Southern Living Plants Logo
  • About Us
    • History Of The Collection
    • Events
    • Brochure
    • Testimonials
    • Botanical Gardens
    • Why Choose Plants from Southern Living® Plant Collection?
  • The Plants
    • Shrubs
    • Trees
    • Berry Plants & Fruit Trees
    • Annuals and Perennials
    • Groundcovers/Grasses
    • Tropicals
    • Vines
    • New Introductions
  • Where to Buy
    • Find a Retailer
    • Online Retailers
    • Local Landscapers
  • In the Garden
    • Plan Your Garden
    • Inspiration & Projects
    • Planting & Care
  • Connect With Us
    • Like Us
    • Pinterest
    • #SLPlants
    • Youtube
    • Request Newsletter
Menu
  • About Us
    • History Of The Collection
    • Events
    • Brochure
    • Testimonials
    • Botanical Gardens
    • Why Choose Plants from Southern Living® Plant Collection?
  • The Plants
    • Shrubs
    • Trees
    • Berry Plants & Fruit Trees
    • Annuals and Perennials
    • Groundcovers/Grasses
    • Tropicals
    • Vines
    • New Introductions
  • Where to Buy
    • Find a Retailer
    • Online Retailers
    • Local Landscapers
  • In the Garden
    • Plan Your Garden
    • Inspiration & Projects
    • Planting & Care
  • Connect With Us
    • Like Us
    • Pinterest
    • #SLPlants
    • Youtube
    • Request Newsletter
Search
Close
Woman holding basket of blueberries

Beauty and Utility: A Stylish Kitchen Garden

  1. Home
  2. Beauty and Utility: A Stylish Kitchen Garden
  • By Kim Toscano
  • August 6, 2019
Keep herbs and other edibles close at hand for easy-access when cooking

By Kimberly Toscano

My grandmother’s Italian dishes call for a ready supply of basil – lots of basil. So I grow it right outside my front door in mixed containers alongside flowering annuals, trailing vines, and showy cordyline. I also plant plenty of basil in the vegetable garden, but the containers outside my door are where I go most often when cooking. These containers are perhaps the simplest form of a kitchen garden and a fine example of why this type of garden is so important.

In addition to meeting those urgent recipe needs, kitchen gardens are a great way to promote healthy eating. It is hard to resist plucking a handful of blueberries when growing a container of Bless Your Heart™ Rabbiteye Blueberry on your patio. And with today’s stylish cultivars, edibles add panache to the mixed plantings rather than looking lost among ornamentals.

Location Matters

If my front door containers are any indication, location matters when it comes to the kitchen garden. As the name implies, these gardens are best located as close to the kitchen as possible to allow easy access to herbs and produce. Incorporating edibles into beds surrounding your patio or lining the back porch with containers are great ways to bring herbs and veggies close to the action.

If my front door containers are any indication, location matters when it comes to the kitchen garden. As the name implies, these gardens are best located as close to the kitchen as possible to allow easy access to herbs and produce. Incorporating edibles into beds surrounding your patio or lining the back porch with containers are great ways to bring herbs and veggies close to the action.

Ornamental Flair

Many herb and fruit plants are as beautiful as they are useful.

Many herb and fruit plants are as beautiful as they are useful. Chef’s Choice® Culinary Rosemary adds texture to mixed garden beds and takes on the formal air of boxwood when lined up in containers. ‘Little Miss Figgy’ Dwarf Fig boasts gorgeous deeply-lobed foliage and makes a lovely focal point. Think about the ornamental features of edibles when incorporating them into mixed beds or container plantings. Take advantage of structural elements such as the long flowing limbs of Prime-Ark®‘Freedom’ Thornless Blackberry and feature bright colors of fruits and vegetables in your garden’s color palette. Provide colorful accents with edible flowers such as Dianthus and Daylilies.

Edible Garden Structure

Southern Living Thornless Blueberries!

Need to create a boundary in your landscape? Blackberries train well on fences, trellis, or on wire strung along existing walls. Growing in this way makes the berries easier to pick from more thornier varieties; though, our thornless blackberries varieties are a pain-free pleasure to harvest! Fig trees also grow well when espaliered — which is just a simple way to say that the branches are encouraged to grow to fit your narrow space.

Find Your Personal Style

A kitchen garden can be as simple as a collection of pots or as detailed as a formal knot garden, and can easily accommodate any design style. Add structure to cottage gardens with shrubby fruits like Takes the Cake™ Rabbiteye Blueberry and ‘Osage’ Thornless Blackberry

A kitchen garden can be as simple as a collection of pots or as detailed as a formal knot garden, and can easily accommodate any design style. Add structure to cottage gardens with shrubby fruits like Takes the Cake™Rabbiteye Blueberry and ‘Osage’ Thornless Blackberry, or edge formal gardens with Phenomenal™Lavender. Be bold in experimenting with unique combinations of edibles and ornamental favorites.

Kim Toscano

Kimberly Toscano is a freelance writer, gardening expert and traveler with an eye on design. Kimberly blends her formal training in horticulture and entomology with her passion for design to educate and inspire gardeners.
View More Articles

Related Articles

Loading...

Video: Planting Berries and Fruit Trees in the Landscape

Learn how Figs, Blueberries and Blackberries can improve your landscape.

Southern Living Plants Make the Landscape ‘Berrylicious’

Edible plants like blueberries and blackberries add beauty and function

Berry Important: Pollination, Chill Hours and Plant Food

Easy explanations to FAQs on growing blueberries

Plants Featured In The article

Loading...
Blueberry

Takes the Cake® DownHome Harvest® Blueberry

Vaccinium ashei ‘Vernon’ PP18291
Blueberry

Bless Your Heart® DownHome Harvest® Blueberry

Vaccinium ashei ‘Alapaha’ PP16266
Dianthus

Scent First® Raspberry Surprise Dianthus

Dianthus Hybrid ‘Devon Yolande’ PP16029
Blackberry

‘Navaho’ Thornless Blackberry

Rubus Hybrid ‘Navaho’ PP6679
Rosemary

Chef’s Choice® Culinary Rosemary

Rosemary officinalis ‘Roman Beauty’ PP18192
Fig

DownHome Harvest® ‘Little Miss Figgy’ Fig

Ficus carica ‘Little Miss Figgy’ PP27929
Lavender

Phenomenal™ Lavender

Lavandula augustifolia ‘Niko’ PP24193
Grape

Grape RazzMatazz™

Vitis hybrid ‘JB05-22-3-27’ USP 9,045,767

Join the Conversation!

Where To Buy
Southern Living Plants

{find a garden center near you}

Southern Living Plants Logo
Instagram
Facebook-f
Pinterest
Youtube

Plants

  • Annuals and Perennials
  • Berry Plants & Fruit Trees
  • Groundcovers/Grasses
  • Shrubs
  • Trees
  • Tropicals
  • Vines
Menu
  • Annuals and Perennials
  • Berry Plants & Fruit Trees
  • Groundcovers/Grasses
  • Shrubs
  • Trees
  • Tropicals
  • Vines

About Us

  • About Us
  • History Of The Collection
  • Events
  • Botanical Gardens
  • Testimonials
  • Contact Us
Menu
  • About Us
  • History Of The Collection
  • Events
  • Botanical Gardens
  • Testimonials
  • Contact Us

PRO Resources

  • Brand Resources
  • Marketing Support
  • Fact Sheets
  • Image Gallery
  • Re-Wholesaler Locator
Menu
  • Brand Resources
  • Marketing Support
  • Fact Sheets
  • Image Gallery
  • Re-Wholesaler Locator
©2021 Southern Living Plant Collection