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Contrary to popular opinion, vegetables do not need their very own garden. If you have gardens, you have room for veggies!!
My vegetable garden has slowly been converted into a fruit garden. This didn't happen overnight. It is surrounded by a lovely little picket fence, about 2 feet high. Mom built it one spring when she was bored, to provide a little protection from, well, rabbits anyways. We painted it redwood, to match the garage. Everytime we bought a new fruit and were looking for a place to put it, the veggie garden seemed appropriate. Since I buy most everything in the fall, reduced, the veggie bed would be the only empty place in the yard. Fruits would be parked there "temporarily", until we could find a suitable spot for them. The temporary spot became permanent. The veggies gradually got moved aside. Now I have a lovely little garden filled with Apple Trees that we started from seed, Grapes, Raspberries and Blueberries. The question was, where am I gonna put the veggies?
I thought back to a time when I rented this house, and didn't have the use of the entire yard like I do now that I own it. Ah Ha!! Problem solved. I'll put the vegetables in the gardens, with the annuals and perennials, like I did years ago. I mean, why not? The flower beds get weeded, they get compost, a drink if they beg. That's the exact same treatment vegetables need.
Picture it if you will. Peppers among the Poppies. Green Beans among the Geraniums. Beets around the Blanket Flowers. A driveway lined with half barrels filled with Tomatoes.
It is a well known fact that planting certain flowers with your vegetables helps protect them fom bugs. Why not reverse it and plant the veggies right in with the flowers? Geraniums are said to repel Cabbage worms, makes sense to have them growing together. Marigolds help keep whiteflies off of Tomatoes. Petunias are a good pest deterrent as well. Sweet Alyssum attracts a bug that greedily eats Aphids. Bring your vegetables back to the garden.
I once stuck two Tomato plants in my raised front flower bed, under an old leaky eaves trough. Every night the dew would form on the roof and drip down and water those Tomatoes. Nothing else would grow in that 2 foot square area without rotting because it was always damp. That year I had the best crop of Tomatoes ever. They produced quite happily between the Sedum and the Monarda.
Vining veggies. Cucumbers, Pole Beans(Grandads favourite). Imagine them growing along with your Clematis or Morning Glories. Let them grow up your Sunflowers, ready made poles just waiting to be taken advantage of. Saves searching around for wires, string, fencing, etc. Don't laugh!! It is possible.
Utilize all of that area between your Perennials, just think, the less open space there is, the less room there will be for weeds to grow. Use your imagination here, there are no rules. Carrots among the Cosmos. All of the action in Cosmos happens at the top of the plant. Carrots would nicely fill that bare space down below with lush, green foliage, keeping the weeds at bay. I have seen carrots grown in deep, square pots as well.
Imagine, if you will, wandering around the garden, pulling the few weeds that found the space to grow, every few feet or so stopping to munch contentedly on Beans, Sugar Snap Peas, Cherry Tomatoes. Dead heading would become a task to look forward to. A recommended daily serving of vegetables, no cooking required!!
Many thanks to bebop2 for the use of the lovely photos.
About Lee Anne Stark
I am an avid gardener who shares my gardens with 2 other equally avid gardeners. I garden for fun and relaxation, never paying attention to the rules!! During the long, cold winter months I occupy my time playing with over a hundred house plants, my six cats and two dogs.
Posted by gleichen (from gleichen
(Canada)) on March 10, 2008 at 10:07 AM:
re: cabin fever, we live in zone 3 in southern Alberta and we too have done our time with -50; C or F doesn't matter when it's that bloomin' (no pun) cold. We're almost embarrassed by the warmer weather we've had the last week or so when the eastern States and Canada are having such a miserable time of it. So bad even the geese are coming north to get out of it and we expect the robins in the next couple of weeks. We should all go visit islandshari; I'm sure she won't mind. But there is hope. Things are wiggling under the receding snow line. Hang in there girl.
Trish near Gleichen
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Subject: look close
Posted by cathy4 (from St. Louis County, MO) on March 9, 2008 at 1:35 PM:
Remember, if you grow your cucumbers with other vines, it will be a bit harder to see them. I grow mine with morning glories, and I've missed one now and then until it gets too big to eat (I like them small.) Great article!
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Posted by leaflady (from Hughesville, MO) on March 9, 2008 at 2:10 PM:
Since I seem to be too dumb to tell MG sprouts from bean sprouts, the MGs took over my pole bean fence and smothered them out completely for 2 years. Finally I dug holes, put in styrofoam cups filled with good rich loose soil, planted green bean seeds and if it wasn't coming up in the cup it didn't get to live until the beans stopped bearing. Be sure to cut off the bottom 1/3 - 1/2 of the cup so the roots of the bean plant can escape out into the surrounding soil. My MGs have hybridized with the local wild ones so there is a wide variety of colors out there. My tame ones were a bright deep pink, a solid white, and GrandPa Otts. You can imagine the combinations we now have.
