Article: Vegetable Gardens as Ornamental Gardens

Created on: Monday, June 09, 2003

No room to grow vegetables, you say? Here are some unconventional ways to grow vegetables: Try combining them with annuals in the flower border, where they will be attractive as well as provide fresh food. Plant vegetables with annuals of similar height and scale, choosing those whose colors blend well, and which look interesting even after the harvest. Trellised pole beans, sweet corn or staked tomatoes can be used in the background, with the striking foliage of carrots, beets, kale, or Swiss chard introduced in the midground. Parsley and lettuce make lovely edging, especially when massed between drifts of white alyssum or perky dwarf zinnias. Dark opal basil is delightful with pink wax begonias, and eggplant and peppers add a colorful accent to the flower border. Choose bush varieties of tomatoes, cukes and squash and grow them in containers. Herbs and onions do beautifully in tubs or window boxes, and radish, lettuce and spinach can be sown as "ground cover" under later maturing crops of carrots, beans and eggplants. Use your imagination and have fun!