How To Create An Edible Garden | Gardening

By TomJohnson
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Fresh fruit and vegetable prices are increasing almost daily! What can you do about it? I'll tell you... you can grow as many you can in your own edible garden! A lot of people are already choosing to create more natural landscapes, even landscapes which contain plants that are useful, or can be eaten. Many vegetable plants are very attractive, and a lot of edible plants have ornamental varieties.

You'll find you can have a spectacular looking edible garden that will ease the pain on your budget and give you fresh vegtables, herbs and fruits year after year. If you're short on space you can grow them in containers or even on a window ledge.

By making a point of selecting mostly perennial vegetables simply because they return each year, there's less replanting. Add to that the fact that your garden will not only look beautiful but be practical at the same time and you're on a winner.

A little watering and feeding is all most of them need, aside from the occasional weeding, pruning, or insect control. And because you've selected the types that regrow every season, you'll enjoy your harvest year after year.

These perennials will die down during the colder months, but come springtime they'll shoot again and produce another great crop. So by being selective with your planting you'll ensure that you get fresh produce every year.

You can use many different types of edible plants to replace various aspects of traditional landscaping. You can use fruit trees in place of standard trees or if space is limited there are some wonderful dwarf fruit trees that produce abundant crops. Many perennial herbs can be used to replace ground covers and shrubs. And ornamental vegetables can be used in place of flowers, borders, or other accents.

If you want your garden to retain some individuality you can plant all sorts of combinations of plants, for example some of the different varieties of herbs will look spectacular among your flowers. Don't be afraid to experiment with mixing all sorts of plants to achieve the look you desire.

For something different, try planting a herb such as curly parsley amongst your lobelia, pansies, strawberries or dianthus. Also for really pretty low growing shrubs, sage, rosemary and oregano look sensational.

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.

Also there are a lot of plants with edible flowers, leaves, stalks and tubers. One that springs to mind is the humble sugar snap pea... beautiful pink, white or purple flowers and then the delicious peas. They will brighten up any landscape when they're in bloom.

Sage and salvias have delicate blue and purple flowers. Nasturtiums flower in orange, red and yellow and the blossoms are edible. Dill have gorgeous yellow colored blooms and fava beans produce white and red flowers. Then there's the sensational purple globe-shaped flowers of the chive 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.

About the Author

Want to fill your small garden with plants and perfume? Tom Johnson has a Free Report for you called Container Gardening Secrets.

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