Being a grower of vegetables, I often look at the plants themselves and wonder why they aren’t appreciated as much for their looks as the food we eat. That’s why I thought I’d talk about what are the ornamental parts of the plants I grow for food.

The first thing that I like about having vegetables growing is that I have plants in my garden, or, more specifically, on my patio. Having greenery is far nicer to look at than tiling and concrete!

Flowers on sone vegetable crops are as nice as any you will find on any plant. I love seeing pea/bean flowers in my garden.

Potato flowers are also rather pretty, like the ones below at Kew Gardens in London.

Leaves can also be rather interesting to look at in the vegetable garden. My beetroots have very nice leaves-I love the mix of red, purple and green in these leaves.

Tomatoes ar one of my favourite foods of all time. The leaves are quite nice to look at, but in this case, I think that it’s because it’s because of them that I get something very tasty at the end of their growth!

Brassicas also have very attractive leaves.

There is the old and outdated idea that veg has to be grown in straight, neat lines. It doesn’t need to be, if that’s not attractive or doesn’t fit into your garden space. You can plant your fruit and veg in any number of groupings in any shaped garden bed that you wish-in your own garden, it is your space to play around with how you want your vegetable patch to look, so have fun!

I also like growing flowers too, and something I’m trying this year is growing flowers among my veg, which will hopefully add a bit more colour and interest to my garden in an interesting way, especially with my dahlias!

These are some reasons why I think vegetable gardens can be, and are, ornamental. There is no reason to have a productive but boring garden.