Here's my "herb quilt" with attached veggie bed

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You might want to check out the potager forum for ideas. There are many different potagers (vegetable gardens), both big and small.

Granite, your garden is beautiful!

Great question! I asked the same thing about a month or two ago. Definitely check out the potager forum. It's great for inspiration if you have an entire section of your garden that you can dedicate to fruits & veggies.

I don't as of yet, so I'm incorporating mine into my flower beds. Right now I have strawberries mixed in with my flowers, as well as some herbs (thyme, oregano, mint, chives, basil, etc.). I will be adding tomatoes, beans, peppers, peas, and anything else I can think of and have room for.

The best suggestion I got was to start small and work my way up. This year I will experiment with placement and varieties to see what I have success with and what doesn't work. Then perhaps next year I will build a separate bed for my edibles.

Have fun!!

Tracy

Yes, I mix flowers and vegetables. I am an organic gardener so I use the mix for pest control. Artemisia, marigolds, chyrsanthemums, borage, nasturtiums, lavender and santolina help keep pests at bay. Radishes are also supposed to be good for repelling bugs which bore. One quadrant of the garden is an onion plot, which also deters pests.

My biggest produce garden is plopped right in the middle of the back yard. It is fenced because I have eight dogs who will help themselves to anything from melons to green chilies. I've been working on planting the perimeter of the fence with a variety of shrubs and plants.

I have a strawberry bed, and three potted blueberry bushes. There will also be cantaloupes, honeydews, summer squashes, acorn squash, corn, lima beans, radishes, green chilies, jalapenos, sweet bell peppers, carrots, Japanese eggplant, potatoes, green beans, arugula and kale. I have tarragon, thyme, oregano, and chives. It is a lot of work. However, I really do love cooking and eating fresh produce from the garden.

Lorna

I have never had anything but a few herbs in pots. This year I have 1 Japanese eggplant and 3 Roma tomatoes and 1 Bush tomato and a bunch of Nasturtiums and 1 red bell papper . All are in wooden barrels by my carport as that is the only reliable hours of full sun..late afternoon only. So far it is working well. Everything is in flower and they all have small fruits on them. I have my herbs in pots as well. I am looking forward to "harvest"...even though it will be small :) c

I decided to add veggies to my garden this year, too. I've planted both in my flower beds and in containers. Using containers for vegetables is an experiment for me, so hopefully I'll have some good results.

The wine crate on the left has green and red bell peppers planted in it. The one on the right, yellow squash. In the background there's lettuce planted in a pot. Since this picture was taken last weekend, I've added an additional crate filled with cukes. I also have 2 Celebrity tomato plants, and 1 Roma planted in the adjacent flower bed, along with more lettuce.

In addition, I have a large terra cotta pot filled with herbs-mint, sage, and oregano. In the background, you can see Rosemary. Along the side of the house, I have garlic chives planted (not pictured).

I've been gradually expanding my beds, and if I have good luck with what I've planted this year, I envision a full blown vegetable garden next summer!!! :-) I would love to create a beautiful potager.

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Marilyn

I live on a farm so I have a dedicated large area for fruit, berries and veggies. I also have flowers in a nursery row or two in it and various roses and clematis on the garden fence...and a border next the the garage that is part of the north side of the garden. I have put basil in various flower beds and pepper plants in flower beds. You can raise pole beans in flower beds on bamboo teepees, and you can stick a tomato plant flower beds and then stake it to keep it upright. I would definitely try to work some veggies in here and there.

I guess you'd call mine a mix and match kind of garden. Over the years since the family has grown up and moved out I have slowly turned the veggie section in my garden back to flowers but have always had spots where I can plant pole beans, tomatoes, shallots, lettuce, herbs like thyme, rosemary, chives and greek oregano, some years I grow garlic.
This year I popped the top off one of our composters and planted 'Sweet Success' cuc's (a favorite) and 1 zucchini in the top. I bought several hot pepper plants which I am going to grow in pots, this way they can stay in the greenhouse if needed. I've also planted a few bush peas, these were sent by mistake, they had the same name as a tomato I ordered last year, can't knock freebees :o)
We also have a pear tree espaliered on the end of my greenhouse, have a raspberry bed with strawberries planted along the edges. The blueberries need to be renewed they are coming out shortly, I also have a big clump of rhubarb. I've started some Goji berries from seed it's a wait and see if anything comes of that though.
Yes, I guess it's time for all of us to start thinking about growing a few veggies, the prices are soaring at the supermarket and there are going to be shortages. Can you believe I couldn't buy any radishes last week?

