In reading all the articles posted to get this forum going, I've realized my Cottage inspired garden is missing edibles. I think I've been getting there, because in order to make myself take better care of the veggies, I started growing flowers with them, lol. Now I'm feeling inspired! I have 3 blueberries that are not very happy where they are, so I think I'll move them to my newest addition to the cottage garden. Pretty flowers, fruit, and fall color! I'm thinking of ways to work in rhubarb, raspberries (that are beautiful),and asparagus into the garden and what to combine them with to bring out their beauty. What have you done or read about?
How are you using food plants in your cottage garden?
I haven't done anything yet, but have plans for the cottage garden for next year. I am going to put in lowbush blueberries. and the heart of the garden will be herbs which will include garlic. I may do onions there, too. I like the idea of the rhubarb and asparagus as perennials, but we don't like either.
this is kind of a reverse of what I used to do with my veggie garden. I always grew marigolds on the perimeter, and used to add spicy globe basil and ornamental peppers just because they're pretty.
I'm working on the plant list for the garden I'll be building early next year and edibles are high on my list, partially because this garden will get the most sun and therefore is the best place to grow them, and partially because I like to attract as many birds, bees & beneficials as possible. I intend planting a dwarf standard lime tree, lots of cinnamon basil, chives, rosemary, thyme & lemon verbena. I'll probably throw in a cherry tomatoe plant or two as well. If I have space then I may put in another dwarf citrus - mandarin or kumquat.
I grew okra and jalapeno peppers in my cottage garden this year. Okra is in the Malvaceae family and the blooms were lovely. It was my surprise vegetable because I thought I had planted something else until I saw the hibiscus like blooms. I plan to add some heirloom tomatoes, garlic and maybe some onions next year. Who knows what I might try after reading what others are growing! The citrus trees and berries are tempting.
In addition to the vegetables, I have been growing rosemary, thyme, basil, chives and sage.
I really love the combination of flowers, vegetables and herbs.
This is a good thread!
I always grow basil and parsley, but next year I think I'll grow a cherry tomato in a big pot of compsted horse manure. (Will that work?)
I also want to grow carrots. I can harvest some and let the others rot to get compost down deep. (Will that work?)
I don't have sun for a tree and the soil is too alkaline for blueberries. I have raspberries courtesy of the birds, but I have been trying to kill them because of the thorns, but not doing too well. There are never any raspberries for me on these wild bushes.
Basically I won't spray and every bug from a 30 mile radius comes and feasts at my house -- vegetables are just a mess here.
Suzy
I just ordered two clementine trees (dwarf) and should soon receive pear trees from the National Arbor Day foundation. Also three blueberry bushes are doing well. Though I don't use peppers much, I seem to have a lot of luck with them, and they're pretty! Especially the chiles. I'll tuck a few of those in there. Also, I'm going to attempt some sweet peas over the winter, and will replace them come spring with some sort of pole bean, or maybe luffas. I've tried strawberries but had dismal luck with them. If I have room, I think a loquat tree would be fantastic with those big leaves and interesting flowers and fruit. Yummy, too!
Like life, I think cottage gardening involves walking that fine line between order and chaos.
Oooh. Deep. Gitcher boots on. ;)
I have thyme and lavender mixed in with my flowers. Always snipping the thyme to cook with, haven't tried the lavender yet for cooking. Also pineapple sage, you can use it in drinks and I've made a pineapple sage poundcake that was very good.
Suzy, I don't spray either and use very little weed killer. My yard is fair game for weed seeds.
Chris
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!
Oooohh, love that Thai basil!
Many wonderful ideas here, thank you all! I too have been using some thyme and creeping thyme, just need more of them. Yesterday the 3 blueberries got moved to the cottage garden where I think they'll be much happier.
Suzy, I think composted manure will work great for tomatoes in a pot. I mixed composted manure and peat for my containers this year and it worked great.
brigidlily, pineapple sage poundcake sounds wonderful! Care to share the recipe?
Is'nt it cool that recipes are even relevant on this forum!
I forgot about the creeping thyme. one of my favorite things. looks good, smells good, tastes good. I have 8 varieties in various places. shouldn't forget edible flowers. nasturtiums, violets...
Oh, yes, edible flowers! Once I figure out how to get the dirt out from under my fingernails before dinner, I want to make ice cubes with flowers in them. First things first -- get out of dirty clothes and wash face and hands before starting dinner. Cocktails on the veranda with flowers in the ice cubes will have to wait!
