Vegetable Garden & Greenhouse Advice: Nurseries & Horticulture Home and Garden Magazines

Adding a Vegetable Garden to your landscape design can be a bit of a challenge, but if you take the time to plan it out ahead of time, you'll find that edible Horticulture has a place in your backyard.

Nurseries offer excellent gardening tools for the Home and Garden, which can be used to create a more elegant garden and you, may consider a Greenhouse, as well. This can help hide some of the more unsightly plants and may serve as an attractive backdrop.

Location

Where you place the Vegetable Garden will greatly affect the design. Unless you have unlimited space, you'll find that the shape is affected by the amount of space you have.

Your location will need to be fairly level, unless you plan for terraces, and should receive suitable light.

Check the plants you intend to put in to find out whether they prefer shade or full sun.

Design

Once you have a good location, you'll need to consider different designs. Raised Beds provide easy access to plants and allow for a decorative base, while flat beds can be good candidates for stepping stones.

You may also consider circular or oval beds, with taller plants (corn, beans, etc.) in the center and progressively shorter plants toward the edges.

There are dozens of designs to choose from, so take some time to plan things out on paper and choose the best one. You may find inspiration in Home and Garden magazines and online galleries.

Choosing Your Plants

Vegetables actually make lovely landscaping plants because they have a wide variety of foliage and blossoms that make them quite eye catching.

While you want edible plants, of course, there's no reason not to select the more colourful options. Look for chard, beets and colourful lettuce to add a little interest to the design.

Herbs found at Nurseries are also a great addition and can add a lot of flavour to the dishes you create with your vegetables. Herbs come in a variety of textures, from feathery dill to thick, leathery oregano and a multitude of interesting colours, including variegated.

Most herbs are started in a Greenhouse, and then planted out once they are hardy enough.

This means they will already be somewhat leafy when they are ready to plant and can fill things in while the vegetables start to grow.

Don't rule out flowers and non-edible plants, either.

These can be used either to fill in the gaps while your Vegetable Gardens are growing, or to break up a section of greenery with a bit more colour. An edge of marigolds is an excellent way to keep many pests at bay while enhancing the look of your landscaped areas.

Adding Extras

You can use other landscaping techniques and props to enhance the look of your garden.

A Greenhouse can be a great addition and when tastefully done, can greatly enhance the overall look of the garden and terraces on a hilly section of the yard will give you an excellent backdrop for more colourful plants and flowers.

A trellis is another way to create a point of interest in your Vegetable Garden.

It allows the climbing plants, such as beans and peas to grow upward, adding more space to the garden and some height, as well. Tipi and stakes can help tomatoes stand up, which creates another level of height in the garden.

When it comes to planting a decorative Vegetable Garden, be creative. Take the time to look through Home and Garden photos to get some ideas.

Horticulture magazines may also be helpful, as well as Nurseries, where you can browse herbs and filler plants. Once you have a good idea as to what you want, you can start planting the garden.