Edible borders

[Yetano]

Following on from the excellent advice I got on another thread.

We are pretty much starting from scratch. I want to fill the two main flowerbeds/borders completely with edible plants.

Any, actually, all advice (on what goes well with what or anything that has been very successful) very gratefully received.

So far I am thinking of:

Veg: Carrots

Salad: garlic, cucumbers, lettuces, not tomatoes as they'll be in containers elsewhere. courgettes, fennel.

Flowers: Cornflower, nasturtiums

Berries: blueberries, strawberries

Herbs: Rosemary, lavender, parsley, thyme, lemon verbena, mint and Echinacea

Rhubarb - not sure where that fits. As you can see, I have almost no idea, but hope to know a lot more as times goes on.

I'd also like some edible climbers. So far, I've seen Kiwi for sale and also want to get honeysuckle. We had a blue passionflower in a previous house which was stunning, but it wasn't really the edible variety - that is, you could eat it but it wasn't very nice!

To add to the list - chives and beetroot have interesting leaves. Sunflower seeds are edible. If you have room for a small tree then an apple, plum or cherry would be ornamental as well as productive. Rhubarb can grow to be enormous and lives for many years so allow for that when planting.

I am planting only edibles in my front garden, the borders are a mix of kale, chard, sage, lavender, strawberries and globe artichoke and rhubarb. Typical suburban street, I also have 2 raised beds currently with Brussels and broccoli!

I can recommend a book called Eat your front garden by Matt Coward - It's got some good suggestions of edible flowers and shrubs.

Rhubarb is a great choice but it needs lots of room or the big leaves will shade other plants. We find that in our tiny allotment. If you put in rhubarb, the varieties with the red stalks are nicer and look better in baking etc. My Mom called it "strawberry rhubarb."

Chives can be nice as they can be used early in the season and produce those pretty purple flower heads.

Climbing honeysuckle isn't edible - the variety with edible fruit is a largish shrub, not a climber. Joy larkhams book about ornamental veg gardening is great (can't remember the exact name.) Also look up permaculture, which is all about creating edible landscapes.

I’d also suggest a mixture of chard, it can come in white, red and yellow and it’s very vibrant and lasts for absolutely months.

Beetroot is also pretty as has deep red leaves.

Runner beans have pretty orange flowers and grow tall, 6 feet easily.

Fennel has lovely leaves too.

If you want to invest for future years asparagus has feathery tall leaves but need their own space, ie they need clear room as can’t have anything growing over them.

You can also grow squashes up some support. I’m trying trombonchino this year, that could amuse the neighbours!!

Garlic Chives are very tasty and provide beautiful white flowers in late summer that pollinators love.

I have grown climbing strawberries in hanging baskets, without something to climb they trail down with long runners. You can even grown some varieties of tomatoes and blackberries in hanging baskets.

Runner beans come in a variety of flower colours.

Climbing French beans - can get purple podded ones that are pretty. Or google lablab beans - Dolichos lablab.

Asparagus peas are pretty, with bright red flowers - make a nice edging plant. Cavalo Nero kale - dark crinkly leaves - looks attractive over a long season. In fact you can keep the display going into winter with a variety of different coloured cabbages

Climbing honeysuckle isn't just "not edible". it's actively poisonous.

The first thing that jumps out at me is the lettuce in a border.
For me, it isn’t possible to grow salad in the border as they are just destroyed by slugs.
I have to grow in raised containers.

You mention mint, that is 100% not a border plant.
It HAS to be in a separate container.
I once thought I could plant mint as long as I just kept it pruned and trimmed the underground runners.
I ended up pulling it out and even now, years later, I still find baby mints attached to monstrously long runners under the soil.

Blueberry needs ericaceous soil so that needs to be in a (big) container.
They grow 6 foot plus.
Make sure you get a self fertile variety as most need another blueberry to set fruit I believe.
I have an ‘eliott’ which crops reliably.

Bear in mind that Parsley is a biennial, sets seed in the second year and dies.
I have never been able to grow it from seed so new plants need buying every other year.

Climbing honeysuckle is poisonous, I’m not actually aware of any edible honeysuckle.
The closest I know of is honey berry.

Honey berry is the edible honeysuckle shrub I was referring to. My understanding was that it was a type of honeysuckle, albeit very different from the scented climbing ones?

I believe, though I could be wrong, that honeyberry is a hybrid plant. Honeysuckle crossed with something else

@BewareTheBeardedDragon

You are right!
It is a type of honeysuckle

Is it just me or do the fruits remind you of little willies? 🤭

www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/fruits/honeyberries/how-to-grow-honeyberries.htm

They are a bit grotesque looking! I'd love one but they aren't self fertile and I haven't space for two. Boo.

Fan, espalier or cordon fruit trees could work instead of edible climbers. Or step-over apples as edging.

I’ve grown kale in the borders, and plants with attractive fruits like chillis and peppers. I found courgettes too sprawling and not nice to look at, and lettuce did better in containers (though you could hide containers in the border).

Fuschia berries are delicious, with a sweet hit followed by a peppery aftertaste. Chaenomeles have beautiful flowers and the fruit make fragrant alcoholic infusions or can be made into jellies with apples or hedgerow plants.

Dianthus flowers are edible with a spicy taste - nice to add a bit of pep to salads. Rose petals are edible, and the hips can be used for jelly or syrup. Chamomile flowers can (of course!) be used for tea - I like them blended with lavender.

I agree about the passion fruit - I was so excited to learn you can eat the fruits of the hardy variety, but they are not worth eating at all.

Lemon verbena isn't really hardy in the UK, I've tried growing it a couple of times and it has always kicked the bucket.

Runner beans.
Sage - you can get variegated ones.
Bay.
Chives.
Currants.
Gooseberries.
Asparagus. If you leave it to grow tall it is lovely and feathery.

Runner beans, Climbing beans I’ve got some different colours this year, purple flowers
Lettuce is ok but takes a lot of looking after, progressive sowing slug control.
I dug all my mint up last year, it will take some doing to eradicate it completely, Grow in pots
Sage (grows quite big put it where you’d like a low bush) it also has pretty flowers.
Calendula, great for medicinal use and attracts bees etc.
Chives are the best in flower borders predictable and pretty

Nigella

I don't know how big your border is but you could try and get a permaculture guild growing. www.permaculturenews.org/2016/08/22/guilds-small-scale-home-garden/

It's a combo of plants that each bring something special to the arrangement, and the idea is it replenishes the health of the soil and works in its own self contained cycle.

I'm hoping to do this on one half of my allotment so I don't have to spend all my time weeding and digging.

79andnotout thank you. I've got roughly 9m x 0.5m and a patio full of tubs. The rest of the garden is either lawn, trampoline or trees and wildflowers (separate post re. wildflowers).

Definitely going to look at permaculture. It's a relatively small space so I want it to work.