Jamie At Home Matt James' ornamental edibles

Date Published:

18/10/2007

Food as art

At first glance, the traditional vegetable patch doesn't seem particularly beautiful, but have you ever stopped to appreciate the countless different shapes, forms, textures and colours? English kitchen gardeners certainly did.

Look at traditional cottage designs and you'll see vegetables mixed in with colourful annuals, perennials, shrubs and climbers.

The French, driven by their passion for food and aesthetics, went further still in creating the potager, an ornamental vegetable garden with lots of decorative appeal. Everything from beetroot to globe artichokes featured in formal designs full of interest.

Unfortunately in small urban gardens there isn't the space for the full-blown potager, and crops often have to jostle for room within the flower border.

So to maximise your garden's 'wow' factor, don't just consider what crops will taste like, check to see if they look good too. You'll get two for the price of one - a crop that looks good... enough to eat!

Colourful crops

Most vegetables have distinctive leaves or form and can be used for contrast.

Blue-grey leeks like Bleu de Solaise with their sword-like foliage work wonderfully with the mounded shapes of soft pink geraniums, for instance.

Gun-metal coloured sea kale has attractive wavy leaf edges. The flowers, which appear in summer, are sweetly scented too. It looks fantastic planted in drifts amongst rusty-coloured grasses like Carex Flagellifera and Carex Comans.

For something a little brighter try ruby chard, rhubarb or red-leaved lettuce like Lollo Rosso and Rosa Pablo. Given a rich fertile soil and a sunny spot, even the lowly potato has something to offer.

The fruits of vegetables like gourds and pumpkins are also a potential source of colour. Look in seed catalogues for a huge range of oddities: pink squash, purple brussels sprouts, black beans... yellow tomatoes,