By Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Want to mix flowers & veg in the border for food and looks then try frilly lettuce such as lollo rosso or red cabbage to balance the decorative with productive.
Hanging baskets aren't just for flowers, tumbler tomatoes or strawberries can look just as attractive as surfinias & they're tasty too.
Companion planting too can be used as some vegetables do benefit from growing with certain flowers such as Marigolds, and others.
Then again, a well kept vegetable garden, especially when the plants, such as beans and peas, and others which are meant to flower, do flower can be a very pretty sight as well.
There is, however, nothing stopping anyone from growing veg and flowers together in borders and even in beds and planters and I can imagine that one could arrange some interesting looks and patterns.
Brassicas of various types could, for instance, make for a nice and interesting edging of a flower bed and Cauliflower in certain sections of a flower bed, planted in clusters, could also make for some interesting contrast and thus create a very nice display.
Then again there are also the flowers themselves that are edible, such as Nasturtians and several others. So you can, without problems, combine the decorative with the productive without having to compromise even.
Have a good look at seed catalogs and, maybe, do what kids would do; cut out some of the plant pictures and arrange them together on a piece of paper to see what a mix of this or that could achieve by way of looks.
© 2011
