Growing flowers alongside vegetables isn’t just about making your garden look pretty. Certain flowers actually help your vegetable plants by attracting helpful bugs, keeping pests away, and improving soil health.
In Connecticut’s climate, adding the right flowers to your vegetable garden can make a big difference in how well your food grows.
1. Nasturtiums: Nature’s Pest Patrol
Bright orange and yellow nasturtiums act like natural bodyguards for your vegetable plants. They attract aphids away from your precious crops, essentially sacrificing themselves so your vegetables can thrive.
Both flowers and leaves are completely edible with a peppery taste similar to watercress. They make colorful additions to summer salads while working behind the scenes to protect cabbage, broccoli, and cucumber plants.
2. Marigolds: The Underground Defenders
Marigolds might seem like just pretty faces, but they pack a secret punch below the surface. Their roots release compounds that repel harmful nematodes and other soil pests that can damage tomato plants.
French marigolds work particularly well in Connecticut’s growing conditions. Plant them around the borders of your vegetable beds or intersperse them between tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants for maximum protection and a splash of reliable golden color all summer.
3. Calendula: The Healing Garden Helper
Often called pot marigold (though unrelated to true marigolds), calendula brings a sunny disposition to Connecticut vegetable gardens. The cheerful orange and yellow blooms attract beneficial insects like ladybugs and hoverflies that hunt down garden pests.
Calendula’s sticky stems also trap aphids before they reach your valuable crops. Beyond pest management, the petals are edible and medicinal, traditionally used for their healing properties in salves and teas.
4. Borage: The Pollinator Magnet
Star-shaped blue flowers hanging like little bells make borage a standout in Connecticut vegetable gardens. Bees absolutely can’t resist these nectar-rich blooms, meaning better pollination for your squash, cucumber, and tomato plants.
Borage has cucumber-flavored leaves that can be added to drinks or salads. The plant grows quickly in Connecticut’s summer conditions and self-seeds readily, creating a continuous bee buffet throughout the growing season without becoming invasive.
5. Sunflowers: Tall Guardians Of The Garden
Towering sunflowers serve as natural trellises for climbing beans and create cooling afternoon shade for heat-sensitive lettuces during Connecticut’s summer months. Their strong stalks stand up to New England’s occasional summer storms.
Beyond their practical benefits, sunflowers attract pollinators and birds that help control insect populations. Plant them along the northern edge of your vegetable garden to avoid shading other crops unnecessarily while still enjoying their cheerful presence and eventual seed harvest.
6. Cosmos: Delicate Blooms With Tough Benefits
Feathery-leaved cosmos produce masses of pink, white, or magenta flowers that hover above Connecticut vegetable gardens like colorful butterflies. These easy-growing flowers attract beneficial predatory wasps that hunt caterpillars and other pests threatening your vegetables.
Cosmos thrive in Connecticut’s full sun and can handle periods of drought once established. Their airy structure means they won’t crowd vegetable plants, making them perfect companions for corn, beans, and squash in a traditional Three Sisters garden arrangement.
7. Zinnias: Hardworking Beauties
Zinnias bring a rainbow of colors to Connecticut vegetable gardens while working overtime to support your crops. Their long-lasting blooms are butterfly magnets, ensuring consistent pollination for your vegetables throughout the summer months.
Cut zinnias regularly to encourage more flowering and enjoy bouquets indoors. These tough flowers handle Connecticut’s humidity better than many ornamentals and continue blooming until frost. Plant them near tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers to increase your vegetable yields through improved pollination.
8. Anise Hyssop: The Herb That Buzzes
Spikes of lavender-blue flowers make anise hyssop a standout in Connecticut vegetable gardens. This native plant attracts an impressive variety of pollinators, from tiny native bees to monarch butterflies, helping nearby squash and cucumber plants produce better yields.
The licorice-scented leaves can be used fresh in teas or desserts. Anise hyssop handles Connecticut’s variable weather conditions with ease and returns reliably year after year, creating a permanent pollinator station in your vegetable garden.
9. Sweet Alyssum: The Ground-Level Guardian
Carpets of tiny white, pink or purple sweet alyssum flowers create a living mulch around vegetable plants in Connecticut gardens. Their honey-like fragrance attracts hoverflies, whose larvae devour aphids that might otherwise damage your crops.
Sweet alyssum grows low to the ground, making it perfect for planting between rows of lettuce, spinach, and other greens. In Connecticut’s climate, it often blooms from spring through fall with minimal care, providing continuous pest protection and a delightful scent when you’re working in the garden.
10. Bachelor’s Buttons: Blue Beauties for Beneficial Bugs
Bachelor’s buttons, with their distinctive blue flowers (though pink and white varieties exist too), serve as landing pads for parasitic wasps that help control cabbage worms and other vegetable pests in Connecticut gardens.
These drought-tolerant flowers thrive in Connecticut’s sometimes unpredictable summer rainfall patterns. Their edible blooms add a splash of color to summer salads while their presence supports healthier brassica crops like broccoli, kale, and cabbage by attracting the good bugs that prey on the bad ones.
11. Yarrow: The Ancient Soil Improver
Flat-topped clusters of tiny white flowers make yarrow a favorite landing spot for beneficial predatory insects like ladybugs and lacewings. These helpful bugs then hunt aphids and other pests throughout your Connecticut vegetable garden.
Beyond pest control, yarrow’s deep roots help break up clay soils common in parts of Connecticut. The plant accumulates nutrients from deep in the soil, making them available to nearby vegetable plants. Native varieties adapt particularly well to local conditions and support native pollinator populations.
12. Pansies: Cool-Season Companions
Cheerful pansies extend your Connecticut vegetable garden’s beauty and functionality into spring and fall when many other flowers aren’t blooming. Their early season flowers provide crucial nectar for emerging pollinators when vegetable blossoms aren’t yet available.
Plant pansies alongside spring peas, lettuce, and other cool-season crops. They’re also perfect companions for fall plantings of kale, spinach, and garlic. Their edible flowers with mild wintergreen flavor make colorful additions to early and late-season salads.
13. Phacelia: The Secret Weapon
Curling spikes of lavender-blue phacelia flowers might not be as well-known as other garden flowers, but they’re powerhouse performers in Connecticut vegetable gardens. Sometimes called bee’s friend, phacelia attracts an astonishing diversity of beneficial insects.
Beyond bringing in the good bugs, phacelia serves as a fantastic cover crop that improves soil when turned under. It grows quickly in Connecticut’s spring conditions, making it perfect for planting in areas waiting for summer crops. The fern-like foliage adds textural interest while supporting healthier vegetable production.