Red and green lettuce varieties combine with 'Sorbet
Yellow Frost' violas to make a lively pattern in
the vegetable patch.
I applaud the renewed interest people seem to have in home vegetable gardening due to the current economy and the inspiration of Michelle Obama’s White House garden. But as I drive around my rural county looking at the new vegetable gardens, it strikes me that the problem with the current efforts is that we have forgotten how to make our vegetable gardens as attractive as they are useful.
Looking around, I see that today’s home vegetable garden most often resemble miniature industrial farms, with rows of produce but little in the way of beauty or ornamentation.
Because they are so unwelcoming (Heck, there's nowhere to sit!), they are consigned to the far reaches of our yards, out of the way of our neighbors’ eyes. Since they are out of sight, they are out of mind and quickly become neglected and weed-ridden. People lose enthusiasm for the gardening project and consider themselves gardening failures. Homeowners' associations feel the need to ban such unsightly gardens. Many novice gardeners abandon the idea of growing their own produce because it is so unrewarding and, well, ugly.
It doesn’t have to be this way!
Vegetables, herbs and fruits can be attractively and productively grown. Our Colonial ancestors understood this as they integrated flowers, structures and seating into their home gardens. Have you seen the gardens of Williamsburg, Mount Vernon or other historic houses? There is much to be learned from how our forefathers and foremothers gardened.
One way to liven up the garden--and make it a place of beauty where you want to linger--is to add pattern with crops and integrate flowers.
In the photo 'Sorbet Yellow Frost' violas mix beautifully with red and green lettuces. Other winning flower and vegetable combinations include cabbages and stock, tomatoes and marigolds, cone flowers and peppers. The possibilities are limitless.
To make successful combinations:
- Favor annuals over perennials that will require a longer-term home.
- Explore the many varieties of edible flowers to extend the usefulness of the flowers.
- Ensure that the soil and water requirements for the vegetables and flowers are similar.
- Provide enough room for plants as they mature.
- Take into consideration the colors of the flowers and the colors of the produce to make pleasing combinations.
- Don't be afraid to pull out spent plants and replace them with new annuals from your local nursery.
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Thank you for reading! You can reach me at gardeningexaminer@gmail.com and can follow me on Twitter at @RobinRipley.
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Comments
Great Article Robin, i'm loving my veg patch at the moment,and it looks a lot more attractive than my shady spring border where the bulbs are over - must add somewhere to sit so I can watch the veg grow - This year i've got marigolds as sacrificial aphid attractors, and sage is in full flower plus i've planted a sweet pea teepee, and foot high velvet Red sunflowers , plus broad beans looking really pretty, - i've sown red and white flowering runner beans which are creeping up another teepee for later in the year, and have 3 colours of tomatoes growing. Going to love watching as well as eating it all.
Hi Robin. It is so true that the veggie patch could be made into so much more. Since I started my own garden I try to mix it up with herbs and flowers. I have planted cosmos, borage, marigolds, zinnias, sunflowers, nasturtiums and sweet alyssum among my veggies. Many flowers will attract bees to help pollinate crops; others help keep weeds at bay, and others attract beneficial (good) insect that take care of aphids or beetles. This year I'm adding some medicinal herbs in a smaller raised bed next to the veggie beds - echinacea, hyssop, chamomile, lavender, yarrow, and feverfew among others. Herbs and flowers in bloom among vegetables are such a beautiful sight, and make my gardening time much more enjoyable.
Claire and Janice -
Thanks for your notes! I would love to see photos of your flower-veggie gardens, if you want to share. You can email me at gardeningexaminer@gmail.com.
Robin Wedewer
And don't forget that many flowers are edible too lik thise little violets in our pic, calendula, etc. no need to separate veggies and "beauty" -- they can all live happily together.
You take adding flowers to the veggies to the ultimate level! LOVE IT!!!! I do this as well only much smaller scale. Great blog - happy to find you on Twitter!
It's nice to see so many people finding a renewed interest in growing their own food. Early gardeners recognized the importance of flowers for several reasons; increasing pollination, deterring deer, pests/bugs and as you pointed out--to simply make it attractive. An old farmer once told me to plant a wide row of marigolds around my garden to keep deer out (they hate marigolds) and it worked.
Sunflowers are great for the squash field to attract bees/pollinators, look beautiful in fall when other plants are dying back and can be dried and eaten or fed to the birds.
I recently learned that dahlias can be eaten--the flower petals AND the tubers. They vary in flavor depending on the variety of dahlia and can be cooked up like taters or sweet taters.
Thanks for a great article.
This is a olvely idea. I try to pair plant most of my veggies, things like Lupins and beans, so you needs to add fewer nutrients to the soil. Or marigolds around the veggies to prevent slugs and deer, But violets and pansy's are such a great idea for fall garden's in the south, since there edible in so many ways.
Great article!
Here is the bounty from my garden http://www.etsy.com/shop/OneLoomStudio
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