Pretty and productive
A mix of edibles and ornamentals can be achieved on any scale you like – from the massive parterres of Villandry in France, to a tiny potager on a pocket-hanky patch, or simply a stretch of bed or border where flowers, trained fruit trees and vegetables can all play their part in a garden that looks good, tastes good and… well, does you good just be in it.
Where space is in short supply the same effect can be achieved in pots and containers, arranged to provide a succession of blooms and fruit and veg that will look attractive and offer sustenance from spring to autumn.
There’s nothing new here. In the Middle Ages, monastery gardens would be a patchwork quilt of medicinal and culinary herbs, flowers for fragrance and beauty, and produce for the refectory.
Cottage gardeners from the 17th century onwards would pack their tiny plots with fruit, veg, herbs and flowers for the house. Sailors would bring back plants from overseas and push them into the earth outside the back door.
The latter half of the 20th century saw a revival of the potager in the UK, usually formal in structure with beds surrounded by dwarf clipped box in which would be flowers and produce, with ‘step-over’ apple and pear trees (single-tier espaliers no more than 45cm high) dividing and bringing structure to the whole.
My own modest-sized kitchen garden grows everything from peas and beans to step-over apples and pears to parsnips and potatoes, but between them you will find rows of flowers for cutting – peonies and sweet peas, pot marigolds and scabious, most attracting those vital pollinators as well as being beautiful to look at.
There is no need to restructure your garden completely: vegetables can be grown in spaces between annuals and perennials in a sunny border (good light is the key to success with most edibles). Think of lettuces and cabbages as foliage plants and enjoy them for their beauty as well as their taste. Yes, it’s a struggle to uproot them when they are looking their best and leaving a hole, but if that hole is filled quickly with another crop the scheme will have a longer life.
Remember, too, that some of the ornamental plants you may already be growing will be edible: the flowers of violas, pansies, nasturtium, polyanthus and borage make a bright and edible garnish to salads and summer drinks.
When next you plant up a trough or a window box, consider mixing edibles with your bedding. When the produce is picked, the flowering plants will fill the vacated space.
If you have a balcony or terrace with containers of summer flowers, add a few edible plants – a hanging basket filled with ‘Tumbler’ tomatoes or a trough sown with cut-and-come-again lettuces.
Whatever space you have, mixing edibles and ornamentals offers so many advantages, you’ll wonder why you never thought of it before.