I have really mixed feelings about interplanting vegetables in the ornamental garden. I've tried it both with tomatoes and pumpkins and been less than enchanted with the results. They are thugs when doing well, and less than aesthetic at later stages. You could probably tuck in a few smaller veggies such as lettuces, herbs, onions, without much harm. On the whole I would only do it if it were my only choice.

On the other hand, planting a few ornamentals in the vegetable garden is an excellent idea. Especially good are either daisy form flowers such as shorter zinnias, gallardias, and cosmos, or tube shaped flowers such as ornamental sages. These flowers attract beneficial insects that will help your garden be healthier and more productive.

Rosefolly

well, Sherry, I am with Rosefolly here. In truth, I am very ambivalent about the whole 'grow your own' phenomenon sweeping the UK. Unless you have enough space to be able to devote some to short-lived and untidy annuals (most veggies) I say don't bother. I have many tales to tell of friends with ornamental potagers who have been unable to actually cut and eat the carefully chosen and planted lettuces 'because they ruin the symmetry'. If you are really keen to grow edibles, then try some salad leaves, spring onions, garlic, tomatoes and courgettes - all of which can easily be grown in containers. Which brings me to another point regarding veggies between roses. Most vegetable are vigourous and WILL deplete the soil since they have to perform like supercharged annuals, producing crops in a few short weeks. Roses, to my mind, are NOT keen on this sort of competition. I do grow roses in a fruit 'meadow' - a small garden with perennials, bordered with cordon apples, recurrants, gooseberries and raspberries. I can amend the soil according to each fruits needs (Blackcurrants are greedy, redcurrants less so and gooseberries are not fussed by anything). I think there are similar issues growing herbs with roses since they can look awful, messy and scraggly and if the roses are between flushes too, the whole area is a dead loss. So, sorry not to be wildly enthusiastic but I really think there are much nicer things you can grow for winter colour and interest and cabbages, even ornamental ones, are not really up to scratch. Rereading my preview, I seem to be SHOUTING a lot - apols for vehemence.

Thanks, Suzy, wild enthusiasm isn't needed nor did I think you were shouting. (Maybe it's my cold - I can't hear anything.) Not knowin' nuthin' about it, I thought I might be missing out on something. I didn't know how demanding veggies are, and what you and Rosefolly are saying makes sense. I actually had planned to use the ornamental cabbage/kale in my shade bed which gets more sun in winter because they're colorful and don't die in freezes. I like the ones on the long stems or perhaps I should say I like the pictures, never having grown them. I plan to let them grow up among the bare hydrangea stems that drive me crazy all winter. Hopefully, everyone will give me other pointers, too. Of course, there is the subject of root competition. Don't know what is and what isn't acceptable.

Sherry

I have some peppers between Hermosa Catherine Guillot and Madame Wagram I also have quite a bit of basil growing in between everything as well as some marjoram and tarragon in small pots.

I guess I do the opposite--I root rose cuttings in the veggie garden. It's been a good place to stash baby roses a while until they grow big enough to get into the ornamental portion of the garden. The veggie garden is securely walled and fenced to keep out rabbits. Unfortunately it didn't keep the birds away from the blueberries.

I grow roses in my fruit and veggie garden and I grow herbs with roses:-). I am very easy about it and have little space so I can't fuss about who likes what. I have a south-facing side yard which is out of sight mostly and that's where I grow strawberries, grapes, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant and zucchini. I also grow broccoli and lettuce there both of which are cool season plants here. This space was also originally a cutting garden where I grew a few HTs. Eventually, as I ordered more and more roses, they migrated into that space too, so that now we have two arbors there with four climbers and two clems:-)(they are in that picture of clem and roses in the Janet post in the antique gallery). I amend the soil there twice a year, mulch and fertilize. I have not seen any unhappy plants yet, but by the end of the summer everything is a huge mess. It is not pretty in an organized showy way, but I love being there because it is restful and peaceful.

Herbs can be very ornamental. I know it shows in some of my spring photos that I have a border of silver thyme. It blooms beautifully in spring and then gets cut back hard so it stays bushy. Just after it is cut back it looks less than wonderful, but cranesbill takes over and I don't look at thyme anymore. Trailing rosemary is beautiful over walls, and creeping oregano is a great groundcover for sun. I grow several varieties of sage, golden with variegated yellow and green leaves and purple sage. They have not become huge and are really nice ornamental plants. Marjoram has not gotten out of hand either. I have a little border of green and purple basil which looks nice although it does become shaggy eventually. Parsley and dill I do not love but grow them in another mostly out of sight area - they get huge and leggy and floppy for me.

Masha

I grow many herbs as companions to my roses (thyme, rosemary, lavender, oregano, golden marjoram, basil, garlic, saffron crocus, bronze fennel), but have a separate space for veggies. Many veggies outgrow their spot and need staking and don't look neat enough for the rose beds. On the other hand, I have a beautiful climbing rose in the center of my veggie garden:-).

Herbs, yes, by all means. Veggies, I might as well send out dinner invitations to the deer and rabbits. And, as others have pointed out, veggies are only aesthetic in large fields as you drive by quickly.