Are you craving the taste of fresh vegetables, but unwilling to sacrifice your flowers for food? The good news is with a little thought and creativity you don’t have to. Here are a few suggestions to get you started:
1. Choose vegetable varieties with colourful leaves or attractive shapes. Redbore kale is tall and dramatic, an edible stand-in for canna lilies. Bright lights swiss chard is as attractive as many hostas. Rhubarb is another large-leaved beauty and is a perennial as well.
2. Mix and mingle. Edge your perennial beds with salad vegetables and herbs: lettuce, parsley, chives or red Russian kale make good borders. Various kinds of basil, summer savoury and dill can be tucked wherever you have space among flowers and shrubs.
3. Think about edible flowers. Weave nasturtiums, calendulas, marigolds and red runner beans through your perennial beds..
4. Look for ornamental fruits and vegetables. Okra is a stunning plant with beautiful flowers, leaves and fruits. Thai hot peppers produce multi-coloured peppers in the shape of tiny Christmas lights. Bush beans are available with purple leaves and pods.
5. Substitute vegetables for annuals. In a large bed situate tall corn or sunflowers at the back for majestic height. Once they are off to a good start, plant climbing beans or nasturtiums and let them weave up the tall stalks. Next, for medium height try eggplant for its striking leaves and deep purple fruit. In front, fingerling potatoes will produce lively blue flowers. Mixed with the blue-grey leaves of Lancelot leeks they will make a stunning combination..
6. Try a herb or tea garden. Most herbs are attractive plants, and some are perennial. There are many varieties of thyme available, some with variegated leaves. Sage is wonderful for texture and makes a nice contrast with the juicy fresh green of chives. For a lacy effect add dill and parsley.
7. Try something new each year. Last year I discovered tulsi, a type of basil from India, and enjoyed its intoxicating scent and flavour all summer. I plan to try brussels sprouts. Just imagine those tall stalks with their miniature cabbages, dusted with snow in December!
Rita Bailey, the author of this report, is a gardener and writer living in downtown Hamilton, where she tends her ornamental vegetable garden. She is program co-ordinator for the Mount Hamilton Horticultural Society.
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