Colleen Vanderlinden
Organic Gardening Guide

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I love edible flowers. A sprinkling of calendula petals in a salad, stuffed squash blossoms, dainty borage blossoms encased in ice cubes. They make any meal feel more special. One of my favorite things about growing edible flowers in your garden is that you end up making the most of your garden space. In addition to adding beauty and attracting pollinators, edible flowers provide you with yet another delicious harvest option.

If you’re interested in using edible flowers, you may want to check out Denise Schreiber’s new book, Eat Your Roses!… Pansies, Lavender and 49 Other Delicious Edible Flowers. It provides a good introduction to edible flowers; half directory of edible flowers, half recipe book. It doesn’t provide a ton of information about growing edible flowers, but it’s a good resource for getting an idea of the many possibilities available to you.

Do you use edible flowers in your cooking? What are your favorites?

If you’re just getting into organic gardening, growing herbs is a great way to start. Most herbs naturally deter pests and diseases, making them perfect for new organic gardeners.

Two great resources for getting into growing organic herbs are a new book by Graham Clarke and About.com’s own Herb Gardens Guide.

Graham Clarke’s The Organic Herb Gardener is full of great information about not only herb gardening, but general organic gardening as well. If you want to know which herbs will grow best in your zone, or how to propagate certain herbs, this is a useful book to have at your fingertips. You can read my full review of The Organic Herb Gardener here.

And I’d be remiss if I didn’t recommend our awesome Guide to Herb Gardens, Amy Jeanroy. If you’re just getting into herb gardening, check out these great articles by Amy:

• 5 Best Herbs for an Indoor Herb Garden
• The Best Annual Herbs
• Companion Herbs for Tomato Gardens

Do you grow many herbs in your garden? What are your favorite herbs to grow?

Years ago, blessed (ha!) with a shady lot and a driving need to grow plenty of vegetables for my family, I started experimenting with different vegetables, trying to learn about which ones would still produce well in shady conditions.

I was surprised to find that many of my favorites (not my beloved tomatoes, but many others!) grew and produced just fine in as little as four hours of sun per day. Growing vegetables in the shade may not be ideal, but it does work, and it’s better than wasting that space trying to grow grass!

Apparently, About.com Herb Gardens Guide Amy Jeanroy has done some thinking along those same lines, because she recently put together a great list of herbs to grow in shady conditions.

Between these two lists, even the shade-challenged among you should be able to find something tasty to grow in your gardens!

I saw the first cucumber beetles of the season in my garden today. If you’re seeing these guys in your garden, here’s how to control cucumber beetles before they make a mess of your cukes and other cucurbits.