The Prettiest Veggies to Plant in Your Flower Garden
Updated: Feb. 23, 2024
Vegetables can be colorful and beautiful additions to your summer flower garden. Check out these edible landscape ideas you'll want to use now!
Sure, roses are gorgeous and so are the annuals that you plant in your flower beds every year, but you don’t need to limit your planting to just flowers and just veggies or herbs. In fact, many of these edible plants grow up to be pretty additions to your garden and can even benefit the plants that grow around them.
Swiss Chard
Chard likely isn’t the first plant you think of when incorporating veggies into your flower garden, but think again! There are varietals of this plant with brightly colored stems like Bright Lights Swiss Chard. You’ll find these veggies grow lush green leaves with vibrant pink, yellow and coral stems.
When you’re ready to harvest, try these tasty Swiss chard recipes, including this Garden-Fresh Rainbow Chard that really spotlights this vegetable.
Chives
Chives are a must in any herb garden. They grow quickly and come back year after year. But according to the pros at Ball Horticultural (these are the folks behind Burpee), you shouldn’t relegate chives to your windowsill herb garden. When left to grow, this plant produces beautiful pale purple flowers that rival any decorative plant in your garden.
And you can snip the leaves of this plant anytime to add to fresh chive recipes.
Candy Cane Peppers
Now, this is a plant with pretty foliage and peppers. The Candy Cane Pepper plant, a staff pick at Ball Horticultural, has gorgeous green and white varigated leaves. But the leaves are just the start. Once this plant starts producing peppers, you’ll find that the fruit ripens from white and green striped to have stripes of yellow, orange and red. When you can’t wait any longer, pick these sweet peppers and eat them as a snack with your favorite veggie dip.
Kale
Much like Swiss chard, kale grows large, attractive leaves. These leaves vary in shape and size but all have an eye-catching texture that can really liven up your flower bed. When you’re ready to harvest, try this super veggie in these fresh kale recipes.
Patio Baby Hybrid Eggplant
If you’re more of a container gardener, don’t skip out on adding veggies to your collection. These miniature eggplants from Burpee do grow adorable mini veggies but they also have pretty pale violet flowers and attractive leaves. Adding a few of these plants to your patio will enhance your outdoor ambiance now and your cooking later.
Strawberries
Not only are strawberries deliciously sweet, they add a gorgeous pop of color to any garden, whether you plant them in the flowerbed or a container. The appeal lasts—before the bright-red fruits come along, strawberry plants bloom in white, red or light pink. When you have enough fruit to pick, use it up with these strawberry recipes.
Red-Veined Sorrel
Red-veined sorrel looks similar to Swiss chard—with green leaves and (yep) red veins—but its leaves are much smaller. It’s a great green to use in salad mixes or sauteed as a side, and unlike many other herbs and veggies, it can survive many of the harsher elements.
Scarlet Runner Beans
Niki explains that scarlet runner beans not only offer a gorgeous pop of red to your vegetable garden, but they also attract hummingbirds and pollinators. To really let these plants shine, let them climb up a trellis. And when the beans are grown, use them to make these fresh green beans with garlic.
Purple Cauliflower
Even when it’s white, cauliflower is a pretty cool-looking plant. But turn it purple and you’ve got a garden and dinner table standout. Purple-hued cauliflower is insect resistant and can yield several pounds at a time so you can make these recipes a few times over.
Globe Artichokes
The wonderful thing about globe artichokes is that they’re beautiful both before and after they bloom. Prior to blooming, they’re round and green—and edible! Learn how you can roast artichokes and use up your harvest.
After blooming, they’re no longer fit for the plate, but they can provide much-needed variety to monochromatic gardens.
Small Peppers
Did you know that many pepper plants grow in fairly compact spaces, particularly those that grow smaller peppers (think Sweet Savour peppers, Thai chiles and more). These small peppers mature from green to yellow to orange to red and can really accent your edible landscape. Just be sure to label your hot peppers—you don’t want to confuse them with their sweeter cousins.
Curly Parsley
Unlike Italian parsley, the curly variety does exactly what its name implies—the leaves curve and twist, making them an ideal choice for adding visual variety to your gardening setup. Use them around the border of your flower beds or allow this herb to hang over the rims of flowerpots and window boxes. And anytime you’re craving a bit of freshness in your recipes, just trim a little from your edible landscape.
Originally Published: May 28, 2021
