After having been on the waiting list for the allotment complex at the
At the beginning of 2024, I received an email about a new vegetable garden concept in Amstelveen on Nesserlaan
A greenhouse. I'd been wanting a vegetable garden for ages, so I immediately pursued it in February 2024.
I immediately felt like starting a garden here, but first I thought: I'll just
Start small. And that's where my vegetable garden story began at Aardbei 22.
I soon felt like I wanted to add a bit more, and in early 2025, I got my second garden at Aardbei 27 (and I've since also gotten my outdoor garden on Nesserlaan). So, three plots of land where I start puzzling over and making garden plans. I work out my plan on paper beforehand, but I often make a lot of spontaneous adjustments.
Okay, this was meant to provide some background, but I'm straying too far from the topic of this blog: the benefits of flowers in the vegetable garden… Some flowers are not only beautiful, but also useful and delicious. I'll highlight a few:
Marigolds
This cheerful and easy-to-grow flower has many benefits for your vegetable garden. They're beneficial for bees and butterflies, and their root system produces a substance that combats harmful soil nematodes. They're perfect for planting near your tomatoes, eggplant, or pumpkins. Marigolds self-seed easily; I'm finding little seedlings from last year's seeds everywhere. They're easy to transplant to another location. And if you're not a fan of orange (the most common color, I think), there are also yellow or more pastel-colored flowers. The flowers are edible, too!
Marigolds
Another colorful addition to your vegetable garden is the marigold (see the photo below). Marigolds come in various colors and repel ants and many other pests, such as whiteflies and mealybugs. They don't appreciate the scent of marigolds. Bees and butterflies, however, do, making marigolds particularly useful for pollinating your other plants. They're especially suitable for planting near tomato plants. They're easy to sow yourself, and the petals are also edible.
Nasturtium
This plant isn't just available in orange, but in a wide variety of colors. There are two varieties: creeping and climbing. They attract aphids and whiteflies, making them more likely to leave the vegetable plants in your garden alone. This plant is also edible. I like to make a herb butter from the petals, leaves, and stems (see photo below, made with various colors of nasturtium). It has a delicious peppery flavor. You can pickle the seeds like capers.
See below a photo of my very useful combination of nasturtium, marigolds, and marigolds on the tomato plants:
Borage
This plant comes in white and blue varieties. It's primarily a bee attractant, so it's also very important for pollination. Personally, I find the blue one particularly beautiful. It's also edible and does indeed taste like cucumber. You can make ice cubes from the flowers, which you can use to give a pitcher of water a subtle cucumber flavor.
Sunflower
Finally, the sunflower. It comes in all shapes and sizes: with a tall or short stem, with a single flower or multiple blooms… and so many variations in color. This insect-attracting plant definitely belongs in this list of garden flowers. The seeds are edible!
Conclusion
Flowers brighten up your garden, including your vegetable garden. But the moral of my story is that incorporating the flowers I've shown here into your vegetable garden is not only beautiful, but also useful and delicious! And finally, make sure you buy organic flowers or, better yet, grow them yourself from seed. That way you'll know what you're eating and you'll also be sure it won't harm the bumblebees and honeybees.