That Tai basil is awesome, Critter!
And gram, did you have to buy those basils or were you able to sow seed? I have an area I's like to plant in creeping thyme, but if I have to plant purchased plants, I'd go broke. I'm not seeing too much creeping thyme on the seed sites, or maybe I'm not going to the right sites or the right sections...I forget about herbs sometimes.
Ladygardener -- Lavender in recipes is a little hard to take -- even in small amounts it tastes like you're eating perfume! :)
Suzy
Suzy, most creeping thyme cultivars are propagated vegetatively, but I do have a patch of 4-6 inch tall thyme that looks/smells/tastes a lot like english thyme to me... I'm not sure what the variety is, as I grew it from trade seeds in a packet marked "Creeping Thyme." I missed harvesting seeds on them this year (they dropped when I wasn't looking), but maybe I'll get some next year... or, if we put a trade together, remind me to put a clump of it in your box.
It seems to me that I saw seeds at Pinetree..... let me check... Yes! They have T. vulgaris, which they describe as "low growing," looks similar to mine, and they also have T. serpyllum, a shorter variety. http://www.superseeds.com/products.php?cat=136
Here's my "english creeping thyme" growing around one of my big rocks by the patio... This picture was taken in spring, and you can see I interplanted the thyme with some phlox subulata... by the end of this summer, the thyme had grown and spread a lot!!
My son uses lavender in creme anglais for a desert sauce and it is amazing and not cloying at all. He is studying baking in culinary school, but I don't know the proportion he adds. I'll see if I can get some ideas for other ways to use Lavender in cooking without the heavy undertones. I grow tons of it. I plant all sorts of edibles in my garden beds. Most common herbs including 6 different basils plus several different peppers, rhubarb, horseradish, sweet Cecily, artichoke (I dig it up and bring it into the gh) , high bush blueberries, alpine strawberries and an ever bearing that is still producing strawberries. I grew the peppers in pots and used them as decorative plants along a walk. I brought them in and they have a new crop for hot pepper jelly for Xmas gifts (if I find time to make it) For next summer I am starting from seed a purple chard, a blue podded soup peas, a dark kale, a white borage and a different angelica (can't remember the name). I do have some big patches of thyme, but it has taken forever. I love the golden creeping oregano almost better and it grows much quicker. I grow as many edible flowers as I can in the garden beds. We did plant pumpkins and snake gourds in my holding bed this summer, but they took over so I am sending them to their own bed this year. We planted saffron crocus from Buggycrazy and I will hopefully be out there with my tweezers next fall. Patti
Oh, and do I dare mention MINT??
I think it's a wonderful cottage garden plant, although I know people who fight to keep it from taking over their worlds. I have a border of Chocolate Peppermint along one side of my driveway... I have to control it at one end, where it tries to spread into another part of my skinny landscape bed there, but it hasn't even tried to grow much into the really poor clay of my neighbor's yard. (I put a few scoops of topsoil down alongside the driveway before I planted the mint, and that's where it would rather grow.)
I also have Kentucky Colonel Spearmint (my very favorite!!) running rampant through the bed by the deck, but it really doesn't seem to choke out any other plants, and it definitely keeps the bunnies out of that bed, even when I plant peas or beans! Where I've planted them together, the Chocolate Mint "wins," so maybe the KY Colonel is just a less vigorous/troublesome variety.
And speaking of beans and peas.... I really liked the appearance of the purple pole beans I've grown, and I've also grown runner beans like 'Painted Lady' (although I admit I didn't eat any of those.... barely got 2 pods this year to produce beans for seed!).
I grow mint in pots, I don't dare let it loose as I once did. It took over my early garden. There is one that grows wild down by the harbor along a dirt road that is my favorite, but I can't seem to keep growing in a pot. I am always afraid it will disappear with the huge influx of people and bigger cars that now use this once quiet spot. Do you grow the pole beans on a pole or trellis? How long did they look good, and did you over plant them with anything. Thanks, Patti
Johnny's seeds -- www.johnnyseeds.com -- has a great herb seed collection. I like their outlook.
