The ornamental edible garden

Ornamental edibles
Vegetables with built-in beauty are ideal for a potager. Here are some of our favourites.

Swiss chard
‘Fordhook Giant' is white-stemmed, while the stalks of ‘Rhubarb Chard' are deep red; ‘Bright Lights' adds rose and yellow to the mix.

Kale
Vigorous growers, both blue-green ‘Winterbor' and mahogany-coloured ‘Redbor' stand up to heavy frosts-and taste even better afterwards.

Lettuce
Bronze-red and green ‘Continuity' (syn. ‘Merveille des Quatre Saison') resembles a large, leafy rose, and is soft and sweet to eat. ‘Sierra' is a French crisp lettuce of the same colouring.

Yellow zucchini
‘Goldrush', ‘Sunburst' and ‘Papaya Pear' are three to try.

Tomatoes
Varieties abound, but ‘Sweet Million', ‘Sweet Gold' and ‘Juliet' bear smaller fruit in abundant, grape-like clusters.

Peas
‘Oregon Giant' snow pea and snap peas such as ‘Mega' and ‘Sugar Sprint' look and act their best when trained to climb.