Eat up your pinks

As children we are warned against putting things from the garden into our mouths, but this week that is exactly what I did on a visit to Kathy Brown's edible garden in Stevington, Bedfordshire. My post- rainstorm tour begins with some of the 50 or so roses that Kathy grows, tumbling over the walls at the side of the house and falling in sprays from a romantic pergola at the back. After stopping to smell the perfume of May Queen, Kathy's next suggestion seems slightly shocking. "Here," she says, holding out the flower, "try a petal." What, I think dumbly, eat it? Yet that's exactly what she means.

Eating the petals, the perfume fills you in a much more sensual way. To me, it was a totally new way to experience a garden, and it felt dangerously exotic to be munching on roses still wet from summer showers. But given my lifelong obsession with Charbonnel et Walker rose creams, I certainly didn't mind.

A garden designer and writer, many of Kathy's best ideas for food are compiled in her book Edible Flowers (Aquamarine, [pound]14.99). What about a rose and geranium roulade? Or duck cooked with day lilies? But of course, it's nicest to walk round with the owner herself. "Mmm," she says, walking through a woodland area behind the house. She cuts whole blooms of Madame Isaac Pereire roses to flavour fresh butter cream for the centre of a special cake. "Try some sweet cicely," she says and offers me the flowers, which she says are delicious on red peppers.

Brown opens her garden for the National Gardens Scheme on the 24 June, alongside fellow flower-food enthusiast Hannah Miles, who will be doing cookery demonstrations throughout the afternoon. You may remember Hannah from the final of Masterchef 2007, where her duck with lavender and blueberries went down a storm.

If you can't get to Bedfordshire this month, you can still try Kathy's suggestions. Some of you may already have tried the gorgeous orangey, pepper taste of nasturtium flowers in summer salad, but did you know you could also add the petals of sunflowers? Next Kathy shows me how to make a salad with chive flowers, which have the same delicious, garlicky tang as the leaves.

There are additional reason for using flowers to add flavour. Kathy has been on a carbohydrate-free diet since Christmas, and her garden offers hundreds of tasty possibilities to cheer up mealtimes bereft of bread, sugar and potatoes. Later she shows great self- restraint, resisting a slice of the rose-petal cake which she serves to the photographer and me. It tastes unbelievably good.

I go away determined to investigate this new world further. At home we try lavender ice-cream, which is made exactly like vanilla, but using a couple of handfuls of lavender leaves and flowers, which go into the initial milk and cream mixture before it's brought up to a simmer. Then the whole lot is left to steep overnight in the fridge. The flavour is really fine and fresh, certainly not the cloying perfume I'd imagined. Again there was that lovely feeling of tasting something I had only ever sensed before as a fragrance.

Those who can visit this month should seize the opportunity to admire Kathy Brown's beautiful planting and stunning hard- landscaping ideas. Yet, if you want to taste the plants, you'll have to grow your own. Please - don't eat Kathy's roses.

Kathy Brown's garden is open 24 June and also on 29 July, 2-6pm both day; www.kathybrownsgarden.homestead.com Further browsing find out more about Emma's favourite rose creams at www.charbonnel.co.uk

Blooming tasty

Courgette flowers are a delicacy among Italian cooks. Ensure you pick the males, which are connected straight to the stem, rather than the females, which have the embryo fruit behind their flower.

Hollyhock flowers make a brightly coloured addition to a fruit salad. Choose shocking pinks to add a bright, tropical touch, removing the green parts first.

Borage flowers are perfect for a good summer Pimm's. Besides the borage, you'll need mint and lemon balm growing in the garden. Borage flowers add a tiny splash of blue to the top of a glass.

Daisy petals can also provide unique cake decorations. Fairy cakes have never looked prettier than with a frill of daisy petals, in either white or pink. Basil and rocket flowers shouldn't be ripped up if they start to flower - just pick them carefully and use them in a salad. They keep the flavour of their parent plant, and have a sweet appearance, too.

Violets make a beautiful spring salad, and are a great accompaniment to primrose flowers. Just toss them in with some crisp iceberg lettuce, olive oil, white wine vinegar and some chopped mint leaves. Scatter both flowers on top to garnish.

Nasturtiums add colour and bite to a wide variety of savoury dishes. Although they are commonly used to add a peppery flavour to salads, they can also be pickled in vinegar and used as a substitute for capers. You can find them at some specialist food shops and farmer's markets.

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