Blossoms on Your Plate

Are you ready to elevate your gardening game to a whole new level of deliciousness? Well, we’re about to dive into the vibrant world of edible flowers that will not only make your garden pop but also your plate!  Many of them are easy to grow, forgiving of rookie mistakes, and will reward you with an explosion of colors and flavors.

Nasturtiums (Tropaeolum majus): These deep burgundy to buttery yellow blooms have a peppery kick, perfect as a spicy twist to salads, tacos, and avocado toasts. Bonus: They’re easy to grow, thriving in poor soil and other neglect. These flowers are high in vitamin C. The entire plant is edible- so try out the lily pad-like leaves also! Deer resistant.

Calendula (Calendula officinalis): Often called “poor man’s saffron,” the golden petals of calendula add a subtle saffron flavor to rice dishes and soups. They’re sun lovers and can tough it out in the Rocky Mountain soil. This flower is also known for its skin-healing properties, consider making a toner with calendula flowers. Deer are typically not a fan of these flowers.

Pansies (Viola tricolor): These adorable flowers come in an array of colors and have a slightly sweet, grassy taste. Scatter them over desserts after dipping them in water and then sugar for a delicate but sweet touch. Or freeze them in ice cubes for fancy drinks. Pansies are cold-hardy and can withstand our unpredictable mountain weather. We had a pot of pansies survive the entire winter, even when temperatures dipped below 20 degrees!

Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia): Known for its calming aroma, lavender adds a delicate floral flavor to desserts, teas, and even cocktails. It thrives in well-drained soil, making it a great match for rocky gardens. We have several varieties that will survive year-round in our nursery area. Look for varieties such as Munstead, Hidot Blue, and Phenomenal. Due to the fragrance of these flowers, deer typically leave them alone.

Rose (Rosa spp.): Beyond being a symbol of romance, roses can be used in various culinary creations. Make tea with their dried petals, infuse honey with their fragrance, or toss the petals into desserts.  The rose hips that are produced in the fall are also edible and high in vitamin C. You can make tea from the rosehips as well. We have several varieties of roses, some more bred for their blooms, others are cultivated to be hardy for our mountainous climate.

Borage (Borago officinalis): With its brilliant blue flowers, borage adds a refreshing cucumber taste to salads, drinks, and desserts. The best part? Borage is a self-seeding annual, making it a low-maintenance addition to your garden. The pollinators will also feast on these blooms! Deer typically avoid this plant.

Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla): Beyond being a bedtime tea, chamomile flowers can be used in salads or infused into syrups that go well in cocktails, over ice cream, or on pancakes. These sun-loving plants will thrive in our bright sun. Deer tend to avoid this plant due to its fragrance.

Dianthus (Dianthus spp.): Also known as pinks, or sometimes recognized as carnations, these flowers have a mild clove-like flavor. Add them to fruit salads, and desserts, or dry them and add them to various spice blends (za’atar, is a great example). Dianthus are hardy perennials, returning year after year. They are also deer-resistant.

Hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis): Hibiscus flowers make a delightful and tropical addition to beverages, jams, and desserts. We carry gorgeous hardy hibiscus that will winter as a perennial shrub. Hibiscus also has high levels of vitamin C and is an excellent herb for overall health. 

Daylilies (Hemerocallis spp.): Despite their fleeting beauty, daylilies are edible and offer a slightly sweet flavor. Stuff the blossoms with a soft cheese, or add them to stir-fries. Do your research on whether you have a daylily, before digging into a meal. Not all species of lilies are edible. These hardy perennials are a reliable choice in our climate.

Elderflower (Sambucus nigra):  Fragrant elderflowers can be used to make refreshing beverages like elderflower cordial or add a subtle floral note to desserts. Elderflowers come from elderberry bushes, so you will also be able to eat elderberries if the birds don’t beat you to it! These shrubs are well-suited for the mountain environment, making them a great choice for your garden.

So, whether you’re a seasoned horticulturist or a budding green thumb, dive into the world of edible flowers and turn your garden into a culinary masterpiece. After all, why just stop and smell the roses when you can toss them in a dish too? Happy gardening and bon appétit!

The Gothic Vegetable Garden

By Katherine Placzek

Black & purple vegetables are not only for someone who is looking for a fun or Gothic vibe in their garden. Purple-ish fruits and vegetables have higher antioxidants, which play an important role in protecting your cells against heart disease, cancer, and other diseases. So it is healthy for you to plant and eat these dark maroon beauties!
All of these vegetables are carried by us as seeds through the Botanical Interests or Lake Valley Seed brands (both CO businesses). There is a wide array of purple/ black vegetables so feel free to go down the rabbit hole and create the dark and mysterious garden of your dreams! Note that various seeds may be out of stock throughout the season.

