Have your garden and eat it , too
I’m a staunch believer in beauty for beauty’s sake. Some things nourish us on a purely aesthetic level, in wonderful, intangible ways.
But idealism can lead you into quirky dilemmas. Is it morally defensible to put resources into rose gardens, lawns, and intensively maintained hedges? The answer that wells up within me is “yes!” it must be! At the same time I feel equally compelled by the idea of providing sustenance for myself, my community and the rest of the world’s creatures.
One of the Garden’s talented and dedicated gardeners, Larry Giblock, occasionally gives a program called, simply “Eat Your Landscape,” which proposes that many edible plants are beautiful, and vice versa. When I heard of this, I found the most delightful answer to my moral quandary.
Combining flowers with more utilitarian plants isn’t new. English cottage gardens evolved from that practical approach, mixing fragrant pinks and roses with herbs, fruit trees and berry bushes. The French potager laid out with gorgeous formal symmettry is another example of edible landscaping.
Since several books and even websites have appeared on this topic (and much more could still be written), I end this by promising a list of edible ornamentals in a later post. And a suggestion: add some daylily buds or petals to your salad today. Good with a citrus dressing like this one:
whisk together:
2/3 c. olive, sunflower or other vegetable oil
2 tbsp. orange juice
3 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tbsp. orange juice
3 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. honey
1 garlic clove, minced (optional)
1 1/2 tsp. grated orange peel
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper
1 garlic clove, minced (optional)
1 1/2 tsp. grated orange peel
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper
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