Vegetables planted in flower border?

If it's the front garden, some people have weirdly strong opinions about what should be grown there. I have a neighbour who has raised vegetable beds in theirs, growing purple sprouting broccoli and kale. It looks much more interesting than a paved parking space or gravel, but it's very much not the "norm"!

 

The late Geoff Hamilton who used to present Gardeners' World did it. People used to plant vegetables and flowers in cottage gardens and potagers. Good use of space and can look lovely.

 

When we first moved here, the back garden was a mess because of building work, so I grew veg in the front garden, next to the road. The neighbours commented on it, but generally approvingly.

 

I mix edibles and ornamentals. The only downside is I need to cover by black and red currants, blueberries and other bushes from the birds if I want some berries for myself. It looks weird at that season, some type of halloweenish decorations...

 

Yes! This is very trendy now, but was an old fashioned way - Pottager style, as @amancalledgeorge said.

I heard the term
‘Edi-mentals’ - meaning edible ornamentals. I do a little Pottager area with flowers and pots of veg too.

 

I don't see it any different to growing an apple tree or herbs in the garden. I tend to have some rainbow chard and kale just for a bit of winter interest. I also love leek flowers so have specifically grown some this year to put in the borders.

 

Some seed companies sell ornamental cabbage seed, where the cabbages have been bred for foliage effects and colour.

 

What would the neighbours here think ?

 

@Anna33 Geoff Hamilton did a whole TV series called The Ornamental Kitchen Garden where he grew fruit and veg in with the ornamentals and showed how easy and productive it could be as well as attractive. Hiding the veggies in the flowers helped disguise them from some of their pests.

You can buy the DV quite cheaply in a pack with his Cottage Garden and Paradise Garden series and you'll probably find the books in a charity shop or online.

Some years ago I took my garden group in Belgium to visit Kalmthout, a well know garden and nursery famous for its work creating hamamellis and hydrangea hybrids. We went in summer and they had a red border with ruby chard, red kale, beetroot, red onions, red ribbed sorrel, Bishop of Llandaff dahlias and some other red flowers all woven together. Very striking.

 

That was one of the things that we liked when we visited Farringford Gardens on the Isle of Wight. They had very cleverly mixed edibles, fruit and veg, in amongst shrubs, climbers, perennials and annuals. A lovely garden.

 

@fairygirl I have no idea. It was just the comments like "what's that" and "really courgettes in there". It is a small close and most are on the old side (even older than us) and they even frown on us sitting out in the front (where the sun is).

 

That's a shame @DiggersJo . I don't know why people find it odd. I can understand if the place looks like a scruffy allotment, but I'd far rather see a nicely tended front garden which has a mix of both, or even specific areas of veg alongside the ornamentals, than the God awful mess I currently live next door to.
I do think it's important in a residential area that people keep the front garden tidy though. I'd be put off buying a property if the gardens were all a total mess. The type of planting makes no difference though. As @Thevictorian says - it's no different from a fruit tree or something like rosemary and thyme. I occasionally pass a large house quite near me, which has a lovely front garden with all sorts of stuff in it, including some of those coloured metal containers/raised beds which have a variety of fruit/veg etc in them - strawberrie plants are obvious just now. It's roughly south west facing, so it'll be much sunnier than the back garden - just like yours.

 

An edging of red and green lettuce looks lovely and a wigwam of scarlet runner beans gives height interest. This is the way many people used to use their gardens. Bronze fennel makes a beautiful statement plant and the leaves of spinach chard and kales can add interest to a border.
What has it got to do with anyone else what you choose to grow in your front garden?
Go for it.

 

I started mixing edibles with my ornamentals years ago when I needed space to grow some spare tomato plants I had left over. I stuck them in a sunny flower bed with dahlias and they grew (and looked) very well together. I've started adding borlotti bean teepees as well at the back of the border to harvest at the end of the season.