Grow your food in style and create unique and beautiful vegetable gardens that are as attractive as they are plentiful. Don’t be surprised if you’re more enthusiastic about weeding – you won’t want to leave the beautiful grounds.
Tips for beautiful vegetable gardens
1. Bring fruits and herbs
Most people think that vegetable gardens are pieces of lush green plants in boring rows. But you can think outside the box — even if you’re planting in a raised bed. With a little planning, you can grow edible plants with a screen that rivals the beauty of your flower garden.
Although this garden is relatively small (about 20 × 20 feet), it has delicious fruits, vegetables and herbs, as well as flowers. It’s hard to be something inconspicuous with such a combination.
2. Choose the right place
The key to success in designing a vegetable garden is to make sure you find the right place. Most vegetables run best in full sun — at least eight hours a day in direct light.
No matter what type of soil you have, vegetables will thank you if you supplement the soil with organic matter (such as compost) before planting. The vegetation will also be more lush.
Here’s a tip: place your garden where you can easily reach it. Harvesting fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs is less stressful if you can quickly go out and get what you need (especially when cooking) instead of having to walk down the yard.
3. Make an entrance
Let your garden provide a dramatic entrance. Here, a towering white tree with climbing roses is enough. Although these flowers are a classic equipment option, you can choose just about anything—from luxurious clematis or morning glory to edible scarlet beans or kiwi—to coordinate your vegetable garden.
4. Just add flowers
Why should you have a separate flower garden when you can plant it next to your vegetables? Flowers, especially in the chrysanthemum family, attract beneficial insects that attack and kill pests such as tomato worms or aphids.
Other beneficial bugs pollinate fruit vegetables such as tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, cucumbers, pumpkins and watermelons, allowing them to achieve a larger harvest. Better yet, choose plants with edible flowers so that you can perform a double task as food and sweets for the eye.
5. Protect your plants
If hungry deer, rabbits, or other cubs visit your garden more frequently, protect your plants so pests don’t harvest more than you do. For this small piece, a 3-foot chicken wire attached to the poles around the perimeter keeps the pet away from the vegetable garden.
It should be borne in mind that if rabbits, gophers or other animals hiding pose a problem, the wire fence should protrude at least one foot underground so that the young do not dig underneath.
6. Growing up with raised beds
If you need motivation to build raised beds, consider these advantages in your vegetable garden: You can fill the elevated planting places with any type of soil (an advantage if the soil is filled with clay, sand or stone).
Raised beds are watered early in the spring, so you can jump into the planting season. And if you build the box 3 to 4 feet wide — so you can easily reach the center from either side — you’ll never squeeze the ground by stepping on it.
7. Think like a designer
Say this three times quickly to remember: repetition is the key to unity. This garden is a great example of this garden design principle in practice: bright red poppies reflect the round fruits of tomatoes.
The tree-climbing rose resembles orange geyllands and nasturtium in the far corner. The warm color line prevents the selection of plants from feeling random.
8. Grow in containers
Add containers of edible plants—or soils and patios—to your vegetable garden design to expand your grow space. In these galvanized tubs, alternating dark green and red rows of lettuce form a beautiful contrast.
Eternal strawberries thrive well in pots or hanging baskets. Red fruits are tempting, hang on the edges and are easy to harvest. For more visual attention, choose colored containers for your plants.
9. Be sure to mulch
Mulch is not purely decorative, but also facilitates the care of the vegetable garden. One or two inches of mulch help the soil retain moisture in hot, dry weather and prevent most weeds from germinating.
In addition, mulch prevents many soil-borne diseases from spraying on the leaves of the plant and infecting them. Also, spread a layer on your trails so you don’t have muddy feet when you’re in the park.
10. Choose beautiful varieties
Flowers are not the only way to add color to the design of the vegetable garden – there is also a large number of vegetables. For example, the chard shown here will add a bright touch to the bed. Other attractive vegetables include eggplant, red cabbage, purple cabbage and red lettuce.
Various tomatoes and peppers bear the fruits of red, orange, yellow, cream, purple and green shades. And many herbs, including thyme, chives and parsley, can enhance the beauty of the vegetable garden landscape.
11. Breeding birds
Experienced gardeners know how important it is to attract birds to their vegetable gardens. Many common species, including robins, cynical birds, vagabonds and songbirds, eat harmful insects.
Place a water source in your garden to entice your feathered friends to visit. Here a simple flying pigeon among the herbs will attract them. Birds will also appreciate a nearby source of protection, so if you can, plant a shrub or small tree near your garden.
12. Add décor
Use garden decorations—from cages to figurines—to decorate your grow space. Whatever happens, as long as it suits your personal style. This rustic aviary arouses vertical interest and creates space for birds.