GOOD ENOUGH TO EAT
Grow vegetables that will add colour to your plot and plate
WHAT vegetables will you choose to go with tomorrow’s Sunday roast? Potatoes are a certainty and purple broccoli is delicious in March. But how about dahlia tubers? According to plant breeder Lubera ( lubera. co.uk), roots of the gaudy perennials can be tasty and nutritious. It has recently introduced an edible range known as Delidahlias which have colourful flowers and interesting flavours. So the variety Hoamatland is described as tasting like salsify, whereas Black Jack has asparagus hints.
Having nibbled a dahlia tuber out of curiosity, I’m unconvinced. But they were harvested for food by the Mayans in Central America so it’s worth giving them a try. If the tubers are tasty and the flowers decorative, you can enjoy a fine summer show before the harvest. Plants that look pretty and taste good are precious. They can help make your garden beautiful as well as productive and, with careful planning, will slot into the most uncompromising ornamental designs.
DELISH AND DECORATIVE
BEAUTIFUL food plants are more abundant than you might think. Runner beans, for example, were first grown as ornamentals and climb happily with sweet peas or other annual climbers. Courgettes, with their handsome leaves and big flowers, are fine feature plants too — and for fragrance, nothing beats broad bean flowers.
If space is at a premium and you want to blend beauty with production, plant accordingly. Ignore the usual boundary between kitchen plot and flower garden. Instead, incorporate the handsomest food crops into your mixed borders. You’ll lose a little yield, but that’s a small price to pay.
A friend used to grow purple sprouting broccoli at the back of his border. He gathered spears for winter eating but when the plants ran to seed in late spring, he revelled in the sprays of primrose-yellow flowers.
Broad beans, especially Crimson Flowered, and tall varieties of peas trained on pea sticks, blend well with ornamentals. Try the 6ft-high heritage variety Alderman, or the mangetout Golden Sweet.
Sweetcorn plants make striking features but you must group them to ensure good pollination. They would work well among branched varieties of sunflower.
Leafy veg can temper vibrant summer flowers. Feathery fennel, red or green curly kale and even cabbages can look surprisingly pretty. And if you grow Swiss chard, select varieties such as Bright Lights, with their showy red, amber or white stems. THIS works beautifully for container gardens, too. Lots of us grow strawberries in pots, often with geraniums or fuchsias near by. So why not include potted carrots, radishes, spring onions, salad greens or baby spinach? They all look lovely when arranged among floral summer containers.
Sprawling nasturtiums are not only glorious, but their leaves, flowers and immature seed pods are spicy and delicious. Try them in tall containers with trailing courgettes such as Lungo Bianca from seedsofitaly.com.
Trailing tomato varieties such as Balconi and Tumbling Tiger are perfect for large containers. Team them with vigorous French marigold (Tagetes) varieties such a Naughty Marietta — not just for looks but because they help to deter whitefly.
Don’t forget there are many edible flowers. The petals of old-fashioned pinks are fragrant, pretty and, in some varieties, clove-flavoured. Chives have tufty rose-purple flowers which brighten salads. And a scattering of the orange petals of pot marigolds (Calendula) cheers up a green salad and gives a subtle lift in flavour.
Team those orange petals with piercing blue borage flowers or azure cornflowers. Small pansies are great for garnishing salads too, as are nasturtiums, rocket flowers and sage blossom.
And for a sorbet or creme brulee there’s nothing like a scattering of fragrant rose petals.