When I’m out walking or biking I’m constantly distracted, delighted and entertained by what other people are doing in their gardens. Sometimes I like what I see and even stop to take a picture, other times I’m dying to pull out a huge weed that’s marring an otherwise lovely flower bed. You never know what someone might actually want in their garden, though, so I don’t usually succumb to that temptation.
The other day I was catching my breath at the bottom of Cote-St-Antoine before biking up the hill through Westmount on my way home from rehearsal and was suddenly transfixed by the sight of the flower bed that runs along the Westmount City Hall property. I loved what the gardener had done there. First of all, most of the flowers weren’t the standard issue echinacea, black-eyed Susan, phlox, etc, that might be blooming right now. I didn’t even recognize most of the plants (perhaps they’re annuals); the very large colourful flowers (see the photos) might be some kind of dahlia, and the little purple ones look familiar but I don’t know what they’re called. It was refreshing just seeing flowers I don’t see everywhere, but on top of that, kale, swiss chard and sweet corn were planted amongst them! It was done cleverly and naturally so the vegetables looked as much a part of the flower bed as any of the other plants. I’ve been doing the same thing in my garden, so maybe that’s why I found it enchanting. I love the look of the colourful swiss chard, and many herbs are attractive and can easily be mixed into flower beds. The seed plumes of the corn reminds me of ornamental grass, and are lovely accents in the garden. The dark grey-green of the kale is a great contrast to the lighter green foliage around it. I wouldn’t have thought kale could look so striking.
That experience reminded me that all our common vegetables came from wild plants at one point or other, and it’s only our perception that they’re from different categories that makes one a candidate for a flower garden and another for a vegetable garden. Why not mix the veggies in like that? It’s not the most efficient way to grow vegetables, I’m sure, but I leave most of the veggie growing to the local organic farmers, Jamie and Nora Quinn at La Terre Bleu, from whom we’ve been buying for years. (To read some great excerpts from Nora Quinn’s Country Diary, click here) I’m not excited about growing only vegetables, and with the amazing produce the Quinns offer, there’s not much incentive to grow my own. I’ve enjoyed having some edibles mixed in with the flowers, though. So far they consist of rhubarb, raspberries, tomatoes (which I’ve been growing in large containers, without much success), oregano, basil, swiss chard, parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. My rule is that the foliage has to be pleasing to the eye (raspberries and tomatoes being exceptions, but they’re so delicious!).
Maintaining a flower garden is certainly a luxury that I’m grateful I can afford. If I were in different financial circumstances, I might have gravitated to vegetable gardening and, (who knows?) I may do it in future in a more serious way. My husband, Dave, says he might be interested in gardening if it was to produce food; I might have to test him on that one day. However, I don’t see him out there harvesting the chard…
Just had to add this…
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