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How To Create An Edible Garden

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Written by Tom Johnson

Tuesday, 06 May 2008

by TomJohnson

Here's a great idea... what about growing your very own edible garden! It makes a lot of sense with the prices of fresh vegetables and fruits skyrocketing. Most vegetables have very decorative properties in either their foliage or flowers as well as being edible, so it's no wonder a lot of people are creating more natural gardens.

It certainly helped to halve my spending on fresh vegetables and I now have a beautiful edible garden instead of the traditional veggie patch. With a little planning, you too can grow a decorative extended vegetable garden that will repay you over and over again. Don't let a lack of space stop you, they can be successfully grown in containers too.

By making a point of selecting mostly perennial vegetables simply because they return each year, there's less replanting. Add to that the fact that your garden will not only look beautiful but be practical at the same time and you're on a winner.

So with the choice of plants taken care of for a yearly harvest, all you need to do now is a little feeding, watering, occasional pruning, weeding and pest control. In exchange you'll have fresh fruits and vegetables for years and years.

These perennials will die down during the colder months, but come springtime they'll shoot again and produce another great crop. So by being selective with your planting you'll ensure that you get fresh produce every year.

With a little research you'll find that you can replace a lot of your conventional garden with the large variety of edible plants available. You don't have to stop at ornamental vegetables around your garden, what about using some of the perennial herbs instead of shrubs or ground cover. Then there's the great advantage of replacing some of your trees with highly decorative fruit trees. If you're short on space there are many dwarf varieties of fruit trees that are not only pretty but prolific producers of fresh fruit.

Don't be afraid to mix up your planting, you can have some wonderful combinations with a little imagination. Edible plants can look at home in a flower bed and many herbs will give your garden an individual appearance.

Curly parsley looks beautiful with many different types of plants. You can plant it with pansies, lobelia, strawberries, dusty miller, or dianthus. Sage and oregano are very beautiful plants, and make great low shrubbery. They look fantastic as edging in front of larger bushes.

What about a bed of all the new and different types of lettuce available now? A mixture of all the spectacular colors and leaf varieties would look really good. If you don't fancy that then mix them in flower beds as accents.

Also there are a lot of plants with edible flowers, leaves, stalks and tubers. One that springs to mind is the humble sugar snap pea... beautiful pink, white or purple flowers and then the delicious peas. They will brighten up any landscape when they're in bloom.

Sage and salvias have delicate blue and purple flowers. Nasturtiums flower in orange, red and yellow and the blossoms are edible. Dill have gorgeous yellow colored blooms and fava beans produce white and red flowers. Then there's the sensational purple globe-shaped flowers of the chive plant.

The maintenance required by these perennial herbs and vegetables is minimal, so they're a good choice in your edible garden. Some of the choices you have are sweet potatoes, artichokes and Jerusalem artichokes, asparagus, dandelions, sorrel, broccoli, ginger, fennel, chives, rhubarb and garlic chives.

About the Author:

Ready to fill your small garden with flowers and fragrance? Tom Johnson has a Free Report for you titled Container Gardening Secrets.

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