How to Mix Vegetables and Flowers Beautifully in Front Yard Gardens

Flowers and vegetables mixed together – it works for me. But, what should I call my garden plot? Fleggies? Vegewers? Flowertables?

I live at a wonderful place with a very shaded back yard. Although the side yards receive some sun, they are quite narrow. Guess what? The consistently sunny spacious area for planting is in the front. Since I want to help my family and the environment by growing some of my own food, I do that where the sun is. Since I also like to have flowers, I put the shade loving plants in the back and the sun loving ones in the front, mixed with the veggies.

I have mixed vegetables in with flowers in the past, but it was on a very small scale. Now I have a huge palette (the entire yard) and almost complete artistic freedom. Even better, the lawn mower of the family likes it when I take away lawn by expanding my gardens. You don’t need to tell me these things twice: I am ON it!

Thus, in a plot which receives partial shade in the morning, I created a green and white "rug" which is soothing all the time. Using a key in which red arrows point to produce and yellow arrows point to flowers, in the photo below one can see:

• Red Arrows: broccoli, cherry tomato
• Yellow Arrows: hosta, sedum, lamb's ear, daisies

I had a bed established along an added sun porch. Sadly neglected, it featured daylilies at the foundation, lamium, and many weeds. This area receives heavy sun from noon until sunset. This year I have a healthy mix of flowers and food. Admittedly, the quantities of plants are not huge - not enough to start selling at a farmer's market, but enough to furnish fresh, un-sprayed vegetables.

• Red Arrows: potatoes, onions, spinach, sugar snap peas
• Yellow Arrows: lamium, daylilies, peony, daffodil, rhododendron

Bordering all the front property boundary is a garden upon which the sun beats constantly. I expand this garden up the hill every year to take away more grass and create more growing room for me. Please understand that it is a project in progress. The photos below show plots next to hybrid lilies, butterfly bush, holly, chrysanthemum, daffodils, and lilies. There is already a plot of potatoes in the background of the first photo.

Below are two places where I have "snuck" veggies in between existing plants.

• Red Arrow First Photo: three onions between hybrid lilies and an azalea bush.
• Red Arrow Second Photo: potatoes between yew and rhododendron.

I declare no more rules for the home gardener. Plant what you want! Eat healthily! Play outside!