Need "pretty" looking Veg, any ideas?

Tomtom07

It's my 2nd year of growing veg and I can't wait

The main thing is, I'm the one who wants to grow the veg, while the other half wants the garden to look all "pretty" and flowery.

We have a smallish garden, which this year will have veg & flowers(not just veg ), but I wondered if anyone can suggest some really flowery/pretty looking veg plants that would suit both our tastes

Any help would be great
:beer:

Linda32

Beetroot looks nice, lovely red leaves, low growing, quite compact.

sandiep

purple flowering broccoli - and the flowers are edible too.

Rummer

Black kale is stunning and very tall. Bright lights chard has beautiful stems and there are lots of colourful lettuces that you could choose. Chives have gorgeous flowers too.

lostinrates

Rainbow chards, rhubarb, globe artichokes....I've grown those in borders.

We have lettuce from Italy thts pale green flecked with red. Its bitter, like chicory, but thats pretty enough for a border....not sure how easy to find here though...

OH strawberries, I have used them as ground cover before. Alpine ones are, IMO, valuable near somewhere you sit or work a lot...

tanith

Runner beans red and white flowers make a lovely display up a wall or something unsightly.. peas are quite pretty too

Tomtom07

Thanks everyone so far, will look into some of them, looking forward to some more suggestions

soupdragon10

I remember growing purple podded peas up my fence, got loads of compliments (and the peas were tasty too). You could try runner beans with sweet peas as companion plants to attract pollinators.

ALIBOBSY

nasturtiums are easy to grow look fab and are a good plant to encourage blackfly/ahids away from your beans. The big lus is the leaves and flowers are edible and are fab in salads a bit of a peppery rocket type flavour. I also read that the buds can be used like capers but never tried that myself as I am not keen on capers anyway lol.

ali x

ALIBOBSY

Plus we also grow flowers alongside the veggies sort of a kitchen garden, encourages good insects and makes you feel good.

Sweetpeas are good and we grow ours alongside the beans on the same support.

ali x

JohnB47

Have you thought of berry plants - i.e. blueberries, cranberries and lingonberries?

I bought two blueberry plants about a year ago and never imagined how good they would look, never mind harvesting the berries. The bushes produce some lovely vibrant green leaves in Spring, then produce an abundance of small bell like flowers in Summer, then blue berries. Finally, a stunning Autumn burst of reds and browns on the leaves before they fall off in early Winter. I've planted them on the allotment now but I'm seriously thinking of buying more for the garden - even if I let the birds have the berries. The only downside is that they need an erracateous type compost - I dug holes, lined them with polythene, with a few holes in the bottom, filled it with the compost and planted the bushes in that. (You might not need the polythene). Also, they benefit from an acid loving plant feed - like for Rhododendruns, Azalias etc.

Cranberry and lingonberry plants need the same conditions but they are low growing ground cover type bushes, with similar pretty flowers and berries, rather than the more upright blueberries and I think produce green leaves all year round (have just bought a cranberry, so no real experience yet).

Good luck.