Suzy, I have bought my creeping thyme as plants because I want specific varieties. I'm kind of a collector. But I have a large bag of seed I bought from Outsidepride.com and haven't tried. its just labelled creeping thyme. I'd be glad to share. I'll never use it all in a million years LOL d-mail me if you'd like some and I'll send it out
http://www.outsidepride.com/store/product.php?productid=16548&cat=0&page=1
Oh, gram!!! Naturally I want it, but I just bought 3 packs of creeping thyme from the link Critter sent -- and another $20.00 worth of misc seeds I "always" wanted LOL!
I'm sure we'll do a trade in the spring of something or other, maybe I could snag some then?
I'm not planning on doing any Thyme collecting, but I saw a huge Stepables display out in Portland this summer that included thyme which was wonderful....everything was wonderful, and so touchable! I didn't have room in my suitcase, so I went to their website as soon as I got home. The display of a hundred plants in Portland got reduced to a handful for my zone 5 area. I was really bummed.
http://www.stepables.com
Thanks for the great and generous offer,
Suzy
critter - I love that photo of the creeping thyme. What a great contrast. I grew the Thai basil from seed this summer, it was so easy. I planted masses of on the edge of my vege garden and every time my husband mows the lawn he deliberately whacks it with the string trimmer because he loves the fragrance so much. LOL, Luckily it's been pretty hardy and has regrown quite quickly. The flowers are so long lasting and the bees just adore it. It's definitely going back on my list for next year too.
Pineapple Sage Pound Cake
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup honey
5 eggs
2 tablespoons chopped pineapple sage leaves (the small, new leaves are best)
3 tablespoons coarsely chopped pineapple sage flowers, if available
1 teaspoon grated lemons, rind of
4 tablespoons well drained crushed pineapple
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups flour
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Grease and flour four miniature loaf pans*.
Cream the butter and sugar until very light and fluffy.
Beat in the honey.
Add the eggs one at a time, making sure to beat for one minute after each addition.
Beat in the sage leaves, flowers, lemon peel, and crushed pineapple.
Stir the dry ingredients together and add to the butter mixture.
Fold these together gently, until just blended.
Pour into loaf pans.
Bake for approximately 45 minutes, or until golden brown (wooden pick inserted into center will come out clean).
Cool on a rack for 10 minutes, then turn out of pans and continue to cool.
*I used a regular size loaf pan just bake a little longer till brown and cake tester come out clean.
Enjoy!
Chris
Suzy, Thanks for the tip on the lavender I was wondering about that.
bb.. if you find out any more about the amount of lavender to use could you share.
There are a lot of different Basils, it's great to grow all the different ones and do taste testing. I grew them from seeds and had a ball. I like tossing a few into fresh salad greens and getting a taste bud surprise.
Chris
LOL, sorry if I led you down the primrose path there, Suzy! I've got a number of different thyme cultivars here also... been propagating them around the edge of my back patio... hopefully they'll do well over the winter and I'll have some starts to share. :-)
I saw a "Steppables" display in Boston that was pretty neat... At the risk of committing additional enabling, you might check out Bluestone Perennials... I think they have a lot of the same plants at better prices. (Check their GW reviews -- they sell small plants at correspondingly small prices, but the plants are generally so vigorous that they gain size quickly.)
I got a 'Lavender Thyme' at DeBaggio's this spring because it was just too nice to resist, but it's only hardy to zone 7, so I put it in the big pot with my bay tree (now in the morning room)... we'll see if it survives inside this winter.
Chris, thx for the recipe...sounds yummy. I loooove pound cake! Don't have pineapple sage yet, but it's on my list, so now i HAVE to get it LOL
I've gotten some very nice herb plants at Mountain Valley Growers. they have great plants, not cheap, but they always have some 1.59 sale plants with a regular price purchase and they have a big sale in the fall.
Gram, That is the only recipe that I have come across that uses pineapple sage, It is a very good cake and the red flowers are worth the wait to make it. I do live to grow it just for the heavenly smell of pineapple on a hot summer day soooo refreshing.
Critter.. I have 2 plants that I grew from Bluestone that I consider "steppables" Corsican Pearlwort and Blue star creeper. Both plants are spreeding and doing very well for me.
Chris
Chris, thanks... I'll check those out and probably add them to my spring wish list! It seems I always have space for more low growing plants and groundcovers.... :-)
I tried growing chives with irises after reading it was a nice combination.
One of my favorite edible plants swan neck garlic. They are incredible to watch curling and straighting their neck.
Russian Kale is lovely in leaf, flower and seed pod.
