I grew up in a suburban nightmare, where everyone was trying to be like the effing royal family or something...
No one grew food, but they sure cared a lot about their store bought planters, and flowers.
The time and effort these people, my family included, would put into their flowers blows my mind now that I grow food and realize, food is beautiful. And for all that hard work, they could have been feeding their families. But...growing food is a sign of poorness, poverty maybe. It's just not what suburbanites do. It's too ugly. Too trashy. Give Me A BREAK!
My family grew flowers that looked like this but it didn't give you food once the flower died! WTAF!
A Sugar Pea
This beauty right here sure ends up packing a punch!
Jalapeño
We pickle these and get enough to last the whole year.
Pickling Cucumber
Look at this monster, almost reminds me of one of my favourite flowers, the Lily.
Pumpkin
Another Lily-Like Flower.
Summer Squash
This baby is perfect for making salsa with!
Tomatillo
And the crowd favourite, no matter how much I grow I never seem to have enough...
Tomato
Aren't these just gorgeous?
Runner Beans
Before you think I'm hating on regular flowers...
Flowers do have their place in my gardens. I use them to attract bees. Yes I know, I'm diabolical to use them just as bait LOL! I really do admire their beauty as well, here are some photos of my non food bearing flora:
Here's a view of our front yard turned veggie garden, from sitting on the porch.
And at the end of the front walkway, looking south, you can even see those beautiful tassels on the corn.
In conclusion...
All flowers rock my world, however, it's so much better having beauty that also feeds my family, than beauty alone.
Beautiful and you certainly have a wonderful and abundant garden. Your not a dumba$$ I am right there with you. It was a huge learning curve learning to grow. My grandmother passed way before I had the opportunity to learn much much more.
Thank you Garden Girl! I appreciate the solidarity xo It is such a huge learning curve, and I'm so grateful for the internet and all the wise souls (Like YOU!) who share their knowledge so we can all grow!
Amen to that!
Every day is a beautiful day in a summer garden! Those are great flower photos, and some of the flowers are edible themselves, too! Along with a couple of the non-vegetable flowers. I'm glad you are enjoying gardening. I like how community gardens and having gardens in the front yards can really show people how beautiful our food plants can be. And how much food can be grown in a small space. Here's to you -- a gardener! And all the beauty in your garden! :D
Thank you very much for enjoying the photos! That's one thing I'm just beginning to learn, how to eat flowers, it's so amazing reading all of your posts, and how you utilize all the flora and fauna around your homestead, I have so much more to learn. And thanks to the internet and kind friends, I will be maximizing what we eat around here! Do you have any suggestions what flowers I should try first?
Those hollyhock petals are good! Just use the petals in a salad, in a smoothie, on a sandwich! The petals have a mild taste. And hollyhock plants sure produce enough flowers to spare a few! :D
Ok, very cool, I will try that tonight in a salad! WOOHOO!!! I'll let you know what the kids and my husband and I think :) :)
I think about something similar when I look at people's yards... I think, man, pretty landscape, but do they know they could be eating these day lilies, hostas, red buds, chameleon plant, etc? Often in my area, people are growing wonderful medicine like elderberry or yarrow and not using it...thanks for spreading plant awareness! ;)
And thank you for letting me know I can eat my lilies and hostas! XO!
I love the apple blossoms on my gravenstein apple tree in my back yard:) They look awesome until the wind takes them all! But keeping the actual flowers around to attract bees is an awesome idea...one wild thing about adulting is you start going out of your way to make sure bee's are safe and happy lol Beautiful photos btw!:)
Yessss, I grew up without apple trees, and where we live now, we have tonnes of them, well 11 to be exact. One of my favourite times of year, just magical!!! I love taking pics of them too!
A low branch on another tree where the grasses meet it <3
Great pictures!:) You were just ready to go with the photo's! It seriously is the best time though
AHHAAA Yeah, I take a lot of pics of nature :) Always at the ready...thanks for giving me the opportunity to share these with you.
You are welcome!:) Im glad you shared them, thankyou!
Awe! All so pretty! My favorite flowers are stargazer or oriental lilies! Not because of their looks, however, but their scent immediately makes me happy!
I am trying to think back to when I might not have known that fruits and veggies come from flowers... I can't say I ever thought of it before I actually knew! So I can't place it. I don't think it's dumb and I would never call you a dumb ass for not knowing! Sometimes just the way we were raised makes us ignorant to how some things work, and that's okay!
A great attitude to have, certainly makes me feel better <3 I was ignorant to so much more beyond food too! However I am learning, constantly expanding my horizons and compassion. Know better, do better hey?
Especially because it's not exactly our fault. So like you said, we learn more and we will be better! :)
wow! you have so much variety in your garden!
Thank you for coming over :)
Good points and awesome pictures. It's amazing how much of our food relies on just a few insect species for pollination.
It sounds like most of your neighbors are cool with your "food not lawn" approach. I've heard that some towns (at least in the US) have actually made this illegal! I hope you don't catch any trouble for doing this.
If we do wind up staying where we are for much longer (it's a long story...) we'll probably be expanding our gardens. Biggest challenge here is that the deer and rabbits keep eating everything up.
Ooh yes, our neighbours are super cool with it, but we do live kind of rural, so not many restrictions out here anyways. Yeah, I have read all the news coming out of the US, it's just sickening the things that have been happening in regards to collecting rain water, and front yard gardens SMH!
I have no clue how to keep rabbits out, maybe an inexpensive greenhouse would solve the deer and rabbit issue?
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STOPI agree. I love your flower-filled food garden! :)
Thank you very much WhiteDove! That's very kind of you to stop by. Do you grow?
We grow a few items like peppers, tomatoes and ginger. But our location is hard to work with with so much shade. We raise quail birds for eggs currently.
Ooh right on! Good on you for making the most of the land, and the few sunny spots. Beans don't need much sunlight as I'm sure you know :) Hope you have a bountiful harvest, and how cute are quail eggs hey?!
I bought some beans to try out but haven't had a chance to plant them yet. But that's good to know. I love our quail. They are laid back, and I like to watch them take their sand baths. The eggs are cute. Ours are the speckled ones instead of just plain white.
Yeah, beans are not fussy at all, even about soil. :) I know someone raising quail for meat at the moment, I know, probably breaks your heart :(
Thank you very much :)
Thank you <3 <3