A Heinlein novel wrote up the same idea. Some clerk sent them some flower seeds instead of vegetables and they found out while half way to Mars. So they planted the flowers and "discovered" what a morale-booster it was.
But I forget which novel! Probably one of the juveniles ... late 1950s? early 1960s? It was back when his novels had to be acceptable to Junior High School librarians - no free love or "Thou art God" in those novels!
