The prettiest plants that you can eat
An uncharacteristically QUICK AND DIRTY hot take on edible ornamentals!
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Hello readers old and new!
Welcome to my first quick and dirty hot take email.
I’m a bit of a rambler, have you noticed?? Well, not today my friend. Today we are getting right to the point because you have a busy life and you want to know WHAT edible plants will actually look good in amongst the ornamentals in your cottage garden.
And I’m going to tell you.
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So, the best part about a cottage garden is that the traditional cottage style includes a mix of ornamentals (hollyhocks, poppies, daisies, foxgloves) and edibles. Which is all very well and good, except that not all edibles are created equal. Some edibles start out looking ok, but wind up just plain ratty and ugly (looking at you tomatoes!!).
I find the ugly (but delicious) edibles are best grown in a specific patch of garden designated to veggies. I grow mine in raised beds and in little square beds in our front yard. The beds help to contain the mess, and that part of the garden looks intentionally productive, even when the broad beans are falling over at the end of spring or the climbing bean pods are slowly turning brown on the vine.
In the back garden, I plant my ornamental edibles. There’s a name for ornamental edibles - edimentals! Basically, plants that you can eat, but that are also really pretty in their own right. I have a few firm favourite edible perennials, and annuals that I let self seed anywhere they like every year, and if you want to grow a beautiful cottage garden, I really recommend you add these to your list:
Mustard greens
Especially giant Japanese mustard greens - these have purple, elephantine leaves that are quite peppery (use them as you’d use silverbeet or shred them finely along with other, milder salad greens for a mixed salad). In spring they send up 6ft tall stalks covered with yellow flowers. Plant towards the front/centre of your garden beds.
Silverbeet (aka chard)
Rainbow chard is such a gorgeous ornamental plant, it does best in full sun and will look lovely towards the front of your beds
Chicory
Chicory has gorgeous baby blue flowers and you can eat the leaves as you would a salad green.
Carrots
Carrot flowers are sooo underrated. Carrots grow better as edibles (with a straighter, bigger root) if they are planted in light, free draining soil devoid of rocks, but you can also just fling carrot seeds around your garden in early winter and see what pops up. In summer the carrots left unharvested will produce amazing flowerheads that work great in a vase.
Jerusalem artichokes
This edible perennial produces tubers that you can dig up and eat in autumn. Before you dig the tubers up (make sure to replant lots for the next year), the plant will flower - tall, gorgeous sunflower-like flowers erupt from a single stem. Jerusalem artichokes are related to sunflowers and, in my experience, are more reliable, prettier and…edible!
Artichokes
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