I enjoyed Bob Keefer’s amusing and sensible gardening tips (“Back to Basics,” 3/24). And don’t forget to add flowers! You can put calendula at the end of a row of kale, zinnias near zucchini and cosmos across from cucumbers. If you let cilantro go to flower, it will attract many tiny native bees.

There are many more, easy-care and taking little room. Flowers are essential to nourish the pollinators that enable many of our crops to grow and reproduce. Besides, your garden can offer more than food for the body. We look at our gardens to rejoice at the end of winter, to celebrate summer harvest. They give us beauty and lift our spirits in dark times.

Sara van Dyck

Eugene