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Just Look at Those Vegetables!

© Barbara M. Martin

Please note: Thank you for visiting my Cottage Garden topic and reading my columns, published here from February 1997 through spring 2003! This Cottage Garden column was written by Barbara M. Martin and is Copyrighted by Barbara M. Martin. It may not be altered or copied or published elsewhere in whole or in part without specific permission from the author. I regret I am no longer actively editing or contributing to this suite101.com topic as of mid-2003. Happy Gardening!

Do you keep a separate garden for vegetables? If so, I'm willing to bet it is rectangular. Relegated to the back yard. Probably has rows in it and paths and a fence around it. Predictable, hunh. And that's too bad.

Vegetables should never be locked away in a rectilinear, utilitarian place like that. Cooped up and caged in, trapped in straight lines or those smothering matted rows. They lose their individuality there, blend together into islands of monotonous foliage floating on a level plain of bare earth or sea of mulch. Blech!

Bug bait in the works! Who wants to look at that?

Try something new this year and drag a few of those healthy-eating things into the flower patch. With a little thought, you can orchestrate decorative effects strong enough to pop your socks off!

Let's start out simple and relatively subtle. For example, rhubarb is a beautiful plant. It just so happens to be the lowly cousin, the edible relative, of the uptown perennial called Rheum palmatum.

Another great foliage texture is Swiss chard. It's edible too, and "Bright Lights" comes in several colors: gold, red and bright green, just the right jewel tones to liven things up in the border. Set them next to daylilies and watch the place light up. Harvest the outer leaves occasionally to keep fresh ones growing all season long.

How about vegetable flowers and fernery? Okra is architectural and ornamental, no two ways about that. The flowers are pretty, too. Chives lining a walk are lovely in bloom, it's only when you cut them back to encourage a repeat bloom that you will sense the onion in their heritage.

I'll skip the dandelion greens, but that doesn't mean you have to -- the flowers are undeniably bright and cheerful.

Sunflowers are already accepted in both vegetable and flower gardens, so that's a no-brainer. Those flowers are pretty, such a spritely yellow. Also nice in bronze, burgundy, orange, lemon, cream, bicolor and ripple ... and the seeds are tasty.

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