Aesthetics in the vegetable garden

Flower & Garden Magazine, May-June, 1997 by Dianne Hogendorn

MANY PEOPLE REGARD A vegetable garden as a purely practical place, reserving their artistic skills for their flower beds, foundation plantings and other decorative elements of the home landscape. I held this attitude until increasing shade forced me to move my vegetable garden from an inconspicuous spot in my back yard to a much more prominent, sunny location in the side yard. Nearby was a stone wall lined with herbs and flowers. Suddenly my vegetable garden, although neat and well-weeded, looked out of place. I realized I had to integrate it with my landscaping by making it look more like a flower garden.

As I considered this project, a number of requirements came to mind. First, I wanted to retain the garden's practicality while I improved its appearance. That meant keeping it free of permanent plantings and structures that would hinder the yearly rotary tilling and crop rotation. I like to start off each spring with a fresh brown "canvas" of bare soil. Second, I wanted to continue my gardening practices, which include mulching with grass clippings or black plastic. Finally, I did not want my quest for beauty to stifle experimentation. I enjoy trying different varieties in addition to growing the familiar standbys. It's a risk, of course, because new things don't always turn out as you had hoped, either in looks or taste.

With these reservations in mind, I eventually hit upon a satisfactory plan. On the side of the vegetable garden facing the stone wall, I made a long bed of herbs and flowers to correspond with the one along the wall. A serpentine grass path separates these two borders. The rest of the garden is completely open.

Every spring after tilling, I lay out sawdust paths leading to a central sundial. I can change these paths each year to suit my fancy, although I usually favor a cross pattern. In the four sections created by the paths, I try to plant my vegetables in ways that are visually appealing as well as horticulturally sound. On the upper levels where I use black plastic for the heat-loving crops, I tend to plant in rows or blocks. On the lower areas where I use organic mulches, it is much easier to make a curved row of leeks or a semicircle of cabbages. I treat my vegetables like the flowers in my perennial borders by placing them close together so the leaves touch. These simple modifications have transformed my vegetable garden into a place where form and function harmonize.

Near my home in central Maine are two beautiful vegetable gardens whose owners share my landscaping objectives. Initially I was attracted to these gardens by their similarities to mine. My conversations with their owners, however, led me to realize that there are also some big differences in our gardening priorities, yet each gardener achieves both beauty and practicality. I now believe anyone can make a vegetable garden more attractive in some way. Perhaps a closer look at these two gardens will give others ideas for their own yards. Nancy Pfeiffer's Garden has been the object of local praise for many years. It lies near the road through China village and can easily be seen by passers-by. The garden remains as Pfeiffer originally designed it, with a lengthwise path down the middle of a rectangular plot crossed by two smaller paths. This division creates six sections, with the middle two being the largest. The garden's most colorful focal point, standing at one of the path junctions, is a rain barrel with holes drilled in it for planting hens-and-chickens and nasturtiums.

The outer edge of the vegetable plot is surrounded by a rail fence (purchased in prefabricated sections to accommodate the Pfeiffers' lack of construction expertise). The fence is maintained by an application of water sealer every few springs, while the barrel is coated inside and out with creosote. These two basic design elements give the garden an air of rustic formality, a look that suits many American gardens well.

Some of the crops grown in this garden are a bit unusual. Because Pfeiffer creates dried flower arrangements, she has always mixed flowers with vegetables, with an emphasis on everlastings and other flowers suitable for drying. The two upper sections are planted with perennials: German statice, baby's breath, artemisia, lamb's ears, yarrow, chives and liatris.

The central areas, which Pfeiffer tills and rotates from year to year, boast a mixture of annual everlastings and vegetables. Pfeiffer wishes she had more space here. She does not, for example, plant winter squash because it sprawls too much. Instead she limits her choices to vegetables conveniently grown in rows, such as carrots, green beans, broccoli, tomatoes, beets and spinach. She plants a few cucumbers, which don't ramble as wildly as squash or pumpkins, and her husband grows a lot of onions.

The two remaining sections of the lower garden are given over mostly to decorative plantings. The southeast corner is shaded by a nearby apple tree. Spring flowers, such as Bethlehem sage, primroses, dwarf early columbine and leopard's bane, dominate this pleasant little nook, their blooms coinciding with the apple blossoms. A granite birdbath and stepping stones add to the beauty of this cool retreat. The opposite corner receives more sun and contains several large clumps of iris, rhubarb and everbearing strawberries.