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Herb and Vegetable Garden Landscapes

A herb or vegetable garden can make a very attractive addition to any landscape. Herb and vegetable gardens, be they stand alone or, incorporated into the overall landscape, can be just as attractive as many of the common annual and perennials found in most gardens. An added bonus, is the fact that you can eat most of them as well. This is called an "edible landscape".

Stand alone herb and vegetable gardens, are just that. An area is set aside purely for the cultivation of these plants. In this article, we are talking about the landscape aspects, where these plants have a specific role, mainly as an attractive feature - with the bonus of being edible. Stand alone herb and vegetable gardens can be made into any shape and or size. The important thing is to keep in mind how it fits in with the rest of the landscape. Generally speaking, if this is to be a show-piece, then nice lines and an overall neatness is to be desired. Certainly this can be achieved by bordering the garden with largish rocks, however, this can be a problem if the garden is laid in the middle of a lawn. The encroachment of the lawn (especially if it is couch, twitch or kikuyu), will grow under the rocks and you will have a constant battle to keep the lawn out of the vegetable garden. A better solution would be to border the garden with landscape logs, such as railway sleepers, or heavy treated planks. This way, at least you can trim or spray the edges periodically to address the encroachment problem. Yet another way would be to make the lawn of chammomile. Non-invasive and although a lot of work to get established, once it's up and running, it's just glorious. Smells wonderful and has a calming effect on most people.

One exciting method of incorporating herbs and vegetables into your landscape, is to plant them randomly, slotting them into any available space. The only drawback with this method is that in order to have a bunch of vegies for a meal, you must go and find them. None the less, if you were to plant them in small groups, of say 6 to 8 plants, at least then you don't have to hunt for a meal. Vegetables such as corn must be planted in large groups though, as corn relies on the wind for pollination of the cobs, having one plant here and there will see a failure of the crop. Plants of the pumpkin family, unless dwarf varieties, should be planted sparingly as they have a tendency to take over. Choko vines can give a very "jungly" type effect and also have a tendency to smother everything in site. So, unless you really, really, love chokos, I would only plant one.

Many herb varieties make excellent ground covers, keeping the moisture in and the weeds out, with the double bonus of being edible with the lovely aroma. Herbs and a great many vegetables can also be successfully grown in flower boxes and decorative pots, thereby giving the opportunity for a constantly changing outlook, merely by moving the pots and boxes around.

By the way, you don't have to eat the produce. You can just utilise them as an interesting feature, keep tending and replacing them as needs must - however, I find this would be a criminal waste of an important food resource. Fresh herbs and vegetables - doesn't get much better than that!

i like your idea about random seeding. do you suggest raised beds for veggies and herbs? do you use heritage seeds and are there complimentary plants that are synergistic? what are your thoughts on hemp as a crop?

Hello pinewater, thanks for the comment. Indeed, I always use raised beds, in particular for veggies. A raised bed gives a greater volume of available soil for the plants to utilise. Along with this, where the extra soil originally was, forms the walkway between rows. I then fill the walkways with a heavy mulch - higher than the bed. In time with pedestrian traffic and normal decomposition this of course lessens, but the important aspect of this is that, this creates a moisture/nutrient bank, readily available to mass feeders such as vegetables. At the end of each crop, the remnants of the walkway mulch are then dug into the bed and a new walway mulch provided.
Yes I use heritage seeds, usually from "Phoenix Seeds": PO Box 207 Snug TAS. 7054 Tel : 03 6267 9663 Fax : 03 6267 9592. These good people, apart from being a family concern, also hire people with disabilities. A big bonus with Phoenix is that they will post you one packet of seeds, there is no need to order a set amount. Each order they post, also comes with the latest seed catalogue.
"Greenpatch Organic Seeds"(http://www.greenpatchseeds.com.au/) is another good one. Not withstanding, one cannot forget the "Seed Savers Network"; run by the redoubtable Jude and Michel Fanton - an international organic conservation movement protecting indigenous, traditional and locally adapted crops, and their cultivation by traditional methods. (http://www.seedsavers.net)Wonderful people.
As far as "complimentary plants that are synergistic" - struth! That's a hell of a question! This field of information is just bottomless. will need more a specific question before I can answer. i.e. Are you looking at the environmental reclamation aspect, companion planting, or what,exactly?
Hemp, I feel is a wonderful crop, pretty much a cure-all for todays environmental woes. There was a brilliant doco. about hemp cultivation versus traditional forestry, about 25 years ago. Just blew logging right out of the water. Great chest-thumping, eco-warrior stuff, non the less, an eye-opener. Sorry, but I cannot remember the name, it was a pirate copy.
I have grown commercial hemp myself, at a time when I was looking for financially stable alternative crops. Certainly, it grows like a weed and one can get 6 crops a year out of it - but there were problems. The governmental regulations, at the time (it was the 80's) were highly restrictive, to the point of paranoia. More interesting, was the fact that other people, growing recreational hemp in the area, found that due to hemp being mainly wind fertilised, after a couple of seasons of my experimental plot, subsequent generations of recreational hemp became less and less potent due to cross pollination - to the point that it was no longer recreational, one would have to smoke an acre of the stuff to 'get off'
I hope this has answered your questions.
Sorry to have banged on so much.
Regards Chris.

