The times when the garden performed only a utilitarian function, supplying with a crop that implements the food program on a large family scale, are a thing of the past. Today, a site with beds similar to pretty flowerbeds and neatly paved paths between them is more of a decorative garden. In addition to its direct purpose, it, combining with other elements of landscape design, acts as an unusual decoration of the site.
Transforming an ordinary garden with vegetable beds into an original element of landscape design is a task that any gardener can do if desired.
The easiest way to "revive" this site is to try to "play" with the selection of the most attractive varieties of familiar vegetable crops and place them taking into account not only compatibility, but also a successful combination of leaf shapes, shades of flowers and fruits
Planting vegetables
A mixed planting, in which a bed of one crop alternates with a bed of another crop compatible with it, makes the garden more attractive. For example: alternating beds of carrots with openwork foliage, beets with denser leaves, and cabbage, whose heads resemble blooming flower buds.
To give the beds more decorative, along their edge you can plant spicy herbs and greens: sage, oregano, rosemary, melissa, cilantro, thyme ... They retain an attractive appearance throughout the growing season.
For the same purpose, you can plant in the rows of vegetables and handsome annuals: coleus, cineraria, marigolds, ageratum. Variegated and fragrant flowers will not only decorate the site, they will attract insects pollinating plants
When combining the beds, it is important to remember the “unfavorable” neighborhood, when the plants do not get along well with each other, for example: aromatic herbs with cucumbers, parsley with cabbage, dill with carrots.
Elegant beds from decorative grades
Breeders do not cease to please gardeners with new varieties of vegetable crops, which in addition to high taste qualities also have an attractive appearance.
Decorative cabbage, resembling a marvelous blooming flower, against the background of lush greenery of vegetables stands out as a bright accent, pleasing the eye with bright and saturated colors
Article in the subject: Decorative cabbage as an element of flowerbed decoration
A fairly easy-to-maintain crop is planted in the ground through seedlings in May. During the growing season, it reveals the entire palette of shades, and shows the greatest beauty in the autumn months.
Decorative varieties of pepper with the fruits of the brightest colors themselves, which, as they mature, acquire new, more saturated and mouth-watering shades
Scarlet, yellow, orange, purple, emerald - all these colors against the background of lush greens look unusually beautiful and organic. Seedlings of heat-loving culture are planted when the threat of frost passes and the soil warms up well.
Bright orange "Chinese lanterns" can also be an elegant decoration of the beds. Physalis, belonging to the nightshade family, is used to create confectionery and sweet dishes: pastille, marmalade, jam and jelly
Physalis, like tomatoes, is planted in the ground through seedlings. The option of sowing physalis seeds in the soil under the winter is possible.
Decorative varieties of zucchini, with fruits of an unusual shape in bright colorful shades of yellow, orange and green, can be an original frame for vegetable beds
Zucchini seeds are planted in the ground in the second half of April or in early May, choosing sunny and well-fertilized areas for them.
Material will also be useful on how to better fertilize the garden in spring: //diz-cafe.com/ozelenenie/vesennie-udobreniya.html
Among the decorative varieties of greens, curly parsley, lettuce and sorrel can be distinguished.
Light-loving crops are sown in March-April with seeds in the ground, and with happy seedlings and the first harvest they delight in early summer
In the summer, every two to three weeks you can re-sow, thereby providing the whole family with fresh herbs throughout the season.
Vertical gardening
Having only a small plot for the garden at your disposal, it is possible to equip and at the same time unusual design of the territory using vertical beds.
You can learn about how to make vertical beds from the material: //diz-cafe.com/ozelenenie/vertikalnye-gryadki-svoimi-rukami.html
Containers with strawberries, strawberries and herbs can be arranged on the fence along the site or on specially dug poles
Planting vegetables in wooden containers, baskets or boxes looks interesting. The main advantage of such landings is their mobility.
Boxes and containers with vegetables with low stems can be placed on makeshift pedestals and stable shelving
Edging with a border material
Plants on the site can be placed in the form of small islands, framing them with a low border. Plant compositions with this method of planting are formed according to the principle of mixborder. For example: greens and spices are placed in the foreground, followed by carrots and beets, tomatoes with miniature cherry fruits occupy the middle tier, and decorative yellow sunflowers twined with stalks of purple asparagus stand in the background.
And yet, you can organize a high bed in an African manner, read about it: //diz-cafe.com/dekor/zamochnaya-skvazhina.html
The edging of such vegetable flower beds can be done from a border tape, which can be purchased at a gardening store.
The original frame for flower beds can be built from ordinary branches, forming a low decorative wattle fence
For edging beds and flower beds, tree cuts, pieces of slate, bricks and stones are also well suited. Accurate edging allows not only to define boundaries, but also to give the vegetable flowerbed a compositional completeness.
