when ordering my spring flowering bulbs and ended up with 700 tulips (I know, that’s a lot of tulips and I had a total of 2500 bulbs to plant). This was just the thing I needed to make me realize my dreams of starting a cutting garden. I have this ugly hillside in the back of the property that I’ve always neglected. It was planted with an invasive ground cover that I’ve been trying feebly to eradicate for the entire 9 years we’ve lived here. I spent a few days digging it all out, working up the soil, and planting tulips and a few other naturalizing bulbs. This hillside will be perfect for tulips because it’s dry and the soil is fairly lean.
The hillside burst into bloom this spring and it’s been a beautiful addition to the garden. I especially enjoy this little corner because only I can see it. It can’t be seen from the road, but I see it from my kitchen window and through the glass doors in the dining room. It’s like the secret garden of Chiot’s Run.
This past Sunday I cut a lovely bouquet to take to Easter dinner along with the rolls and sourdough bread that I always take. I figured it would make a beautiful addition to the table, and it did.
So often in our gardens we focus on feeding our bodies. While I truly believe vegetables can be beautiful in their own right, flowers feed us in a different way, especially when we bring them indoors. I’ve sprinkled this hillside with black peony poppy seeds and I’ll be adding seeds for a few other flowers, along with planting nasturtiums to spill over the rock wall in front. Hopefully this garden will provide beautiful blooms for my table all season long. It won’t feed by body, but it does feed my soul!
What’s your favorite flower to have on your table?
I can also be found at Chiot’s Run where I blog daily cultivating the simple life and over at Eat Outside the Bag about REAL food. You can also find me at Your Day Magazine, you can also follow me on Twitter and on Facebook.
Lilies –all kinds but especially the beautifully fragrant Oriental type. I tuck bulbs in everywhere. This year our snapdragons over-wintered in a mild weather and they are actually blossoming now! Plus I let Bachelor Buttons naturalize everywhere….the butterflies and bees love them…and they are already blooming,too! And I can’t forget lilacs…their bloom time is short but I have a variety that often reblooms in late summer. They remind me of my childhood when our back fence was all lilacs and we would play bride at the fireplug in front of our house…..
peonies,lilacs and zinnias I also like to mingle in ferns,hosta leaves, and herbs in my arrangements
Tulips are beautiful, but dahlias and cosmos are my favourites!
I started as an ornamental gardeners–the vegetables were a relatively late addition. And although I consider vegetable gardens beautiful also, but it’s a quieter more demanding sort of beautfy. It’s that lush bloom along the side of my yard that draws people in.