getting started
Where do I start?
PART 7 Getting started
For beginner gardeners, getting to grips with the fundamentals can seem daunting. But in this 12-part exclusive series, Alan Titchmarsh is sharing his wisdom to help you master the skills that really matter. This month, get the best of both worlds by growing edible and ornamental plants together. Discover why you don’t always need to grow beautiful blooms and delicious harvests of fruit and veg separately with Alan’s advice.
Edibles with
ornamentals
Alan grows rows of flowers for cutting, including sweet peas, among his fruit and vegetables
PHOTO: SARAH CUTTLE
You’ll learn about:
• Growing veg and ornamentals as companion plants
• Making use of every space
• Using containers to grow
Flowers, fruit trees and vegetables can all play their part in a garden that looks good, tastes good and… well, does you good just to be in it
Perfect partners
In gardening, there is an understandable misconception that flowers belong in borders and fruit and vegetables have plots of their own.
All of which is fine and dandy if you have space to separate the di erent types of plant, but growing edibles and flowers together has been practised for centuries; what’s more, it’s mutually beneficial. Flowers attract pollinators to peas and beans, apples and pears, which need the intervention of insects to yield well, and by not having a concentration of any one crop in any one space, pest and disease infestations are often avoided. Give the mixture an artful design and you have a patch of earth that is both beautiful and useful.
Attract vital pollinators such as the comma
PHOTOS: SARAH CUTTLE; PAUL DEBOIS; JASON INGRAM; GETTY/JACKIE BALE