Landscaping With a Vegetable Garden

When there is only a limited amount of space for gardening, or you find your self wanting to stretch the food dollar, then landscaping your yard with vegetables is a great way to accomplish your goals. Landscape gardening with vegetables isn't anything more than using vegetables to landscape while mixing flowers and vegetables. The arrangement of both vegetables and flowers in a garden can be very beautiful.

While this type of gardening isn't new, it has recently started to become more popular as opposed to having two separate gardens. You may actually be surprised to find that this type of landscaping has been done for centuries. While the styles and varieties may have changed through the years, the concept has remained, planting a variety of plants in a limited space.

This may sound hard to do or even overwhelming. It isn't, it really is quite simple. While deciding on what to plant keep in mind that you will want to place flowers and the vegetables together that have the same requirements such as water, and sun. Design the garden so that the plants that require at least six to eight hours of sun and that the plants do not over shadow other plants keeping the plants from getting any sun. There are some vegetables that actually thrive with less direct sun and little more shade would be vegetables like leafy greens, such as spinach and lettuce.

When planning and designing your landscape, there are plenty of vegetables that you can choose from. You are only limited by your own imagination. Still if you can't decide on what to plant try using some of the more common vegetables that work well in a mixed garden. Some of the vegetables that are commonly used in landscaping with vegetables are:

• Kale
• Cabbage
• Lettuce
• Hot peppers
• Bell peppers
• Tomatoes
• Swiss chard
• Asparagus
• Winter squashes

There are some vegetables that can have multiple functions in the garden. Take winter squash for instance it can function great for both ground cover as well as using it as a climbing plant. When staking the winter squash it can be used to hide a fence, by using it as a climbing plant. Still cabbage and lettuce is better suited for making a beautiful lining for the outside of a garden. Besides adding beauty to your garden having flowers mixed with the vegetables also serve another purpose some flowers actually protect vegetables by keeping bugs and animals away from the garden.

As you get more assured with your landscaping plans try adding herbs, edible flowers and fruits to your landscaping garden.