I let my marigolds go to seed so they have reverted to whatever it was they were years ago before they were hybridized. They grow in among nearly all my veggies. I grow basil, tomatoes, marigolds, lettuces, and sometimes cukes together along a stretch of 6' tall chainlink fence that surrounds the bird yard. I have to put chicken wire on the inside and outside of this 'bed' which is also slightly raised. I use old trailer skirting to hold the soil somewhat in place. This bed is only about 12" wide and about 5" deep but I grow a lot of stuff in it. I may do a raised bed along the south side of the bird yard too but it has done fine so far as a soil level bed.
Last year I raised some butternut winter squash in 2 beds that didn't have a lot in between the perrenials like iris, daylilies, spiderwort, etc. They went wild and produced wonderfully. I find that if I have veggies in a bed I will be more apt to keep it weeded. One bed of the squash only had Mexican Sunflowers in it so I put down cardboard over the bare soil to hold moisture and keeps grasses and weeds down. Rain soaked thru the cardboard fairly well, but in beds where I felt it wasn't because of the kind of cardboard it was I slipped in soaker hoses so I could control the moisture and where it went. Almost no moisture loss to evaporation. This kind of interplanting makes the most of your limited areas and has lead to the term yardening.
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Posted by Pamgarden (from Central, VA) on March 9, 2008 at 3:29 PM:
Your garden is just chock full of goodies. Thank you for a great article.
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Subject: vegie garden
Posted by so1ange (from Zaandijk
(Netherlands)) on March 9, 2008 at 5:30 AM:
I love your garden Lee Anne, it's beautiful. The concept of mixing vegies with flowers isn't entirely strange though, did you ever read about Edible Forest Gardens. Really great concept.
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Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on March 9, 2008 at 7:43 AM:
If only my family would eat the vegetables I grew, that's how I'd grow them! Great article, Lee Anne, and my sentiments exactly. xxx, Carrie
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Posted by pixie62560 (from South China, ME) on March 9, 2008 at 8:21 AM:
Great article Lee Ann, nice to munch and weed at the same time!!
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Posted by doccat5 (from Fredericksburg, VA) on March 9, 2008 at 8:27 AM:
Isn't it great! I'm now adding more flowers so I have something more to mix with the veggies. Great article, thanks for sharing!!
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Posted by tmbolin (from crossville, TN) on March 9, 2008 at 9:30 AM:
Loved the idea Lee Ann. Beautiful photos as well.
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Posted by darius (from Marion, VA) on March 9, 2008 at 11:29 AM:
Nicely said... Thanks!
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Posted by SCNewbie (from Anderson, SC) on March 9, 2008 at 11:30 AM:
Super idea! Now I know what I'm going to plant at the feet of my clematis - carrots! Thank you!!! :))))))))
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Posted by musicmonkey2 (from Saco, ME) on March 10, 2008 at 1:43 PM:
Hi All! One of the most fabulous combinations of veggies and flowers is something I saw done in a Camden, Maine flower/herb garden outside a restaurant. I quickly incorporated this idea into my perenniel beds and loved the results! Combine the vibrantly colored swiss chards ( I like bright lights or rhubard chard or golden sunrise chard). I start them from seed in my conventional veggies bed. Then I tuck the small seedlings once they are about 3 inches high between my sundown series coneflowers and butterfly delphiniums and the effect is unreal. I wish I had a picture to show you guys. The vibrancy of the orangy/pink coneflowers, the cobalt blue of the airy delphiniums and the tall dinosaur type green leaves (they do get tall) with the brillant deep orange, scarlet or hot pink ribs and stems is unbelievable. The later in the season (even into fall) they go, the more vibrant and deep the coloring of the ribs. And late in the season, when there seems to be only tomatoes and peppers to eat, I go into my perenniel bed and clip some chard leaves and make stuffed-type rolls with brown rice, onion, garlic, olive oil and cheese. Or just saute the massively large chard leaves chopped with garlic and olive oil. Anybody else try this garden combination?
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Posted by threegardeners (from North Augusta, ON) on March 10, 2008 at 1:48 PM:
I haven't, but I sure am going to!!
Thanks for the idea.
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Posted by JuanaWonder (from Indianapolis, IN) on March 10, 2008 at 6:42 PM:
I started doing this by accident years ago. I just couldn't say no to a new perrenial herb or a sad little pepper left to die at the nursery. I had to find a place to stick them in the ground. Over the years I've learned my lesson about what was too aggressive. I've learned to turn my head if I see the little bitty pot of half dead fennel or a small piece of mint. Those are among the very agressive plants that can't come to my house anymore. Its always great to see a volunteer cherry bomb pepper show up among the daisies, etc. I love my garden to be covered with textures, colors and smells that can be left to do there own thing.
Blueberries. The question was, where am I gonna put the veggies? 
that greedily eats Aphids. Bring your vegetables back to the garden. 
Cosmos. All of the action in Cosmos happens at the top of the plant. Carrots would nicely fill that bare space down below with lush, green foliage, keeping the weeds at bay. I have seen carrots grown in deep, square pots as well.