Amaranth
Burgundy: These plants offer beauty and sustenance! The plants can get tall and have elegant and eye-catching burgundy plumes that can be used in flower arrangements. The seeds were a major crop of the Aztecs, and are very high in protein and other nutrients. Cook the beige seeds like rice. Young leaves are also edible- use them in salads or steamed. The birds will also enjoy the seeds!

Basil
Cardinal: Cardinal’s’ deep crimson blooms allow this basil variety to be utilized beyond its culinary qualities! Use it as a surprising accent in a mixed container, or use it as a cut flower! The fragrance is lovely. With its strong scent, a little goes a long way in the kitchen. A wonderful dual-purpose herb.
Purple Petra: A deep purple, this basil adds vibrant color to any dish! A more mild basil- great for those who just want the essence of basil in their cooking. ‘Purple Petra’ can be used to make an elegant pink-tinted vinegar also! Use it as a companion plant to your nightshade veggies or as a statement plant in an herbal ensemble or annual flower container.
Purple Opal: Opal Basil has eye-catching purple leaves, and will bloom during the summer with light pink flowers. Feel free to fall in love with this variety! Grow it just for its rich beauty or for its culinary uses. Highly flavorful, this basil variety has flavor notes of cinnamon, anise, mint, and clove!
Siam Queen Thai: This beautiful basil has a complex sweet and spicy flavor with a hint of anise. Broadly used in Thai and Vietnamese dishes- it is versatile! It is easy to grow and highly ornamental with its dark amethyst blooms. Flower farms also grow Thai basil, for cut bouquets. Include it in your garden flower bunch and enjoy the unique fragrance. Bees also love this stuff!
Sweet Thai: Thai basil is of course a popular herb in many Southeast Asian cuisines, and is most regularly highlighted in a warm bowl of Vietnamese pho. This variety holds its flavor and texture through cooking more than other basils. Lovely in salads or when eaten fresh. Sweet Thai’s dark purple flowers and intoxicating scent allow it to double as an excellent addition to the flower garden. Produces well in containers also.

Beans
Royal Burgundy (Bush): Royal Burgundy has yummy purple pods that are easy to spot among green leaves. A wonderful variety to grow in cool weather and is unlikely to be challenged by bean beetles. A good container variety, as well as disease-resistant.
Trionfo Violetto (Pole): Trionfo Violetto’ translates to “purple triumph.” This Italian heirloom will win your heart, with its crisp and flavorful purple pods. While highly ornamental the plants are also highly prolific! The plants climb 6’–8′, and have prolific light amethyst flowers that bloom against green leaves that sport purple veins and stems. Similar to other purple beans, the pods magically turn green when they are cooked!

Beets
Bulls Blood: Plant one row of this beet variety for the beautiful greens, and another for the flavorful roots! ‘Bull’s Blood’ is valued for its tender, sweet, and deep red– almost plum foliage. Originally selected from a French heirloom for the darkest colored leaves, the 16″ “greens” are rich in nutrients! The roots are delicious as well, especially so, when harvested small. Use in succession planting as multiple crops are possible throughout a season.

Broccoli
Burgundy: This variety of broccoli is considered a “sprouting broccoli” since it produces one small main head, but then produces generous side shoots. Purple broccolis tend to be tender, flavorful, and full of antioxidants! ‘Burgundy’; is tolerant of a wider range of temperatures, which allows a longer harvest period. Some gardeners prefer to pinch the main floret off early on, to encourage more abundant side shoots. Also resistant to the disease, Fusarium yellows.

Cabbage
Red Acre: Jazz up cole slaw or any stir-fry with this gorgeous, deep-fuchsia cabbage! This variety has a very fresh and sweet flavor. Solid heads form early and grow on compact plants making ‘Red Acre’ an ideal choice for urban gardeners who may have limited space. Resistant to splitting as well as cabbage yellows disease. The heads store very well, in the refrigerator or a root cellar. A variety you must try!

Carrots
Cosmic Purple Carrots: While various colored carrots seem to be the new fad, they have been around for centuries. In fact, the purple carrot has been around for at least 1,000 years! While previously unpopular compared to orange carrots, purple carrots have been rediscovered, and rightfully so! Besides being high in vitamin A, purple carrots contain anthocyanins (an antioxidant) that are common in blueberries. Kids will love them!

