Fast growing veg for ornamental bed

Hi all.

I'm after some ideas for my front garden. The front garden is south facing and quite sheltered so gets quite hot in summer.

Most of the garden is lawn and will stay that way for now, but there is a dug over patch about 2 ft wide running right along the front of the house, right next to the wall.

I want to make it a fair mix of ornamental stuff and edible stuff, but to the untrained eye it has to look purely ornamental otherwise stuff will get vandalised or pinched. Also, partly because I'm impatient and partly because its only a small area I'm after stuff that grows very fast.

Any ideas? The obvious choice is mediteranean herbs, which I will be planting, but what about more wholesome stuff? Stuff that can be used in sunday dinners or stews would be good.

 

Dwarf french beans will be quite inconspicuous, Radish v quick to grow and carrots relatively quick and can be picked when small and tender. Try a lettuce or two also, maybe some spinach and onions too...even one or two seed potatoes can be quite inconspicuous and will give a meal or two and how about beetroot and turnips aswell?

Have a look on You tube for "Geoff Hamiltons Ornamental Kitchen Garden" for further inspiration to see how you can grow to eat but still have the garden "showy".

Steve...

 

I know that radishes are super fast to grow, and they are quite tasty, too. They usually take about 3 weeks from the time you plant the seed. If you plant them just under the surface of the soil, you will have a lot of red (or white/pink/purple) bulbs showing at the base of the plant, and the stalk will just be green... you can pick them and eat them, or you can let the plant itself grow and it will make a pretty ornamental plant with white flowers. I don't know all the details, but I found http://www.radishgarden.com to be really helpful! Good luck.