by Lucynda Rowen

Created on: September 22, 2008

Did you know you can mix your culinary herbs in with your regular flower beds? I currently have chives growing next to crystal blush calla lilies, bright green basil growing next to lamb's ear, chives growing in my rock garden, and oregano planted in between yarrow and day lilies. I even have a strawberry bed in which the strawberries have been used as a beautiful, leafy green, ground cover.

The important thing to keep in mind when mixing your culinary herbs in with your flower beds is that they can be enjoyed for there natural beauty as well as well as for what they produce. Chives for example offer beautiful pompom like purple/pink flowers that blend beautifully with my crystal blush calla lilies. When allowed to flower the oregano covers its woody stems with s a magnet for bees and butterflies. Basil comes in a variety of scents and colors and can be planted as an ornamental as well. I prefer the large leaved bright green variety as a contrast against the furry, silvery leaves of my lamb's ear but a bronze version would be just as beautiful. And thyme . . . Well, you can plant that almost anywhere.
I have mint planted to fill an empty space where hardly anything else will grow. The combination of the brown tinged chocolate mint leaves and the splashed colors on the pineapple mint leaves look gorgeous underneath my weeping willow tree.
You can get really create and start mixing fruits and vegetables in with your flower beds as well. For example not only do the strawberries make an excellent ground cover but the leaves turn brilliant shade of red in the fall. Bell pepper plants thrive in pour clay soil, produce colorful fruit in a variety of colors, and taste far better picked fresh than they do bought at the grocery store. Even raspberries have beautiful leaves that are silver underneath and turn over to show that beautiful silver color when the air feels like rain. You could even get adventurous and plant pomegranates to both eat and decorate your home with.
Speaking of decorating with things from your garden don't forget about planting gourds for both decoration and crafts. It's a little bit harder to make these look attractive but the harvest looks great sitting all over your house in the fall.
Just because you don't have a place for a vegetable or herb garden doesn't mean that you can't plant the same plants and enjoy the gifts they can give you.

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