Edibles AND Decoratives - opinions please

[Breq]

I seem to be bumping into people who think if you grow oramental plants (flowers, shrubs etc) that you don't "do" edibles (pfft, potatoes). And edible growers who don't "do" flowers/ shrubs ever (frilly nonsense).

I am of the opinion they are all plants and I love growing them all and do not see a dividing line between them. Kind of like, if I have cats I could not possibly love dogs (I do have cats and also love dogs, btw).

My garden has a large number of fruit, veg, and herbs but also a large number of roses, shrubs, trees and a wildlife area. It is not an either/or for me. I want it all!

Am I alone in this opinion? Or is there a change in how people are perceiving gardens /growing to allow this combination of everything that you like?

[oldherbaceous]

Afternoon Breq, I think you have it spot on…before I got my allotment, I used to grow veg, flowers and shrubs in my borders….and I thought it looked very nice!
I now grow flowers for cutting, fruit and veg, over the allotments.

[tigerburnie]

I have a modest sized garden but manage to have trees, shrubs, a wildlife pond, flower beds, a greenhouse and three raised beds for veg growing. I don't care for cats or dogs, I did fly a Falcon at one time, not interested in domestic pets.

[Primrose]

I'm all for a mixture of everything if you have the space to accommodate it. I know of some people who wouldn't dream of growing vegetables, regarding it as rather "working class" or perhaps older people had enough of enforced vegetable growing in their childhood years when virtually every garden had a veg plot somewhere as a survival plan.

I personally think it's nice to grow both edibles and decoratives as you need flowers anyway to attract insects to pollenise your flowering vegetable plants, and without growing both you get a poorer sense of how the seasons are progressing.

I think it would be a miserable garden if you grew nothing but vegetables and didn't have a few daffodils or other spring flowers to mark the change of season from winter and remind you it was time to get sowing those veggie seeds again.

[Westi]

I mix them up, although I have designated beds at the front of the plot, little pots on some staging by the shed & an arch down the path for sweet peas if something pops up in the wrong area I generally leave it or move it into a more suitable location if it is interfering with the veg weeding. Folk that are so insular to think that it has to be one or the other obviously have not really caught the growing bug or understand the benefits that flowers have for the wildlife, bees in particular, not to mention the sacrificial flowing plants to grow to protect edibles. Nor tasted the actual difference in taste of hime grown veg.

Maybe it is a older person's thinking as on the FB sites it is mainly younger people & families who are celebrating getting an allotment.

[retropants]

I've always grown as much as I can, with no division between flowers and veg. I also use a lot of the flowers & herbs in my soapmaking.

[Stravaig]

If I have space I would grow both but I've spent the last few years without a garden and been limited to what I can grow on windowsills. Therefore, I only grow edibles - mainly because my hobby is cooking. Anyway, some plants are decorative as well as being edible. Cornflowers, for example. They can look quite stunning on the plate but don't actually add anything very much to the taste.

[Breq]

Thanks all! Glad I am not alone. I love to mix it up and think veggie & other edibles are beautiful. My fav gardens to visit have both.

An artichoke self-seeded into a flower bed on the other side of the garden and I left it - people visiting remarked what a lovely exotic flower I was growing
And friend who has no garden wanted to grow some plants in window boxes. I convinced her (eventually!) to try some mixed coloured lettuce seed and she was chuffed: beautiful and saved her lots on buying packed salad green.

Veg & fruit are as beautiful as my snowdrops and roses. Now let's talk about lovely weeds...

[Primrose]

Lovely weeds! One has been a total nightmare. Wasn't in our newbuld house garden for years until aI suspect it was introduced via a garden centre plant or probably a friend gifting a plant with local soil whixh had some bulbils in. I,m talking of oxalis, a small weed with a trefoil like leaf not dissimilar to a clover leaf.

I,ve wasted hours of my precious life digging this pernicious weed and its little bulbils out of the soil. The border can look absolutely clear of it after I,ve finished yet within a fortnight a new wave of it starts springing up. I,d award an agricultural Nobel,prize to anybody who could permanently eliminate this beast! I guess everybody who has their problem weed but this certainly mine!

[tigerburnie]

I inherited a garden full of Ground Elder, a previous owner was a gardener for the local council and I reckon he must have brought them in as my garden is the only one in the village with the pesky plants. Apparently they are edible, but they taste minging to me.

[Jo90]

I am of the same opinion as you, there is room in any garden for both, since we moved I now have a veggie and fruit area with raised beds, but I also integrated some spare courgettes which I was given in a new bed that only had a few shrubs in and used that for them as they could spread, but they did look a bit of a mess and tried to populate the drive as well. Lol, kept having to hack them back.