When planning your garden for the coming year, make space for plants that do double duty. Edible flowers look attractive and add extra interest and nutrition to side dishes such as salads. Even if you don’t have a particularly big garden, you can still grow edible flowers in pots and containers on a deck or patio.
Lavender: With its distinctive fragrance, lavender adds an unusual, delicious flavour to teas, bread and biscuits. Use flowers fresh or hang bunches in your kitchen to dry.
Nasturtium: With a sweet, peppery taste, flowers, leaves and seedpods are all edible. The flowers add colour while the leaves give your salads a peppery flavour.
Day Lily: Popular in Chinese cuisine, all parts of this pretty plant are edible. It is so called because each flower only lasts a single day. Add the deliciously-sweet petals to your salads.
Pansies, Violas and Violets: With their range of beautiful colours and shapes, these are perfect for crystallising to make pretty cake decorations. Simply ensure your flower heads are clean, and then carefully paint them with a beaten egg white. Next cover the petals with a thin layer of caster sugar before popping them into a warm, dry place such as an airing cupboard to dry. Leave overnight and your beautiful flowers will be ready to use.
Courgette Flowers: Often forgotten, these have a distinctive golden colour and make an impressive ingredient at dinner parties. Pick when only slightly open, stuff with a cream cheese filling and then deep fry. Or tear the flowers in half and add to pasta dishes to for a great visual effect.
Cornflowers: While commonly blue, they are available in a range of colours and the petals add both visual interest and a clove-like flavour to savoury dishes.