What is an Ornamental Edible Garden?

As I sit here looking out at my own ornamental edible garden in the early morning light, I am reminded that it is a small pleasure that could be shared by so many more people.

It’s nothing fancy, this garden, just a small suburban plot. But it is brimming over with edible ornamental plants.

Yes, yes, you may be saying, we know about ornamental kitchen gardens. Good grief Marie, you’ve written about them before, remember? Ornamental edible gardens often go by the name of potager. Sometimes they are those old walled gardens that belong to big houses. Generally they have straight paths and borders lined with box hedging. There will be fruit trees against the walls and a huge greenhouse to one side. The vegetables are set out in rows with smaller paths between for ease of weeding and harvesting.

Well yes indeed, that is a brief but perfectly adequate description of a walled kitchen garden or potager. But how many of us live in houses where the attached garden is large enough to have a separate kitchen garden with all the decorative trimmings?

watering pond, walled kitchen garden, scotney castle, marie shallcross, kent, national trust garden

Does this sound familiar?

A vegetable patch tucked away at the end of the garden beyond the children’s play area is often the norm. And we start out with good intentions, raised beds may be built, or borders clearly defined and dug over.

The shed is a potting shed, where seeds are started off; there’s probably a small greenhouse where the seedlings grow happily before they’re transplanted into the ground. Water butts (recycled plastic, on offer from the council) take water off the shed and greenhouse roofs. Two compost bins sit side by side on the far side of the shed, next to where the wheelbarrow fills with rainwater (it’s rarely used, the space is small enough to carry most things in a trug).

Ah, such is the sometime reality. Of course it’s not always like that! Many of us have perfectly respectable and functional vegetable plots at the bottom of the garden.

purple mange tout, pisum sativum, pea shiraz

The Pull of the Potager

Some of the kitchen gardens, walled or otherwise, are also designed to be ornamental. These are the potager kitchen gardens. Neatly clipped hedges of box, lavender or thyme edge the borders or raised beds.

Vegetables chosen for their prettiness are grown alongside more utilitarian varieties. These latter potentially more reliable crops (with regards to yield and disease resistance that is) will be harvested first, maintaining the prettiness of the potager for longer.

Decorative appeal sometimes takes precedence over the benefits of harvest. But then, in all fairness, even the most utilitarian of vegetable gardens may find the gardener absent on summer holidays at the crucial harvesting time.

We all love the beauty of a fully planted potager. But when I’m asked by a new client to design one for them, I do ask the question have they seen it in winter and early spring? Do they have the time or a gardener to keep it looking pretty as well as productive? Lack of gardening knowledge is not an issue, we can sort that between us with a Plews gardening course.

rhubarb timperley early, clay pots, kitchen garden

No, what I’m referring to is the difference between the snapshot moment of a summer’s day: Ornamental borders already walked past and the promise of cake lies ahead as you step through the arch into the walled kitchen garden. The decorative potager with fruit arches and willow frames for heritage pea varieties is a delight: beautiful and productive.

And then the reality of a dank autumn evening: You were late back from work, traipsed down to the far end of the garden to pick the last of the runner beans only to find that the slugs had got there first. There’s nothing left but green ribbons hanging on a dying vine.

Ornamental Edible Garden or Potager?

Slugs are a fact of the gardener’s life and shouldn’t put you off growing plants. My point was can you get past the dream? Do not be put off your vision of a potager just yet. There are ways in which to own and use an edible garden area within your garden and still have the beauty of a potager. And for it to be easy maintenance (or at least planned as such) to fit in with work and other social commitments.

The questions below are some of those I would ask you as garden designer: they are aimed at making you consider both the look and the practicality.

There are other, rather important, things you’d need to consider when planning. For example, the health and type of soil, whether the area you had in mind for the edible garden is in a frost pocket. However, they are not just individual to your garden, but also require a site assessment. which I don’t want to get started on here as that’s a whole lot of instructions and explanations (triangulation anyone?)

Your garden can still be an idyll of ornamental edible plants. What are your answers to these questions?

Do you like formality in the garden, straight lines, neat shrubs?
Or an informal feel, with plants falling over the paths?
Is there an existing vegetable garden or orchard?
Which is more important, the look of a potager or the provision of fresh vegetables?
How much time do you currently have on a regular basis to tend your garden?
How much gardening knowledge and experience do you have?
What vegetables and fruit do you like to eat?
Is cooking ‘from scratch’ part of your family’s routine?
Do you use herbs in cooking?
Would you like the potager or vegetable plot to be visible from the house / patio?
Do you have a greenhouse and shed?
Are there compost bins and a water butt?
Would you like the vegetable plot to look neat in winter?

front garden design, edible ornamental garden, garden fencing, horizontal board fencing, slate chippings, herb hedge, fruit trees, wildlife friendly

Definition of an Ornamental Edible Garden

Okay, so far we have looked at a few definitions or possibilities: –

Ornamental kitchen garden
Potager
Decorative vegetable garden
Walled kitchen garden
Raised vegetable beds
Formal kitchen garden
Orchard

apple orchard, spring blossom, malus domestica, top fruit, edible gardens

Let’s encompass a few more and find where that leads us:-

An ornamental garden which includes many edible plants which may or may not be decorative in themselves
Edible garden plants set amongst the flower borders, for example fruit trees. These could be on dwarfing rootstock if you need a small edible garden
A garden with many ornamental edible plants planted amongst the purely ornamental as part of the overall design
Edible flowers, for example nasturtiums, and edible flower plants where you may eat one or all of the flower, stems or root
A herb garden, small or large, in pots and in the ground

Has that led us nearer to your beautiful edible garden? By looking beyond a general term I hoped to open your eyes to the many possibilities available whatever your size of garden.

There is so much pressure on small family gardens, on balconies and courtyard gardens that many people think an ornamental edible garden is just a dream until the day they have the space and time to own and maintain one. If you want it, it is possible to have one sooner than you thought.

ornamental edible garden, fire pit, echinacea

Ornamental Edible Plants or Edible Ornamental Plants?

Take a minute to re-read that. They are not necessarily the same plants. We are talking about edible for humans, of course, and beauty may well be in the eye of the beholder. But…

A garden bursting with plants, many of which you can eat.

Consider if you will, the ornamentals which are edible. And then the edibles which are ornamental.

Look out of your window or wander through your garden with a new eye, seeking those plants which may provide you with a lunchtime salad. Or where you could plant some among the herbaceous border. Perhaps a small potager is more your style, with a herb-edged path leading down to it between flowering shrubs.

All these ornamental edible garden options are good if they’re right for you.

For further gardening advice and inspiration, ideas for ornamental edible gardens and more, check out Plews Potting Shed blogs, including the selection below and our monthly Tipsheet . And do get in touch to discuss your needs and desires for your own ornamental edible garden. Plews is able to offer you Garden Design or Planting Design, Gardening Lessons where your garden is your classroom, Garden Consultancy Visit, to suit your needs. Please check out relevant pages on the website for more details

From the portfolio, this Ornamental Edible Garden Design includes plant lists that you may find helpful

You could come and find us on Instagram – @plewsgd Pinterest and Facebook too.

And on that note, you can have a peek at my new garden in the (new) Instagram account @spitfiresandslowworms

Edible Gardens Ornamental food
Edible flowers – Eating your Flower Garden
Easy Maintenance Edible Gardens
Edible Weeds
Growing Methods for Gardeners
Garden Visits – Kitchen Gardens
What is a Vegetable Garden and Why Would You Want One?
Allotments