Flower Garden or Vegetable Garden?

Why not both??  Flowers and veggies can co-exist beautifully in your garden.  Many flowers repel insects from your favorite vegetables and herbs and other edibles can deter pests from some of your favorite flowers.  Consider these easy-to-grow favorites that can live happily together in your garden:

Marigolds.  Marigolds should be a staple in your combination flower/veggie garden.  These flowers work hard in your garden!  Marigolds deter harmful nematodes in the soil that can harm roses, tomatoes, strawberries and other plants.  They also repel above-ground pests.  And the flowers of edible, so this plant checks all the boxes!  Another benefit?  They are easy to grow from seed, so you don't have to spend a lot of money at the local garden shop!  One packet of seeds will give you plenty of marigolds for the entire growing season.

Herbs.  Insects avoid most herbs.  Bottom line, they don't like the smell.  Think that fresh chopped rosemary smell is to die for?  Think that thyme- and basil-infused hand cream is one of your best home purchases of the new year?  The bugs patrolling your garden don't agree, so it's a win-win for you and your garden.  Tuck some trailing thyme into a planter near the house, add sage to the front of a perennial border, position a small planter of mint between your favorite flowers...  Get creative with it!  It's your garden!  Make it beautiful and functional.

Garlic, chives and onions.  Similar to herbs, insects are repelled by the strong smell.  Added benefit?  These can also repel rabbits, deer and other pests that like to snack on your favorite garden plants.  Rabbits love parsley.  Garlic, not so much.  If you're looking for a plant with upright, sword-like leaves to add visual interest to a section of plants with a mounded habit, why not try a patch of chives?  

Cosmos.  Attract lacewings to your garden by planting cosmos.  They're easy to grow, prolific, pretty, and the lacewings they attract will eat aphids, thrips and other soft-bodied pests in your garden.

Coneflowers.  Echinacea are stunning planted en masse in your garden, and they attract coveted pollinators.  Try growing some near your favorite veggie plants and see what happens!  Added benefit?  Echinacea may boost the immune system and fend off the common cold. 

There are many, many others.  Take some time to experiment and try something new in the garden.  Add a few herb plants, edible flowers, and pollinator favorites and see what happens!