This is the rallying cry of People Who Grow Vegetables.
People like My Better Half.
And his friend Vito, the neighbour who regularly turns up his nose at my flowers. Which is exactly why I had this picture taken of Vito among the flowers.
For spite.
But I digress.
Again.
Sorry ’bout that.
Truth is, you have to give thanks for People Who Grow Vegetables, because while I love flowers, I also love to eat fresh food. So lettuce be grateful. (Sorry — I couldn’t resist.)
Here then, is a pictorial salute to vegetable gardeners. It is made up of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, beets, lettuce, asparagus and other good stuff from the earth.
The photos, as promised, are of My Better Half’s vegetable garden.
In this shot (below centre), asparagus spears have been left to grow into ferns. They’ll be thick and lush in weeks.
On the right are spinach and salad greens, including my favorite arugula. On the left: A raspberry bush, gifts from our friends Paddy and Jacqui. It’s loaded with berries right now.
But what’s that I see? Flowers.
Yes! Vegetables have flowers….. starting with zucchini…
Then cukes…
And squash….
Gee whiz – it’s a veritable flower garden! Even the eggplant is bloomin’!
Not sure about the eggplant, but I’m told that zucchini and other vegetable flowers are edible.
So who says you can’t eat flowers?
Photos by H. Grange
Cynthia Reyes 
great pictures and a still greater stimulation for our love of nature and beauty. How wonderful that the garden of Eden was our first home. Did we loose the garden to vegitarians? If Adam and Eve were Chinese they would have eaten the snake.
DonC
Don, I’m still laughing at the thought of Adam and Eve eating the snake. Thank you.
You need to get a copy of “good Enough to Eat” by Jekka. My Canadian sister gave me a tea towel with edible flowers on…. Like my garden salad, make lettuce look much more enticing! 😉 viola, pinks, rose, calendula to name a few
I’ll have to find that book…. and show it to my husband and his friend Vito.
Your garden looks AMAZING! And yes, I agree with The Hopeful Herbalist that there are so many edible flowers! Tell Vito he is living in the past and to get stuck into some chargrilled chicken with Nasturtium butter!
He looks a nice guy and I don’t believe he is quite the stick in the mud that he is pretending to be!
You should open your garden to the public, it is divine!
Armed with my fellow blogger’s information and encouragement, I will get ready for a re-match with Vito. Of course, he will then quote something philosophical in Italian or Latin to bolster his comments. And my Better Half will just smile and nod his head sagely.
But open my garden to the public? Yikes. Did I say I’ve become a serious introvert?
Lettuce say how wonderful is your better half’s vegetable garden but he and Vito are wrong wrong wrong; flowers are very edible. Look how many you can eat http://homecooking.about.com/library/weekly/blflowers. although I have to admit some of them aren’t as tasty as vegetables. 😀
Thanks, Gallivanta. I knew you’d find some proof!
And the proof will be in the pudding when your better half makes a flower pudding. 🙂
Haha!
Gallivanta: Fellow author Erika Rummel agrees with you and also sent this link.
Cynthia Reyes @CynthiaSReyes
You Can’t Eat Flowers wp.me/p2m78t-T4 – 11 Jul
Erika Rummel @historycracks
@CynthiaSReyes No? Really? Check out homecooking.about.com/library/weekly…
02:12 PM – 11 Jul 14
Yay for the flower munchers!
Power to the potato! This is a lovely romp through your garden Cynthia. And I’m glad the others reminded you that some flowers are edible so we can bring Vito into the ranks of flower lovers. But then again, I love to eat my fresh veggies too. Power to all gardeners! XD
Power to the potato, all vegetables, and all veggie gardeners. Except Vito, maybe.
Haha! I had to laugh. When my dad had an apartment after his divorce, he planted veggies everywhere. He loved the yellow blossoms and all the neighbors loved the veggies. I love sauteed squash blossoms myself.
I hear squash blossoms taste very good. Now, let me ask: did your dad’s ex like flowers? Is that why he planted veggies everywhere? (Smile)
Ha! My former step-mother wasn’t into flowers. But his new girlfriend was into veggies. A great cook too.
Good for him. He plants, she cooks?
Yeah, they’ve been married more than twenty five years now, so they have worked out an arrangement.
It helps!
Thank you for visiting my blog. I appreciate your comments too!
Quel splendide et coquet potager 🙂 !
Merci, Christiane. Tres vrai!
I think it would be best fot your marriage if you let the zuchinni flowers do what they are expected to do and don’t eat them. OK? Though perhaps I overstep my bounds. 🙂 Meanwhile maybe you should grow nasturtiums for your salads and visual entertainment. Oh, good looking veggies, by the way!
You never overstep!
Next year, we’ll try nasturtium.
And I’ll pass on the compliment.
You’re better halfs veggies are looking great and the flowers are gorgeous. Be safe, Cynthia.
You too, Levi.
Zuchinni have male and female flowers – only the female ones become zuchinni/courgettes so we can eat the male ones, can’t we? I enjoyed this post Cynthia, puns and all!
I see. So how do I know? Do I have to lift them up and check their gender?
Ha-ha that sounds quite unpleasant! The females have little mini zuchinni at the base already and the males don’t!
Okey dokes! Thanks for that.
Of course you can! 😀
Thanks, Kev. Though I have yet to eat rose petals, I hear they’re great too.
Actually I did once, but I don’t remember much about it… yonks ago. It can’t have been bad, cause I would have remembered that! 😉
Hah! I think I’ll try them one day.
😀
There is nothing like home grown potatoes or any other veggies for that matter and I am the biggest flower lover of them all!…:)JP
I hear you. Isn’t the taste of fresh vegetables amazing when compared to store-bought stuff?
I admire people who grow vegetables. They require so much more care than most flowers. Tell your hubby and his friends that there are plenty flowers we can eat. For example, day lilies (the orange ones) are delicious sauté with spinach (and they look pretty too!). 🙂
What a lovely looking veggie garden and it looks so productive too. Nothing better than going out to pick something from your own garden. Perhaps your hubby would allow you to sprinkle some calendula and nasturtium seeds in there too – so pretty in a salad. I love fried zucchini flowers too – although maybe he wouldn’t be too pleased if you picked them all!
Now, there’s a good idea about the calendula and nasturtium!