Show and Tell: Planting Edible Flowers

I was struck recently by the thought that blogging is a lot like show and tell when my 5 year old lovingly brought her empty seed packet to school. We got an assortment of edible flower seeds in the mail last weekend from my mom (who candied some violas for EGirl's birthday, as you may recall, and in whose honor we've all been crunching down yellow and purple violas and chive flowers over the last few weeks). Let's just say we're enjoying the edible nature of our lovely blooms, adults and children alike.

Chive flowers rock, by the way. They are so spicy! EGirl feeds them to me until my eyes water. They'd be great in a spring salad for those of us who like a little loosening of the tear ducts. The kids (not such big fans of the 'picy) love eating the violas (it makes CBoy giggle at the naughtiness of it). We had a blast planting the edible fleurs (and some non-edible cosmos, marigolds, and sunflowers). Actually, we had a blast planting them once we wrestled the wawa (hose) out of CBoy's viselike grasp. But I digress.

We also released ladybugs into the community garden together at dusk one night, a pretty satisfying way to reduce the number of pests, I'd say.

For our front stoop, we transplanted the birthday cake violas into planters with some shade plants I had languishing inside (Boston ferns and asparagus ferns) a great tip from Scribbit guest poster Like Merchant Ships. The idea being that you should repot your indoor plants and throw them outside for a bit to rejuvenate rather than buying a new annuals.

Of course, I had those specific plants in my kids' rooms because they are supposed to be effective at improving indoor air quality and removing toxins. (Don't forget to check to see if plants you use for this purpose are safe around pets and kids.) Sounds like opening your windows and ventilating may be more effective than keeping plants for this purpose, though, so I think we can go a season without them indoors.

Next up, we want to plant another round of lettuce since we've been so enjoying picking greens for our salads the past couple weeks. Even though it's a cool-weather crop, I am hoping I can sneak in another wave of salad greens. Plus, I really want to grow some pepperoncini and pickle them. Anyone know where I can get seedlings? Or a fresh pepper from which to save the seeds?

Happy Gardening! I'd love to hear the ways in which you've been getting muddy....


*photo courtesy of Woodsy at SXC Read more!