7 edible garden design ideas

Author and gardener Ivette Soler shares recommendations on growing the ideal kitchen garden inside your yard

Edibles in disguise

Vegetables and herbs desire to grow where it's sunny. But often, the sunniest spot is the yard--a location where many people wouldn't desire to install what on earth is, basically, a functioning farm. "We still want our front yards to look like gardens," says Ivette Soler, a La garden designer, blogger (thegerminatrix.com), and author of The Edible Front Yard (Timber Press, 2011, $20). In their own garden, Ivette proves that kitchen gardens could be both pretty and productive.

Edibles that merge

 Ivette recommend these herbs that can blend beautifully within your entry garden: Basil (Ocimum basilicum): This annual and attractive culinary herb is employed in many cuisines. Each variety includes a slightly different flavor, so that you produce an excuse to grow several. Purple-leafed varities like 'Red Rubin' are particularly decorative. Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare): A perennial edible with licorice-flavored seeds and young leaves. Wispy and tall, the plant's fronds sway inside the wind, adding movement towards garden.

More edibles that merge

Artichoke (Cynara cardunculus): Grow this "superstar of front-yard food," as Ivette describes it, despite the fact that don't like eating its big flower buds. Its architectural structure, downy leaves, and softball-size purple flowers are all highly ornamental.
Sage (Salvia officinalis): The mounding shape and gray leaves with this perennial Mediterranean herb make it a great front-row ornamental. Pink tinges in 'Tricolor' oppose the burgundy flax, plus the large leaves of 'Berggarten' echo nowhere-green edging with the agave behind.

Sage + succulents

Plant sage and succulents together for maximum impact. Salvia officinalis 'Tricolor,' a variegated culinary sage, surrounds a rosy Echeveria 'Afterglow'.

Thyme + phormium

Thyme and phormium make a perfect pair. A mound of gray-green culinary thyme (Thymus vulgaris) softens a stiffer, upright kind of 'Tom Thumb' New Zealand flax (Phormium).

Basil + thyme

Basil and thyme grow great together. 'Golden Lemon' thyme (Thymus x citriodorus), a low-growing thyme with bright gold leaves, edges 'Red Rubin' and 'Siam Queen' basil.

Great front yard idea

Ivette wants to make free-form beds of corrugated galvanized steel, scattered throughout her garden. For tips on making your individual