| Anyone who’s ever tasted freshly-picked and boiled
baby potatoes can attest to their incomparable flavour and texture. And while
eating these delicious, diminutive taters at fine restaurants is socially acceptable,
growing them has never been in vogue with the cocktail crowd. That, however, may
be about to change.
It seems that homegrown potatoes and other edible plants are undergoing a bit
of a renaissance. The idea that we can offset some of the transportation costs
of importing produce simply by growing more of our own food is capturing the imagination
of a number of gardeners. What is old is new again, and the rustic potato patch
and its brethren from our grandparents’ generation are morphing into the
chi-chi garden for nouveau gardening environmentalists.
Now I’ll grant you that even if edible landscaping is in vogue, a front
yard full of spuds probably won’t win you any Communities in Bloom awards.
But there are ways of blending edibles into your yard without compromising the
aesthetics of your landscape.
The first thing to remember is that ornamental and edible plants are not distinct
in a botanical sense. In other words, who says an edible plant can’t be
ornamental or that an ornamental can’t be edible? With a little imagination,
you can have your eye candy and eat it too. With that in mind, here are a few
good ornamental edibles.
‘Bright lights’ is a striking Swiss chard with a rainbow of colourful
stems—petioles, to be botanically correct—that blurs the ornamental
and edible line. It can be planted in beds or in containers, and when you want
colourful chard leaves for a dish, you can simply snip off a few without compromising
the aesthetics of your garden.
If you believe in the “clothes make the person” principle, even that
humble potato can have its day in the sun. New, hexagonal potato barrels with
sliding panels are transforming this humble fare into edible haute couture. Use
a soilless mix in the container and you won’t even get your hands dirty!
Hot peppers, such as ‘Holy Molé’ and ‘Mucho Nacho,’
are also continuing to grow in popularity, thanks to our ever-expanding culinary
tastes. Not only will a few hot peppers spice up a dish, they will also look great
growing in containers and even mixed with other annuals. Just keep in mind that
hot peppers love hot weather, so put them in the warmest, sunniest spot in your
yard and group them with like-minded plants.
There you have it—a small sampling of the edible ornamentals that can be
grown in gardens right across the country. And at a time in gardening when old
social stereotypes are crumbling and new edible ornamentals are becoming commonplace,
a vegetable garden is limited only by your imagination. I, for one, am glad to
see that some of the plants that were essential to keeping our grandparents and
great grandparents healthy have regained a bit of long-lost self-respect. Who
knows? If this trend really catches on, maybe one day we’ll even find an
elegantly speared mini potato in the bottom of a martini glass. |
Think of foliage. The
frothy tops of carrots can make a lovely accent in a bed or along a walkway. Ruffled,
colourful lettuce varieties quickly fill in bare patches.
