- Flowers and vegetables growing in harmony
There’s a fresh look in landscaping today, but it harkens back to the kitchen gardens of our colonial ancestors. No longer situated out of sight, vegetables and herbs are sharing the garden spotlight with flowers. Contemporary gardeners seeking more color, texture and foliage options will find vegetables add a delightful dimension to the landscape.
Vegetables and herbs do more than please the eye, of course. “Crops make the gardening hobby more productive; you get something back,” says Harold Taylor, section gardener for Longwood Gardens. Longwood is a horticultural display garden in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Taylor shared his expertise with the American Nursery and Landscape Association (ANLA).
Healthy Gardening
Making room for vegetables serves another purpose. “People are becoming more aware of pesticide use on commercially grown produce,” Taylor comments. Gardeners wanting to include vegetables in existing landscapes can eliminate or diminish pesticide use in several ways. Certain annuals attract predatory insects that eat pests. While humans savor the flavor of herbs, many insects don’t. The whole idea of adding variety to your landscape with vegetables underscores another pest management technique. “Plant diversity makes it harder for pests to take over. Avoid monoculture Taylor suggests. Also try organic pest control options, like Dipel and insecticidal soaps. “At Longwood, we try not to cover spray. We try to use low toxicity insecticides,” Taylor says.
Versatile variety
“American eat only about sixty varieties of vegetables, when there are thousands available,” comments Taylor. He believes that “flavor has so much to do with how vegetables are grown,” and recommended some interesting alternatives to grocery store varieties. Heirloom ‘Brandywine’ tomatoes are flavorful favorites among gardeners in the know. The ‘Straight and Narrow’ green snap bean is a small, gourmet legume that’s big on taste. Streaked ‘Dark Purple Rain’ eggplants add zest to gardens and dinner tables.
Ornamental appeal
Gardeners should “design for ornamental appeal even in the off season,” Taylor says. Cooler temperatures are perfect for tough colorful veggies like Swiss chard and kale. The dark, richly textured leaves of collards are another cool season standout. Set out lettuces in spring, re-plant in mid-August for a full season leafy garden crop. Edible flowers like nasturtiums, pansies, and lemon gem marigolds add delightful color and tang to landscapes and salads! Even squash blossom vines, long known to Mexican cooks as delicious appetizers when battered and fried, now gain respect in American gardens for their bright, tasty, blossoms.
Practical considerations when landscaping with vegetables.
- Start small, build on success.
- Know how much full sun you have. Most vegetables need six to eight hours of light per day to survive.
- A little planning goes a long way.
- Plant vegetables you like to eat.
- Beginners will find transplants easier to start than seed. Some good growers: peppers, tomatoes, eggplants.
- Include vegetables in your overall landscape plan. Return to the kitchen garden concept-choose a convenient location. If you don’t see vegetables every day, You may not maintain them.
- Look at your landscape for pockets of space or available land where vegetables will fit attractively. Light is a key factor, but don’t forget to match space size to crop size.
- Mingle vegetables with ornamentals in borders – low- growing perennials with chives, for example.
- Diversify foliage textures-mix bold with fine, frilly with smooth.
This article reprinted from “Discover the Pleasure of Gardening”, a publication of the American Nursery & Landscape Association