Eggplants
Black Beauty: A beautiful nearly black vegetable with lovely, lavender blossoms pretty enough to grow in the flower garden! ‘Black Beauty’ has set the standard since 1902 for large and high-quality fruit. When harvested at its peak, the skin is tender, so no need to peel it; making it perfect for eggplant parmesan, ratatouille, and grilling!
Finger Fruit Purple: Grow fast-producing clusters of beautiful eggplants on your patio or a sunny corner of your vegetable plot! These 4-6″ fruits contain few seeds and have thin, tender skin—perfect for stir-fries and roasting. A plethora of royal purple fruits on just 22-38″ tall plants make this variety a perfect fit for containers and small gardens.
Jewel Amethyst: ‘Jewel Amethyst’ is perfect for containers, since it has a tidy habit. You will also notice its growing pattern makes harvesting a joy! The oval, purple fruits are best harvested when about 3”–4 ½” long, to stay tender. Harvest regularly from this variety to keep eggplant producing throughout the season.
Long Purple: This long, slender variety, is not usually found in grocery stores, and is a treat! Sometimes called ‘Italian Long Purple’, this prolific heirloom will bring beautiful ruby-purple color to the garden and savory goodness to the table. Enjoy in a wide variety of dishes!

Kohlrabi
Early Purple Vienna: Early Purple Vienna kohlrabi is an easy-to-grow cool weather crop that forms a distinctive dusty lilac bulb with pale flesh above ground. A beautiful plant! Peel its crunchy bulb and enjoy it raw or cooked. Leaves are also edible- eat similarly to collards, or other steamed greens. Kohlrabi is high in fiber, making it an excellent veggie for overall gut health. Kohlrabi is also high in isothiocyanates and glucosinolates, which are powerful antioxidants, thought to lower the risk of certain cancers, heart disease, and inflammation. Keeps well in the fridge.

Lettuces/ Greens
Brentwood Lettuce: This variety produces pretty burgundy lettuce leaves making for some beautiful salads! The heads produce high yields in compact spaces, and their bolt resistance allows for a long harvest. Also resistant to downy mildew, lettuce leaf aphid, and Fusarium wilt.
Dazzling Blue Kale: You will be mesmerized by the beautiful colors of this extra-cold-hardy kale. It is even more cold-tolerant than other lacinato types. The purple midrib pops against the blue-green leaves, some of which may take on more purple hues in the cool temperatures of fall. Lacinato kale is ideal for kale salads. Pick tender, baby greens for fresh salads, chips, or sauteing, in just 30 days!
Marvel of Four Seasons: Tasty and attractive, this 1800s French heirloom is also known as Merveille de Quatre Saisons. The variety has sweet and tender leaves that are chartreuse green at the base, turning to a beautiful cranberry-red, and forming a crinkly rosette! Gorgeous! Rosettes are 8″–12″ in diameter and good for large containers.
Red Russian Kale: Typically, kale gets sweeter after the first fall frost. ‘Red Russian’, on the other hand, is sweet and tender all the time. The lavender veins are part of what makes ‘Red Russian’ as attractive as it is delicious. Harvest baby greens in just 21 days!
Truchas Mini Romaine: This deep-merlot, mini-romaine is a game-changer for salads! ‘Truchas’ is compact and easy to grow in small spaces. It also creates gorgeous contrasts with green lettuce. Uniform leaves stay upright in the garden and make for easy plant cleanup. Has disease resistance to downy mildew, lettuce die-back, and lettuce mosaic virus.

Nasturtium
Black Velvet: These edible beauties add glamorous, ruby-black color to your salads and cheese plates! All parts of the flower (leaves, seeds, stems and flowers) are edible! Garnish tacos, avocado toasts, and pasta dishes with these beauties! Excellent as a companion plant to your tomatoes, and they repel several pests. Gorgeous in containers as well.
Tom Thumb Black Velvet: Tom Thumb features velvety, nearly black flowers with contrasting bright green foliage! Compact plants make this an outstanding choice for the border and containers. All parts of the flower (Leaves, seeds, stems and flowers) are edible! Add flowers to charcuterie boards, gazpachos, strewn on roasted root veggies, or create vinegar from them, for various culinary experiences!

Okra
Red Burgundy: Whether you eat okra or not, this plant is worth growing, just for the beauty of it! The pods are deep crimson edging toward maroon and are preceded by gorgeous yellow flowers that the bees love. This is the most productive red variety and will produce tender, 6″-long pods that are delicious in soup, gumbo, and stew, or deep-fried.

Shiso
Green and Red Shiso Perilla: An absolute must for herb gardens! Also called Japanese basil or the beefsteak plant, shiso’s incredible flavor can be described as a combination of cinnamon, mint, and clove with notes of cumin. A beautiful, heat- and drought-tolerant bedding plant that attracts pollinators, and is excellent for containers. This packet provides 75% green shiso and 25% red (shows up as a deep mulberry color).

