Specialty Gardening: How are you using food plants in your cottage garden?, 0 by critterologist

critterologist wrote:
I use "edible ornamentals" to fill in any gaps in my landscape beds... Pepper plants with purple fruits often have lavender blooms and purple leaves also. Purple leafed basils are definitely ornamental, and some of the small-leafed basils have a compact habit that makes them work well as edging plants. Alpine strawberry makes a lovely compact border, and the intense strawberry-candy flavor of those tiny berries is really a treat. Creeping thymes are wonderful as ground covers or at the edges of beds. I have 'Translucent Golden Thyme' lining one side of my front walk (and fall-blooming saffron crocus is one of the bulbs along the other side, which I suppose also counts as an edible).

Last year, I used a burgundy leaf lettuce all along the edge of my front landscape bed, and it was quite striking! 'Bright Lights' chard is nearly as ornamental as some coleus, IMO, and this year I grew Red-veined Dock (same as sorrel, I think?) in the side bed along the edge of the patio. I put in a few tomato plants to "fill in" the space between some young clematis in a narrow bed, and they ended up being so well protected from early frost against the west side of the house that I may have to make room for at least one on an permanent basis.

Have you seen the big heads of bloom on Thai Basil? Lovely!! It's one of my "must have" ornamental annuals.... and what a bonus that it is so tasty in stir-fries!