When you think of a veg patch there’s a tendency to picture a raised bed with nice, neat rows of lettuces and carrots. It’s a lovely look but it’s not the only look. We’re big fans of the French style ‘potager’ and the traditional cottage garden – they’re decorative AND productive, mixing flowers, herbs and veg together to produce something that looks very inviting.
With that in mind, we’d like to encourage you to pop a few decorative veggies and herbs in amongst your flower beds this year….
10 Plants that will look beautiful in your flower beds (and attract the bees too)
- Globe Artichoke – it’s big and beautiful and it’ll come back year after year.
- Aubergine – you get lovely deep burgundy flowers from the aubergine plants and once the fruit starts forming it’s an absolute cracker.
- Climbing Beans – these are a lovely addition to a border. They add a bit of height as they spirt up their wigwam, and the abundance of flowers is lovely.
- Asparagus Peas – like climbing beans, these will add height to the border. But the star attraction is their scarlet flowers. Beautiful.
- Rainbow Chard – pop a few of these in your flower beds and the brightly coloured stalks and big leaves will add a bit of depth. Very productive too.
- Purple Sprouting Broccoli – give this a bit of space in a border as once it gets going it’s really quite an attractive plant with big, majestic leaves.
- Courgette – This makes good ground cover, taking up about a metre of space and producing those big old yellow flowers that are great for bees.
- Garlic Chives – Beautiful spiky flowers and a perennial too so it’ll be back year after year.
- Chamomile – little daisy like flowers that are very attractive. And always nice for a fresh herbal tea.
- Borage – Add a splash of blue to the flower bed with this herb’s beautiful flowers.