The RHS Edible Garden at Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2011
By Michael Smith (Veshengro)
The Edible Garden showcased the very best of Grow Your Own, with a fantastic range and array of beautiful, mainly edible, plants and it was a true feast for the eye.
Artisan, rather than commercial, products, production and uses were the focus of this exhibit and it ranged from beer production, over fruit and nut orchard, cider orchard, fruit, flower and vegetable garden to “food for free” and basically everything in between including a tropic hothouse and giant vegetables.
The RHS Edible Garden, like so many other Grow Your Own gardens, small and large, at the 2011 RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, has shown that a vegetable garden does not have to be hidden away and, like it used to be, vegetables can be grown alongside flowers for bedding and for cutting.
In days of old cut flowers always used to be grown in the cottage garden right alongside the vegetables or amongst them. Or was it the case of the vegetables being amongst the flowers?
Whichever way, vegetables and flowers and bedding plants, some of which can be most beneficial to vegetable growing, can live happily side-by-side and can even benefit each other.
At the same time you can use every available space without having to worry how that might look to the neighbors and the council. Nicely arranged and grown such beds, planters, or what-have-you, look good out back or in the front.
Arranging such planting is not rocket science though it might be a good idea not to have one overpower the other too much in height and bulk. All plants need a little breathing space even though with the deep soil method things can get packed very tightly.
© 2011
