Hobbies And Pastimes

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.

Give your wallet a break and lower your spending on these items by growing a great looking edible garden. It doesn’t matter if you only have a small garden area, they can be easily grown in containers and you’ll have fresh fruits, vegetables and even herbs for years.

If you choose from the many perennial types of vegetables, then you’ll be rewarded with crops every year, so you’ve effectively removed the need to sow again year after year. You’ll not only have food to eat, you’ll also have a very pretty garden, so it’s a two in one!

By selecting the varieties that regenerate every year, with a little bit of care you’ll have home grown vegetables for a very long time. All it takes is keeping an eye on the weeds and pests, then with an occasional prune, a drop of water and some feed you have an attractive vegetable garden.

These plants will die back for the winter months, but their growth pattern will ensure they re- shoot every spring for another season. Year after year you’ll enjoy a wide variety of fresh veetables and fruits.

You’re not restricted to ornamental vegetables either, there’s a large variety of perennial hrerbs that make a good replacement for some of your shrubs or the low growing types make good ground cover. There’s plenty of edible plants that can replace your traditional garden. Why not change some of your standard trees with fruit trees? Even try the latest varieties of dwarf fruit trees if your area is small. Use the really decorative herbs and flowering vegetables as accent plants or borders around your garden.

You can also mix edible plants with other plants to form beautiful combinations. Some edible plants, especially herbs, make great additions to flower gardens. You can mix all kinds of plants together for different looks.

Oregano and sage are extremely pretty and can make a fantastic low hedge around some of your larger bushes. If you have any strawberries, pansies, dianthus or lobelia try planting some curly parsley amongst them for a sensational effect.

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.

Many of these plants also have other edible parts. They can look very striking as part of a landscape while they’re in bloom. Sugar snap peas have gorgeous white, pink or purple flowers, and they produce delicious peas.

Nasturtiums bloom in yellow, orange and red and are edible. Salvia flowers in purple and blue, as does sage. Dill has beautiful yellow colored flowers, while chives produce striking, globe-shaped purple blooms. Red and white flowers adorn the fava bean plant.

Going back to the perennial vegetables and herbs mentioned earlier, you have a good variety to choose from including ginger, dandelions, asparagus, rhubarb, fennel, broccoli, garlic chives, sorrel, sweet potatoes, artichokes and chives. These and others make wonderful edible gardens and are very easy to maintain.