It's amazing how much of the average flower garden is actually edible (provided you don't use pesticides.) I hadn't realized this until we got unexpected dinner company and I had to find a way to stretch the salad. My lettuce was pretty well picked over; my arugula almost done. But there were beautiful blue borage blossoms, with their cucumber-like flavor. Garlic chives, and a few blossoms for good measure. Nasturtium leaves--peppery and pungent--and nasturtium flowers, equally tasty and colorful. Pansies, rose petals, marigold petals, the leaves from lemon verbena or lemon basil--the salad turned out to be a culinary triumph, as well as the most beautiful one I'd ever served.
Snip a few grapes off the vine, or slice in a few strawberries for a surprise treat and you have something truly wonderful. Try the leaves of monarda. Toss a few scented geranium leaves into a sugar bowl for a subtle new flavor. Dip violets in beaten egg white, then sugar for a crystallized treat. Your garden offers you endless possibilities and flavors.
I'm not talking about vegetable gardening here, although this definitely provides a world of flavor. I'm strictly a flower-gardener. But my definition of what constitutes an ornamental has a lot in common with that of the old cottage gardeners. When a stray seed blew in and a lovely head of leaf lettuce grew up in the front of my border I decided that it was pretty and kept it. My edging plants now are often a mix of red and green lettuces, green and purple basils and silver, gold and green thymes. Perhaps in a strict sense they are vegetables, but they are also beautiful. So are alpine strawberries. These, unlike their more aggressive relatives, don't send out runners, and so provide lovely foliage, pretty flowers and bright red, extremely delicious fruit.
Daylilies are also surprisingly munchable--in fact every part of that flower is edible, including the roots which play a part in Oriental cuisine. And those strange red,velvety looking horns on the staghorm sumac can be used as the American Indians used them, to make a tangy beverage somewhat like lemonaid.
I love the idea that if a hunger pang strikes as I'm deadheading, I can reach down and nibble a leaf here, or a blossom there to tide me over. Even more I enjoy the idea that my ornamental garden is also a useful one; that if I feel like cooking Provencal style I can snip a few lavender blossoms; if I want a soothing tea I can toss a handful of chamomile in the pot.
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