Permaculture: Mixing Flowers & Vegetables

Examine your lawn, and choose a site that receives good drainage from heavy rains and six to eight hours of sunlight. Make sure your permaculture site is close to the residential dwelling for more convenient maintenance.

Purchase perennial seeds that produce vegetables and edible flowers. Choose seeds that complement and benefit the permaculture garden such as marigolds. Marigold flowers emit a strong fragrance that acts as a natural pest deterrent. Introduce natural pest predators such as birds by planting sunflowers within your permaculture garden. The seeds you choose for the permaculture garden will need to work together to sustain a harmonious ecosystem.

Loosen the top layer of soil at the site with a hand tool. For a beginning permaculture garden, this will be the only time you will need to disturb the soil since tilling introduces too much oxygen into the soil, which robs it of nutrients. Add two to three shovel-fulls of compost such as aged manure or peat moss to the site. Use the hand tool to incorporate the compost material into the ground. The ratio of compost to soil will vary depending upon the size of the permaculture site.

Gather earthworms in an area where they thrive, after a heavy rain. Introduce these earthworms into the soil of your permaculture garden.

Spread the vegetable and flower seeds over the permaculture garden site, and use your hands to gently rake over the surface of the garden bed to incorporate the seeds under the soil.

Set a barrel or large bucket under gutter drains to collect rainwater to use for watering the permaculture garden.

Apply a 6-inch layer of hay over the permaculture garden bed and keep the garden moist with regular, twice a week watering.

Add a water feature such as a pond to your garden site to attract natural predators such as frogs and toads. Frogs and toads will aid in controlling the permaculture garden's insect pests that feed on the vegetable and flower plants.

Maintain a compost pile to fertilize the vegetable and flower plants within the permaculture garden. Collect vegetable scraps, eggshells, coffee grounds and other organic material to add to the compost pile to maintain it on a regular basis.