Snap Pea
Sugar Magnolia: Wow, a purple snap pea that is tender and delicious! Enjoy the pretty purple blooms first, then the purple pea pods. Eat them without shelling, dipped in hummus, in a salad, or in stir-fries! Long hypertendrils (vigorous, multi-branching tendrils) support the 6′-7′ vining plants. This growing pattern creates an airy structure that helps prevent mildew. Some of these open-pollinated peas may be flecked with green, or be fully green.

Tomatillo
Purple: A purple tomatillo! Not only delicious but alluring also. The purple fruits are much sweeter than the green types and rich in antioxidants. Let the fruit remain on the plant as long as possible until the papery husks split for the best flavor and color. Tomatillos grow best in conditions similar to tomatoes (because they are related) but will handle a lot more heat. Tomatillos require cross-pollination so plant at least two plants in your garden to ensure good fruit production

Tomatoes
Black Krim: This Russian pole heirloom originated in Krymsk on the Black Sea in Russia. Baseball-sized fruits weigh 10–12 ounces and have dark reddish-brown flesh filled with a rich, slightly savory flavor. Fruit sets well in heat and is a reliable “black” tomato, producing even under adverse conditions from summer to fall. Make sure to stake or cage, as the plants can reach 6′ or more!
Cherokee Purple: Cherokee Purple’ is said to have been given to a Tennessee family by the Cherokees over 100 years ago. This dark maroon tomato has just the right balance of sweetness and even a hint of smoke, making it a winner in taste competitions. From summer into fall, you will harvest lots of 10–12 oz. tomatoes from this well-regarded heirloom variety. Make sure to stake or cage, as the plants can reach 6′ or more!
Chocolate Cherry: Chocolate Cherry tomatoes—Yum! These 1″ purplish-red, delicious tomatoes are great for snacking on and add a bit of sweetness to salads and pasta. The prolific vines bear seemingly endless trusses with 6–8 ounce fruits that will bring you back for harvest after harvest. Fruit is crack-resistant! Make sure to stake or cage.

Watermelon
Sugar Baby: The taste of summer? Watermelon! As the name suggests, ‘Sugar Baby’ is sweet, sweet, sweet! It is also small enough to easily fit in the refrigerator. This plant produces a bountiful crop of 8–10 pound deep dark emerald green orbs that have juicy red flesh.

Zucchini
Black Beauty: Black Beauty is an early maturing zucchini-type squash that features delicious deep black to green fruits with pale flesh. A very easy-to-grow bush variety that is highly productive all summer long. Enjoy grilled, sauteed, fresh, in soups, or zucchini bread!

Fall Perennial Planting

Planting in the fall can save you a lot of money while also giving plants a jump start next spring! Plants that establish strong roots during the fall will come back bigger and stronger in the spring time.

However, fall planting requires careful consideration and attention to detail from the gardener. The trick is to give fall plantings a little extra care to help them get established before the really cold weather sets in.

Here are four things you can do to help your plants get established:

Soil Inoculant

At the time of planting, be sure to use an inoculant specifically formulated for perennials, trees and shrubs. These products will help the plant to start establishing roots before all of the foliage dies back. We recommend using an inoculant over a root stimulator this late in the season so you can avoid giving any extra nitrogen to the plant before it goes in to dormancy.

Mulch

Mulch helps to retain soil moisture while also protecting roots from sudden changes in temperature. We recommend using 3″ of a good quality mulch to keep plants protected. Make sure that mulch does not contact the bark of woody perennials.

Protect Plants from Early Freezes

Keep an eye on the weather and cover the plants when the temperatures dip below freezing throughout September and October. This is most important for perennials. Trees do not need to be blanketed, but bark wrap should be used on all young trees to protect the trunks from splitting during our freezing and thawing cycles. When covering perennials, use heavy fabric or plastic and prop it up so that it is close to, but does not touch the plant (Plastic that touches the plant during a freeze can actually do more damage.) Be sure the covering goes all the way to the ground and cover the edges with soil or mulch so that it will trap heat from the soil.

Water

To support adequate root growth, plants will need to be watered regularly in the fall. Keep your soil evenly moist, but not soggy, through the fall time. Remember to monitor your plants regularly! A plant that crisps up due to lack of water in the fall time is not likely to survive the winter. When the plant goes dormant, they will require less frequent watering, but will also need to be watered throughout the winter. Remember that desiccation is the result of cold weather plus dry soil. For more details on winter watering, visit our Blog.

Growing Garlic in the Pikes Peak Region