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Growing your own vegetables, herbs and fruit is the height of gardening fashion, with soaring food prices putting the squeeze on consumers, and the ever-increasing focus on improving our health.
Quoted in USA Today, a research director at the American National Gardening Association predicts that the number of homes growing vegetables and herbs will jump by more than 40% this year compared with just two years ago. "As the economy goes down, food gardening goes up," says Bruce Butterfield. "We haven't seen this kind of increase in 30 years." The same upward trend has been noted in South Africa, and local gardeners are joining the ‘home-grown and healthy’ movement.
Keen to start your own trendy kitchen garden this summer? Why not take inspiration from the designer gardens at both the Chelsea Flower Show and the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show in London this year which offered edible landscapes are hip and happening.
“Whilst there were more vegetables to be seen at Chelsea than ever before, the most socially influential garden was a joint venture between a government agency for the homeless and the Eden Project, a horticultural ark in southwest Britain. A group of ex-prisoners, homeless people and those excluded from society grew over 10 000 plants for this decorative vegetable exhibit. The underlying theme of ‘The Key’ garden was to promote the regenerative power of plants as they echo the journey of life for so many people”, says top gardening columnist, Kay Montgomery who visited Chelsea earlier this year.
A far more upmarket view of food gardening was taken in the ‘Freshly Prepped by Aralia’ garden, an outdoor kitchen, common in Australia and North America. “A wall of lettuces, a lemon tree, strawberries hanging in colanders and herbs for tea offered the ultimate space for entertaining and preparing food. Having fun outdoors by growing veggies and herbs was an educational theme that appeared in many gardens, reflecting the Royal Horticultural Society’s current campaign to introduce school children to the joys of gardening,” she says.
Hampton happenings
This year the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show was filled to the brim with inspirational ideas for growing and cooking fruit and vegetables at home. Not only was there a new marquee named ‘Growing Tastes’, dedicated to fruit and veg displays and cookery demonstrations, but also many show gardens featured edible plans. There was even a schools’ competition for the best scarecrow made of recycled items.
Edibles in show gardens are nothing new, but this year many garden designers chose to weave fruit and veg into the ornamental design, instead of giving them a separate space.
- The Best-in-Show accolade was awarded to ‘The Edible Playground’, a show garden that was completely turned over to fruit, vegetables and herbs. Its aim was to show how a school could develop a productive garden and outdoor learning area. This garden also featured a number of ‘green’ initiatives including a wind-powered pump to run the watering system during the school holidays.
- ‘A Chef’s Kitchen’ was designed to inspire people to grow their own vegetables and herbs in their back garden and use them to prepare healthy and economical meals outdoors. The garden demonstrated that the plant choice was far more varied and fresher than what’s available in the supermarket and because it’s grown at home, it has a much reduced carbon footprint.
- ‘The Water Table’ show garden included colourful chard, lettuces, spinach, beans and maize among the prairie-style planting of grasses, echinacea and achillea.
- The ‘Three in One Garden’ combined an edible garden, a family garden, and an adult contemporary garden all within the boundaries of a typical urban space.
Gain inspiration from these award-winning kitchen gardens and head to your nearest garden centre this summer to choose your own vegetables, herbs and fruit trees to create your own personal Garden of Eden!
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