Amaranth, purple millet, thyme, opal basil make good companions, and amaranth/millet seedheads are excellent food for the birds. I could eat them, but then what would the birds eat? LOL
sempervirens, loving those swan neck garlic, they're on my list of must haves.
and you have kale and I just posted about another kale, the walking stick one asking when to plant it, Is it cold or summer crop? you didn't say in your post when it was growing.
the walking stick is probably not edible, but grows about 10feet tall with the leaves atop. sounded too interesting no to get the seeds.
Edited to take out greenjay and to correct misspelled word
This message was edited Dec 2, 2006 9:27 PM
This message was edited Dec 2, 2006 9:28 PM
jude, I'm afraid you have me confused with sempervirens. I like the russian kale though, esp. if it turns out to be good for attrating butterflies.
Semper, that's a lovely idea with the chives among the irises! I like the little violas in that photo too... I am going to scatter some seeds in my new iris bed! I have seeds for Garlic Chives (the flat leaf kind), but they have white blooms, so I think I need to get some regular purple-blooming ones too. :-)
OK, and now I really need a source for swan neck garlic! I tried PF, and I tried googling... please help!
yes, seeds for swan neck garlic would be great!
Oh, good point about growing plants that the birds like to nibble.... I have to put in at least a few sunflowers here and there, because it's such fun to watch the birds hanging upside down on them, gobbling the seeds! I'll be starting a few clumps of Purple Majesty Millet again next year, too... Today, we watched finches flitting around in the crepe myrtle, picking at the seeds, and the birds are definitely finding something interesting in my frost-killed windowboxes... basil seed, perhaps?
critterologist, Be warned! I have spent YEARS trying to get rid of my garlic chives. I love to use them in the kitchen, I love the bloom as a flower, but they came up everywhere. I dead head religiously ,but to no avail with this guy. . I also battled with bronze leaf fennel, which I also love to use, but it was too invasive to let romp on its own. I keep a close eye on Sweet Cicely Myrrhis odorata as it is bouncy in my beds but it has never been banned. Patti
Oh, you're right about the garlic chives! I've got them in a little niche in my front landscape bed, and they are quite the self-sowers! It's worsened by the fact that I rather like the flower heads and don't deadhead them... but there's just not much garden bed there for them to escape into, so I just pull up the extras every so often and pass them along (with a warning to deadhead or contain them!).
Now you guys have made me run to my reference books for information on the"swan neck garlic". OK, my source is "Heirloom Vegetable Gardening" by William Woys Weaver- Allium sativum var. ophioscorodon, "hardneck" or rocombole garlic....'The hardneck varieties form topsets on stems that rise up like snakes. Before they open, the flowers unroll like the long beaks of cranes; once open, they look like cobras...extremely hardy....may be treated as perennials...thrive better in rich soil north of 37 degree latitude...propagated from tiny topsets..planted like onion sets and allowed to grow 2 yrs.' -Mr Weaver is very poetic, but accurate, the unfurling and curling of the necks is wonderful to watch over time.
Another interesting plant is Tree or Egyptian Walking onion(Allium cepa var. proliferum), it also topsets bulbils then grows an "arm", (hollow tube stalk) on top of that and "grabs ",or loops, onto the plant next to it and "walks" the second set of bulbils to the ground. Quite a novelty plant, are you thinking Little Shop of Horrors ?
Critter,
bbrookrd is right about the garlic chives, glad you have them contained. But I do grow the bronze and green fennel. I'm on the fence on this one, it definitely is a wonderful host plant for caterpillars . It is a prolific reseeder so you have to keep on top of it, but now I'm hearing talk of it being environmently invasive . If this is true I need to pull it.
This is getting a wee bit long so I'll write a seperate post on Kale, greenjay and hey jude.
Uuuggg, I just noticed a couple of days ago that I forgot to deadhead the garlic chives this year! They're going to be all over the place.
sempervirens, your herbs look so pretty in your cottagy setting.
So any "hardneck" garlic is a "swans-neck" garlic? Cool! DH has been wanting to try growing garlic anyway.... LOL, wait until he sees them planted among the lilies...
I received some Walking Onion bulbils last spring and planted them at one edge of my iris area... they grew and look fine, but no blooms or "walking" bulbils yet, maybe next year!
I don't have anything that unusual, just "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme", LOL. sempervirens - Your gardens, as usual, are so lovely. (You had the ornamental wicker balls on sticks, right?) I love how it looks so effortless and unaffected. Maybe it is for you, LOL. Sometimes I think too much.