A row of bright flowers in a kitchen garden isn't just an ornamental gesture. Colorful blooms attract pollinators to the whole plot and increase the productivity of any vegetable garden. They also have a place at the table: in salads, soups, drinks and desserts.

Edible flowers are no longer an exotic novelty. Sparkling nasturtiums, golden calendulas and mini violas "are riding the wave of increased interest in salads and microgreens, baking, and -- not least -- craft cocktails," says Hillary Alger, flower production manager at Johnny's Selected Seeds in Albion, Maine. Johnny's, a mail-order seed company with customers among both backyard gardeners and commercial market growers, has seen tremendous growth in interest in edible flowers recently, Alger says.

Customers still love the old favorites, including tiny Gem marigolds, cornflowers, pansies and snapdragons, but more adventurous choices are gaining in popularity, Alger says. Instead of pinching off the flowers from the tips of mint and basil plants and tossing them on the compost heap, people are putting these blooms into salad mixes. Pea blossoms and wispy pea shoots are flavorful and elegant garnishes for cakes and other desserts. Cilantro flowers are coming to the table, too, adding spice to salads and Southwestern-style dishes.

Johnny's has developed an edible flower guide (available on the company's website) to help gardeners and market growers appreciate the spicy, nutty, intense flavors of some unexpected flowers and herbs and to experiment well beyond the basics. Blue borage blooms, yellow mustard and arugula flowers, and peppery stock flowers have distinctive flavors and can "add whimsy and beauty to an event," says Joy Longfellow, a flower production technician at Johnny's. "The range of colors and varieties in these crops gives so much room for creativity."

Growing edible flowers is easy, even for novices. Many grow best from seed sown directly in a sunny spot in the garden in spring or early summer. Bachelor's buttons (cornflowers), sunflowers and marigolds will bloom all summer long, which gives you plenty of time to experiment with their colors, textures and flavors in recipes. Make room for these blooms in beds around the margins of a vegetable garden, in colorful sweeps between rows of beans and tomatoes, or in garden beds of their own near the kitchen door, so you can step outside to pick a few flowers -- for bouquets or for baking -- whenever you like.

Many vegetable flowers are a bonus crop you may not have appreciated before. Instead of ripping out the last of the spring radishes when they start to turn pithy, let them come into bloom, and you'll discover that the flowers are a spicy and delicious accent for salads. Broccoli flowers, strawberry blooms and the wispy white sprays of flowers of bolted kale and collard plants are also edible -- and tasty. Squash blossoms, of course, are a classic salad garnish, and their bright yellow flowers can be stuffed with mild cheese and herbs for a popular appetizer. Bees appreciate these blooms in the garden, but the plants are prolific, so there will be plenty of flowers to harvest for the table, too.

The best time to pick edible flowers is moments before you use them, when their colors and flavors are at their best. If you need to harvest flowers several hours to a day before using them in recipes, make a bouquet for the kitchen counter and keep it out of direct sunlight. Lavender flowers, as well as the blooms of basil, chives, dill, mint and other herbs, hold up surprisingly well in a vase.

Recipes for basil-flower mojitos, lemonade with borage blooms, and gazpacho decorated with calendula-petal garnish are a good start to your floral recipe repertoire, but don't stop there. You'll find inspiration for all kinds of edible flower-power salads, soups and desserts online. "Edible flowers are a wonderful way to elevate the look of any table," Longfellow says, "whether that means some nasturtiums tossed into a salad or an intricately decorated wedding cake." Of course, you don't need any particular excuse to experiment. Edible flowers turn cupcakes for the kids or a lunchtime salad into a special occasion.

SOURCES

Seeds for edible flowers of all kinds are available from Johnny's Selected Seeds (johnnyseeds.com) and other mail-order specialists, and on the seed racks at your local garden shop. Johnny's also offers a guide to edible flowers and a few recipes on the company's website.

Many herbs known for their edible flowers (basil, dill, fennel, cilantro and others) are easy to grow from seed. Others (mint, chives, sage, oregano) can be grown from transplants. Harvesting the flowers often encourages the plants to branch and produce more leaves and flowers for the table.

