My favorite parts of the garden are the flowerbeds. Beauty abounds in the annual and perennial borders. But, I have also discovered that vegetables can be beautiful too!The first step, in ensuring this, is to pick a very sunny, well-draining, and moderately sheltered location.
Next, you will need some sturdy garden tools, such as a digging spade, rake, and hand trowel. You may simply plant straight into prepared ground, or create raised beds, which are ideal for cool and wet climates.
I highly recommend using open-pollinated varieties, so that you can save your own seeds to plant the following year. And choose vegetables that you love. There is nothing lovelier in a kitchen garden than watching a treat ripen!
May I, now, suggest some reasonably compliant plants to cultivate? Runner beans are an elegant and easy vegetable to grow on a trellis. This vertical element adds attractive efficiency to a garden.
Other easy vertical plants are peas and cucumbers which can be trained to climb.
Another simple and stunning addition are the summer and winter squashes. The squash flowers are not only eye-catching, but they are mouth-watering when coated in a tempura batter and fried lightly.
Vegetables that can be grown in rows or patches are bush beans and broad beans. Broad beans have lovely little white and black flowers that are as fragrant as any designer perfume.
Tomatoes are relatively easy to grow in hot climates. Keep them in a greenhouse if your climate is cool.
In cool or hot climates, the Perpetual Spinach is a great choice, since it is slow to bolt. This gives you a more reliable crop than regular spinach, which tends to go quickly to seed – at the first sign of heat!
Once your seeds are sprouting, mulch around them with compost to help keep your garden healthy and tidy looking. Mulch keeps weeds away, retains moisture, and adds nutrients to the soil, as it breaks down. Potatoes can be heavily mulched, since they produce above the planted tuber.
I hope that you have enjoyed my vegetable sermon and tour. And I hope that I have convinced you that vegetables are beautiful too!
I have been growing vegetables for almost as long as I have been writing. When I see a garden – I want to take photographs. When I see a picture, I hear words, and http://greenlightlady.wordpress.com is where I write them down. Thanks for visiting.
Growing greens ~ Wendy
