A good way to kill two birds with one stone is to grow edible flowers. You get to grow pretty flowers and something you can eat all in one plant. It may seem that edible flowers are a relatively new fad, but people were eating flowers way back in the Roman times and they were really popular during the Victorian era.
There are a surprisingly large number of flowers that are both safe to eat and taste good, and many of them can be grown in a window box.
- Bachelor’s Button – Spicy/Sweet flavor; easy to grow from seed.
- Basil – The flowers have a similar but milder flavor as the leaves; sprinkle them over pasta.
- Bee Balm – Citrusy/minty flavor; use them in place of oregano or sprinkled over a fruit salad.
- Chives – Onion flavor; sprinkle over salads or use instead of chives in other dishes.
- Dianthus – Sweet clove flavor; remove the base of the petals as it is bitter.
- Mint – Tastes like a milder version of the plant’s leaves; goes great in Middle Eastern dishes.
- Nasturtium – Spicy/peppery flavor; use in a green salad for added color and zip.
- Queen Anne’s Lace – Has a mild carrot flavor; great sprinkled in salads. NOTE: Only eat Queen Anne’s Lace that you have grown yourself, from commercial seed. Queen Anne’s Lace is easily mistaken for Poison Hemlock in the wild.
- Squash – Mild raw squash flavor; can be fried or stuffed.
Before munching down on some blooms, you should keep a couple of things in mind. First, if you want to eat your flowers, don’t spray them with pesticides. And second, be sure you know what you’re eating. Eating a poisonous flower would not be a good thing.
