Letting vegetables flower as an insect pasture

Many insects are beneficial creatures and need support to survive as long as possible. Bees, bumblebees, and many others are among the most important flower pollinators. They are crucial for maintaining biodiversity. Their valuable interaction is particularly evident in fruit cultivation. In Asia, where bees and co. have already died out, fruit blossoms have to be laboriously pollinated by hand. But it shouldn't get that far here in the first place. Everyone can contribute to promoting the preservation of biodiversity.

Besides sowing bee pastures, there are other possibilities. For example, flowering vegetable plants. Some types of vegetables are even grown as ornamental plants because of their beautiful flowers, such as potatoes, kohlrabi, Jerusalem artichokes, and sweet potatoes. With other types of vegetables, the focus is primarily on the fruit. But how about not harvesting your vegetable patch completely for once? Just leave a few plants there until they start to flower. Sometimes it also happens that you've missed the right time for harvesting, and lettuce, carrots, and onions have already started to flower. Then you shouldn't pull them out but let them flower. This creates a food supply for many insects that need sufficient food and habitat from early spring into late autumn.

When cabbage, carrots, radishes, lettuce, onions, etc., are allowed to flower, it not only looks very pretty, but it also provides a richly laid table for many insects. Some types of vegetables even flower quite profusely, and you can, in turn, spice up your own menu with them. For example, the flowers of zucchini, lamb's lettuce, arugula, and others are quite edible.

Beyond that, letting vegetables flower offers another advantage, because the seed heads develop from the blossoms. While the fruits of many vegetables become inedible after flowering, if they are seed-fast varieties, you can harvest these directly for the next gardening season.