034: Edible Flowers. Mulch vs Disease.

Garden Basics with Farmer Fred

Clipping off the flower heads on your basil plants to send the energy back to the plant to produce more green leaves? Good idea! Are you tossing out those cut flower heads of the basil? Bad idea. How about serving them as a garnish in a salad or soup? For that matter, why not start serving many of the flowers you might have in your garden on the dinner table? Today, vegetable expert and Master Gardener Gail Pothour talks about all the edible flowers that you may not have thought about munching on: borage, calendulas, citrus flowers, lavender, nasturtium, apple flowers, rose petals, and even using zucchini or daylily flowers for stuffing! And we tell you the flowers to avoid, as well.

College horticulture professor Debbie Flower explains how to thwart bringing home any soil diseases that you might have in that pile of mulch or compost. It’s Episode 34 of Garden Basics with Farmer Fred, and we will do it all in under 30 minutes.
Links:
Growing Edible Flowers in Your Garden (GN 155) Sacramento Co. Coopertive Extension
Colorado State University Extension “Edible Flowers”
"The Edible Flower Garden", by Rosalind Creasy.

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Chapters

1. 034: Edible Flowers. Mulch vs Disease. (00:00:00)

2. Edible Flowers (00:01:16)

3. Can Mulch Transmit Soil Diseases? (00:24:12)