Colour in my veg garden

I have gardened since I was a child when I discovered a box of old seeds in my grandfather's potting shed and since then it is growing fruit and vegetables that has given me the most satisfaction.  However I love flowers too and with not much in the way of a flower garden here in Normandy (Eco-Gites of Lenault to be precise) I do try to include as much colour as possible in amongst my fruit and vegetables.  In many cases, the produce itself is really pretty ...

... like my blackberries turning fast from green to red to delicious black.

I usually grow Morning Glory - Ipomoea purpurea - with my climbing beans outside but this year they have grabbed a corner of the polytunnel (I must have dropped some seeds there) and they are loving the heat.  They are all dark blue and a joy to see when I water the tunnel each morning.

Chilli peppers come in all shapes and sizes and these Ornamental Chillies are my most colourful.  They are edible too, although not very hot.

Remember that sunflower bud from last week?  Here it is 7 days on.  It may not be very tall as I sowed it so late but that just means its beauty is easier to see.

Runner beans reaching for the sky.  In France the vegetable seed shelves are packed full of French beans (of course) and to find Runner Beans you need to look in the flower section for Haricot d'Espagne ... or save seeds from year to year as I do.

This little English Marigold has been flowering in a corner of Normandy for the best part of a year.  Despite being an annual, it survived the winter and was only without blooms for a couple of months.  It is looking a little leggy now but how could I pull it up after it has survived for so long?

This is one of my gladioli and interestingly they have changed over the years.  I leave them in the ground overwinter covered with straw for protection but now early all the purple ones have disappeared and several have mutated into smaller mutli-coloured flowers with crinkled edges.  A case, one again, of small being beautiful.

As well as the morning glory there is other colour in the polytunnel such as French Marigolds - Tagetes erecta - which attract beneficial insects. I just let them to self seed each year.

My flowery vegetable garden:

Some gardeners bring vegetables into their flower garden.  Me - I bring flowers into my vegetable garden.  Next year I am planning a cutting garden to give me glowers for the house and gite so if you have any suggestions for flowers that would be good please do let me know.

This post is lining up with Annie's How Does Your Garden Grow linky over at the delicious Mammasaurus.  Do head over and enjoy her sumptuous photos and see what other gardeners have been up to this week.