Second-hand gardens aren't necessarily second rate. In a hand-me-down garden that becomes yours when you move into a new home, there's often a lot to build on, but there's also plenty of room for your own ideas to take root and grow.

While you're inside unpacking the dishes, arranging furniture and hanging pictures, take time to study the views of your landscape from the windows and try to imagine yourself in the new garden.

Don't be in too much of a hurry. When you've just moved into a new house, especially in the winter, you don't really know what may be hidden in the soil, such as spring bulbs or perennial flowers. It makes sense to allow yourself time to get to know your property, observing the patterns of sunlight and shade through the days -- and the seasons. You might want to buy a garden bench and try it out in different spots to encourage yourself to spend time outdoors, where you can keep an eye on how the garden develops through the year. There may not be much of interest, or you may have hit the horticultural jackpot.

In the meantime, you could grow some of your own favorite plants in flower pots or in a community garden plot in your neighborhood. Joining a community garden is a great way to get a feel for local conditions: People love to share what they know with a newcomer. If you brought plants with you from your previous garden but are not sure where to put them, establish a nursery area on your new property, so your plants can be settling in while you decide where they will flourish. This is also a great time to visit nearby botanic gardens to look for inspiring design ideas, get to know local plants and check on interesting plant combinations.

Working with a professional designer -- especially if you have moved to a climate you are unfamiliar with -- will help you make a smooth transition from a hand-me-down garden that's not entirely pleasing to a satisfying landscape that reflects your tastes and interests. Designers are good at recognizing the bones of a good old garden, and they can also help you avoid common mistakes, such as investing in plants that you may be familiar with but that just aren't right for the climate into which you have relocated.

Inheriting a landscape designed to please someone else can raise a lot of questions, but don't feel guilty if a previous owner's dream garden simply isn't your thing, says Laurin Lindsey, a garden designer and the owner of Ravenscourt Landscaping and Design in Houston. "Sometimes people just don't go out there -- they don't feel connected" to the landscaping around a home if they didn't have anything to do with its design or development, Lindsey says. "If they have just moved into a house, it may take them a year or so to decide if they want to personalize it."

Lindsey's clients are asked to fill out an extensive questionnaire to help her interpret their needs. She asks clients about their favorite plants and colors, and she wants to know whether they're interested in a vegetable garden, flower beds, a patio or an attractive naturalistic habitat. Their responses to questions about specific details and more general gardening and lifestyle attitudes form the foundation for a successful design collaboration, she says. (Her robust questionnaire is available on her company's website.)

Some of the existing plants in your new garden may prove to be long past their prime. "People get worried about ripping old plants out, but it's fine," Lindsey says. Others may be a little overgrown, neglected or the victims of enthusiastic but unfortunate pruning jobs, and they just need time and care to recover. Often, small plants will benefit from being moved into more sun or more shelter. With this kind of editing, you can do a lot to freshen things up and make the garden your own.

Existing trees are another matter. If she can, Lindsey always tries to save mature trees. An arborist should be brought in to do some professional trimming work, if necessary. "It's hard to get a mature tree; you have to wait a long time," she says. "Trees provide shade, and birds live there. You can't re-create that just by putting in another tree."

No two projects are alike. Some clients decide they'd just as soon get rid of every trace of a previous owner's garden and start from scratch, Lindsey says, even if the existing landscape has been well maintained. Others are eager to reinvigorate and re-imagine their hand-me-down gardens without stripping away the foundation of a strong design. Regardless of which approach is taken, a good designer will have the same ultimate goal: "It is really important that your client be able to have a garden they love and connect with," Lindsey says.

Even working with a designer, it takes time to achieve the results you're after. But while taking the first careful steps -- getting your bearings in your new landscape, gathering ideas, distilling your thoughts -- the satisfaction of turning someone else's garden into your own can be enjoyed immediately. Settle in, study the possibilities, check out the neighborhood, ask a designer for help: The threads of your new garden will start to come together out of the old.

SOURCES

-- Lauren Lindsey is a garden designer and owner of Ravenscourt Landscaping and Design (ravenscourt.us) in Houston. The company's website includes Lindsey's questionnaire for clients, which is a useful guide for anyone planning a garden renovation.

