Gardening for beauty

[Guest guest]

>So our garden is there taking up half of our front yard. It may not

make for

>a pretty picture but it gave us a good harvest

 

Hey, it all depends what you find beautiful. To me, a nice veggie

garden that's

doing well and feeding people good healthy food without a lot of chemicals

is absolutely gorgeous. And, hey, you can always grow pretty veggies:

 

*Rainbow or ruby chard (or ordinary chard, which is stunning anyway).

*Red-leaf beets, a remarkable deep crimson

*The many strikingly beautiful types of kale, especially Siberian and

black Tuscan, a.k.a " dinosaur kale " .

*Lettuce! It comes in varieties so pretty I've used it in flower gardens.

*The dozens of different shiny colors and scores of different

shapes (some even kinda lewd ) of peppers, both sweet and

hot.

*Heirloom tomatoes in nearly every color from white to black.

*The midnight purples of Opal or Red Rubin basil.

*The Japanese variety of corn with beautiful " painted " leaves

(I forget its name, sorry).

*Lovely beans like Scarlet Runner (red flowers) or the stripedy

red-over-yellow-pod types, or whichever pole bean it is

that has

lavender flowers (Romano, I think?)

*Ordinary sage (lovely silver-green foliage and glorious

sky-blue blooms).

*Thyme, with its DARK-green leaves, and flowers that are pink or

pinky-lavender half the day and bluish the other half

(yes, really--check it out!).

*Borage, a cooking and bee herb that just _covers_ itself in

almost Noxzema-jar-blue flowers and has fuzzy silvery leaves

*The squashes, with their big elegant leaves and

pretty flowers and fruit.

*Artichokes, with their large, intricately-cut silver leaves--put 'em in

the back, against a wall, with purple basil in front

of them!)

*Nasturtiums, with their beautiful peppery-tasting flowers--stuff with

cream cheese and chives and put 'em on a salad for company.

(Nasturtiums are the domesticated sibling of watercress, and

they taste just like it.)

 

None of these is a gene-modified " Frankenfood " , just a selection from

the species or an ordinary crossbreed.

 

Oh, and try making a bean tepee for your kids: Lean six or eight good

tall

tomato stakes together to form a fairly broad cone, with one side a

bit more

open (the " door " ). After tying, pound each one from the top to dig it

into

the soil at least a couple inches. Grow beans (or morning glories, or

climbing nasturtiums ) up the poles, then let your kids use the shady

space inside the " tepee " as a playhouse. This can be really decorative

as well. Or if you have hot summers and no kids, see that the " door "

faces

east for morning sun, and grow lettuce under there for the summer, shaded

from noonday and afternoon sun.

 

One hint: Run a little coarse sandpaper over the poles before setting

them up,

especially if this is for children. Saves ya pickin' out splinters.

 

Rain

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