When I first got into gardening, growing vegetables felt like the obvious place to start. Fresh, home-grown produce? It sounded so idyllic. For years, I tried my hand at growing various vegetables, including tomatoes, corn, carrots, pumpkins, squash, and more. But the deeper I got into it, the more I realized it wasn’t actually bringing me joy. Between the constant maintenance, pest battles, and guilt over bolted lettuce or overgrown tomato plants gone to waste, my veggie garden started to feel more like a chore than a sanctuary. So, last year, I finally decided I’d had enough and committed to ditching the vegetable garden once and for all. In its place, I’m growing a gorgeous and prolific cut flower garden, and I couldn’t be happier with my decision.

If my experience with vegetable gardening sounds familiar, here’s why I think you, too, should try your hand at growing a cut flower garden.

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Flowers are Easier to Grow

Let’s be honest, growing vegetables is a lot of work, and it’s not always easy for beginners to pick up. Most fruit and vegetable plants require a lot of water, the right amount of fertilizer, and regular pruning to produce well. It’s not a set-it-and-forget-it type of thing, and after the initial excitement of planning and planting my garden in the spring wore off, I always found myself slacking on these essential tasks. Inevitably, this led to overgrown plants and poor harvests.

In contrast, cut flower gardens are easy and versatile to grow. They’re also prolific. I guarantee you won’t need to wait long to start enjoying the fruits (I mean flowers) of your labour.

You can stick with flowers native to your growing zone for a super low-maintenance garden, or opt for some higher-maintenance blooms depending on your comfort level. I love growing low-maintenance plants, particularly ones that are drought-tolerant once established. My favorites at the moment include peonies, dahlias, zinnias, snapdragons, cosmos, lavender, daisies, and coneflowers.

Fresh Bouquets All Summer

Need I say more? It’s truly as amazing as it sounds, especially at the height of summer when all my plants are in bloom. Not only can I fill my own house with fresh, home-grown bouquets, but all my friends, family, and neighbours can too. Cut flower gardens are SO prolific. I even started a roadside stand outside of my house last summer to sell small bouquets of dahlias I had that many extras. I’m truly living out my cottage garden dreams over here.

A Cut Flower Garden Attracts Pollinators

Vegetable gardens attract pollinators, but flower gardens sustain pollinators. If you’re passionate about supporting pollinators in your area, choosing native plants for your garden is super important. Yes, the bees and butterflies in my area love my dahlias too, but it’s the coneflowers, lavender, black eyed Susans, and goldenrod that support them.

This doesn’t mean you need to stick exclusively to native plants (unless that’s your thing, then go off!), but mixing a few native species in will do wonders for bringing the pollinators to your garden. Lots of pollinators equal happy flowers, and vice versa.

You’ll Save Money

This one may be controversial, but in my opinion, cut flower gardens are more economical than vegetable gardening. This isn’t to say that vegetable gardening is inherently expensive, because there are definitely ways to garden on a budget. Still, it’s not necessarily saving you money at the grocery store. 

Let’s be honest, tomatoes, lettuce, and corn aren’t really that expensive at the supermarket. Once you add up the cost of supplies (like fertilizer, soil, soil amendments, etc.), water, and nursery starts (if you didn’t start your seeds), you’re probably not saving much, if anything, by growing your own vegetables. Of course, this isn’t a problem if you love it. However, saving money isn’t necessarily the reason why you should grow your vegetables.

In contrast, if, like me, you love having bouquets of fresh flowers around your home at all times in the spring and summer, then saving money is absolutely a case for why you should grow your own flowers. Especially by growing perennial flowers! That said, even if annuals have your heart, you’ll still be saving money by growing your own at home. Bouquets are expensive, y’all!

Cut Flower Gardens are Fun!

Overall, I find cut flower gardens to be more fun and rewarding than growing vegetables, but that’s just me. I’ll happily pick fresh bouquets every day and turn to the grocery store or farmer’s market for my fruits and veggies. 

That said, I haven’t given up on growing fruits and vegetables entirely. For now, I’m growing a few herbs and tomato plants in containers on my deck where I can keep a close eye on them. However, my flower gardens get the prime real estate in my yard, including the raised bed we constructed specifically for growing vegetables (whoops!), and the garden beds along our fence. If the past two years are any indication, that’s not set to change anytime soon!