Lindsey is on the board of directors of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers (apld.org), a national organization of garden designers with regional chapters across the country. On the APLD website, you can see award-winning residential landscape designs, read the organization's quarterly magazine, The Designer, and find a landscape designer in your area.

The best gardens aren't pictures of perfection; they're pleasantly imperfect places where nature, design, resourcefulness and the unexpected all come felicitously together. When you stop trying to control everything in your garden, good things happen.

To cultivate an imperfect garden, put away your leaf blower and take a break from using herbicides and pesticides. Right away, you're saving time, energy and resources and turning your backyard into a healthier environment. When you stop using herbicides, you may soon notice pretty violets spreading like a soft blue carpet in shade -- where grass never really flourished, anyway. Clover may appear in the lawn, another sign of environmental diversity. Don't fight it: Clover acts as a natural fertilizer, tolerates drought, and attracts butterflies, bees and other pollinators.

In an imperfect garden, plants have a way of finding their own places. Larkspur, poppies, cosmos, columbine, coneflowers and other flowers that are allowed to go to seed in the garden in autumn naturally spread in the wind, or with the help of birds, to nooks and crannies where they flourish. Few flowers look as charming as those that find their way home in this way, but you can always help them along by moving a few seedlings to other spots that look promising.

Cultivating imperfection simply recognizes that a garden is a process, not a product. It doesn't imply that a garden isn't thoughtfully designed or well maintained. A small tree that seemed just right when you planted it doesn't have to stay there forever if it grows too fast -- or too slowly -- or if it gets in the way of plans for a new porch or potting shed. When you decide to put in a pond, or take one out, it doesn't mean you made the wrong decision the first time, but that your interests are developing.

Gardeners who move plants around frequently, digging up and dividing a clump of day lilies, for example, and distributing them around the garden, understand the beauty and inevitability of incremental improvement and the satisfaction that comes from trying something new, even though it might not work out in the long run. When plants die -- it happens to everyone, everywhere -- it's not a sign of defeat, but an opportunity to experiment further, just as nature does ceaselessly.

Many of nature's signals are not subtle. A tree limb that falls on the birdbath is a reminder to have an arborist check the strength and structure of the magnificent specimen you may have taken for granted for too long. Mature trees show their age in many wonderful ways, developing ever greater character and distinction, and sensitive professional pruning can help you continue to enjoy a venerable tree that may have taken root long before you were born. Natural cavities aren't necessarily bad -- they attract woodpeckers, owls and other birds. To have the pleasure of listening to them and seeing them come and go, you have to accept imperfections in your trees.

When you're pruning trees and shrubs yourself, take it slowly. Make a few cuts, then remind yourself to step back to study the result. Instead of dealing summarily with wayward limbs, try to bring out the plant's natural shape and structure. A branch that seems to lean too close to a garden path may not be at all out of place if it allows you to enjoy the flowers of a blooming shrub up close and to appreciate its fragrance.

Insect hotels, which give shelter to pollinators and other beneficial bugs, draw your eye to the often incidental but beautiful details and detritus of a garden -- pinecones, seed pods, acorn caps, bits of moss, tubular stems. These small structures are, in their nature, imperfect, accidental and fun. A simple wooden frame a couple of inches deep, open except for a facing of half-inch wire mesh on one or both sides and divided into little rooms any way you fancy, filled with comfortable and reassuring natural furnishings, will be an attractive oasis for insects wandering through life in your garden.

Finding a use for leftover materials is another charming hallmark of an imperfect garden. Shards of broken flowerpots can be used to make a crevice garden for rock-garden plants. Chunks of cement from a broken-up patio can be reused as the foundation of a rock garden. Broken bricks make first-rate paving material when they're set in sand. Irregular assemblages of stones or shells or water-worn glass make interesting mosaic designs when there is no need for a more perfect pattern.

Let the ramblers ramble; let your imperfect garden go to seed. Don't fret about last fall's leaf litter under the shrubs: It's good for the soil and for foraging birds. Don't worry about a few dandelions in the lawn: They sparkle on a late-winter day and are an important source of nectar for bees. If you see these as signs of neglect and ask yourself where you went wrong, the answer may be easy: You didn't. Collaborating with nature makes a more perfect garden than any leaf blower ever could.