Jamie At Home Matt James' ornamental edibles

Date Published:

18/10/2007

Gigantic growers

Height in a border is essential and globe artichokes are a must. Why not soften the jagged silvery leaves with lacy fennel?

Sweetcorn is another colossus, ideal where height is required. When its leaves rustle in the wind it resembles a tall ornamental grass.

It's not just the leaves that delight. The graceful oatmeal-coloured flowers have an architectural quality, as do giant cardoons (a close relative of the globe artichoke) which bear huge purple flowers reminiscent of Scottish thistles.

Some runner beans' flowers - Painted Lady or Scarlet Emperor - have beautiful flowers too. However, the cream of the crop has to be salsify.

Once you've seen the daisy-shaped flowers in full bloom, you won't want to harvest the roots! Like nasturtium, the flowers are also edible.

Elsewhere, flowers don't really feature that strongly in the veg world as flowering often signifies that a plant is past its best taste-wise (and is about to set seed), but you could always let a couple grow and see what happens.

Herbs have long been appreciated for their looks and the herb garden in full bloom is something to treasure.

Purple sage, rosemary, chives, lemon balm, pineapple mint, pennyroyal and lemon thyme are all easy to grow and are useful alternatives to traditional ground-cover plants. Shrubs can be replaced with blackcurrants, gooseberries, hazel nut, cobnuts and filberts.

Rules to remember

1. Arrange plants with height in mind, position shorter plants at the front of the border and taller ones at the back.

2. Vegetables need a rich fertile soil - what you take out, you must put back. Feed regularly. Consider making your own compost.

3. As crops are harvested, gaps will appear in beds and borders. If you plan carefully and plant another crop straight after one is harvested, the gaps will disappear. You could, of course, simply let ornamental perennials take over instead, or plant out some seasonal bedding to plug the hole.

4. Crop rotation is important. The rule is to rotate the type of vegetable you grow in any one particular spot, year after year. There are four groups:

(Permanent vegetables, like Jerusalem artichokes, asparagus and rhubarb are excluded.)

So, for example, in the first year grow onions, followed by brassicas the following year, peas the next and finally some potatoes in year four.

Then you're free to go back to growing onions. It's not a system designed to make things complicated but it helps to maintain soil fertility and prevent disease from getting a toehold.

If you have a really tiny plot, don't obsess about this too much though. Just try to move brassicas and onions around at the very least.

Do keep a record to help you remember as it's easy to forget, especially when planting within the flower border.

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