Annette

I was just thinking the same thing. Great tips everyone.

I had a veg. garden a few years back but a family of pesky woodchucks helped themselves and I lost interest. Mayby closer to the house they would not bother. I think I will give it a try again.

Bought 1 tomato at the market yesterday and it was $2.26!! I couldn't beleive it. :) It didn't even taste good, hard and grainy...

~Karyn

Ever since we bought our 1st house, we've had a veggie garden. I hate buying tomatoes at the grocery store, now that I've had homegrown! Not sure I'm really saving much money, if any, but it is fun. I mostly keep them separate, but I've mixed in some things like chives and alpine strawberries.

Mine is a vegetable/herb/cutting garden with the front half circle as an annual display. I grow pole beans on tepees, tomatoes, eggplant, spinach, asparagus, radishes, onions and beets. Nothing very unusual and only enough for the 2 of us to eat. I really don't have time to can.

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Another thing, find an open pollenated variety that you like of whatever veggie it is you like to grow and DO save your own seed. I'm beginning to think the time is coming when the seed you buy might not be able to produce viable seed themselves and from my own personal experience I find a lot of the seed that is for sale does not have a very high germination rate, whereas in most cases the seed you've saved yourselves come up like hairs on a dogs back :o).

Annette

I live in the "country", but in a subdivision type situation. I tried to soften the look of the veggie garden and surround it with shrubs, perennials and annuals.

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Beautiful pictures everyone, I'm gaining ideas.
:-)
Extra efforts in the year THIS year however have to focus on fencing in the yard to give our herd of shelties room to run. I'm going to have to put up barriers in the garden or lose veggies to the doggies though. My younger doggies haven't had free run to my garden, but I used to take my oldest dog with me to the veggie patch. He was quite good at "harvesting" the beans from the lower levels of the fence and would eat every tomato and cucumber if given the opportunity.

I have seperate areas for my veges,herbs and flowers,but will put in a pepper or some other plant in the cottage garden.
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I just planted my vege garden last week end.I enjoy this garden almost as much as flower gardening,and even more when those tomatoes,peas,okra etc. starts coming in.lol
moonphase

I lost track of this thread and came upon it like I had never posted it...memory and aging!!! In any case what a wonderful surprise and I'm awed by some of the vegetable gardens you have all put in. Lots of good ideas and this weekend I hope to start the process. Is there any kind of lettuce that grows more readily than others since I'm a newbie at this?

I have both vegetable and cottage gardens as well as a traditional boarder of shrubs and perennials. I have always, though, overflowed out of the vegetable garden into the others. Eggplant is beautiful. Gorgeous purple leaves and purple fruit. Sturdy and upright. I also grow all of my beans in my cottage garden. They conveniently cover clothes poles and telephone poles. Globe basil is very compact and architectural and fennel is beautiful with it's feathery folliage. I think it makes perfect sense. Why do we separate these?

I grow it all together in my beds. Couple tomatoes, eggplant, okra (also have some of this in pot - dwarf), 2 blueberry bushes, many herbs, pole and bush beans, and some blackberries. I get a free email newsletter from KGI, kitchen gardens international, ya'll should check that out.

I have no problem growing romaine lettuce (I have a mix variety from a seed pack by Cook's gardens), Boston bibb lettuce, and a red-edged variety called Red Sails. My mom always grew black-seeded Simpson but I think its thin, pale, and bitter and have never been a fan of it. This year I'm also trying out a spicy mesclun mix by Cook's garden as my hubby likes the lettuce varieties with the weird shaped leaves. I'd think that in zone 5 you're still OK to start lettuce. In my zone its too late for the last planting unless you're going to use a shade tunnel to keep the lettuce from getting bitter.