don't apologize for banging on so much. i'm a detail guy. about the hemp part, i'm in it for the oil, hemp hearts and fibre - smoking is not my thing. so thc content in that aspect is not a biggie. finding a good way to separate the hulls from the hemp heart would interest me as well as a method to turn the fibre into a soft durable fabric without mixing in cotton. where thc is required, in my opinion, is in oil form and it can be annointed for healing and spiritual purposes - perhaps throw in freedom of religious practice for good measure - as mentioned in the bible. i have the rest of the formula for the annointing oil.
the first mention of oil with hemp are the essential fatty acids. though generally thought to be good, some camps believe deep cold water sources are more bioavailable and beneficial for humans especially green mussel efas.
i haven't seen the nameless doco but i do have the emperor wears no clothes book on hemp - pdf no less.

Hello there Jim,
the story about hemp was merely something that amused me. Needing a way to destroy the seeds of the hemp crop was of prime concern, at the time. I quickly discovered that the recommended burning of ALL vegetative matter other than the 'wood', set down by the regulations, had a major draw-back. That being that the massive amount of 'green smoke', which still smells like dope, drew the hobbits out of the bush. I found this annoying as all shit, as I led an erimitus life-style. I do not suffer fools gladly.
Anyway, at some point I discovered that rolling the seeds, with a kitchen pastry roller worked like a charm. I had a need to find out things like this, and as I had no power source, I was habitually prepared to try anything. I expect that a simple grain mill would suffice. A secondary, air-drying, actually shrunk the meat to the point where it was easily separated by winnowing. Oddly, I never thought to turn it into flour.
My main reason for doing this was to utilise the high protein source, as supplimentary feed for poultry, at the same time satisfying regulations. Feeding the whole grain to poultry was out, as it was believed this could be detrimental to poultry. Ah! The ignorance of it all! Ultimately, I had to burn it, or cease grow it - which I did.
As far as 'soft' fibre hemp, I believe that the initial process used for manufacturing paper, may hold the answer.
If the 'wood' is 'milled' using a water degredation process and incorporating biopolishing agents, enzymes that degrade cellulose in order to remove the 'sizing'. Although, having said that, I cannot recall any commercially common agents. Then again, urine readily turns to bleach if left for about a week to 'go off'. This form of bleach has some wonderfully caustic qualities to it. Two things here; I have only used it for softening/bleaching animal pelts; and, one must be mindful of what has recently been eaten. Thanks for the title of the doco - I shall download that through a torrent.

by complimentary planting i thought you'd throw out a few suggestions on which pairs, or larger groups, would fair well together regarding perhaps nitrogen fixation, mineral utilization, water conservation, pest abatement and other practical considerations.

perhaps you'd comment on terminator seeds? or not? how they interfere and contaminate neighbouring crops of the same cultivar. i take it with heritage seeds you save some for the next crop and can even sell or redistribute them.

any words on permaculture or biodynamics or biochar or using mycelium as part of the garden environment?

Hey Jim,
man, you ask some bastard questions. I am thinking mainly of my verbosity, I am just unable to relate something simply. So! I shall answer you with a web page, instead.
Give me a while, like tomorrow, and I'll let you know the address.
Regards Chris.

O.K. Jim,
I have put a few answers in intel for you.
Nitrogenous fixation and plant compatability. Part 1
Nitrogenous fixation and plant compatability. Part 2
Nitrogenous fixation and plant compatability. Part 3
Woolly Pod Vetch - living mulch/nitrogen fixer.
So, what is your garden? Soil, or Dirt.

I still have a bit more to go, later, though.
Regards Chris.

i know the feeling about answering with long answers. you know how two sided things can be, how many answers depend on specific situations and if one component changes - all bets are off. i have some chinese wolfberries to put into the soil. don't have a garden yet, this is all new to me.
do you have your site with the answers up? i'm blogging at http://iblog.at/pinewater

My apologies, I first put the articles up on qassia, then made webpages as each one was reviewed. See them here: http://www.start-a-garden.com/organic-gardening. I am, ofcourse, still adding to it, might never end. I visited your site, rather extensive isn't it, do you run ALL those progams?
Regards Chris

thanks for viewing my site. comments, especially constructive one, are welcome. no, i don't run all the programs, it'll take too much time. many, if not all, are free and people can try to see if they work for them.
the descriptions reflect my interest and experience. some are to the point and some need more explanation. i want to add more info to each program as i learn more about it and if people have direct experience, then, when moved, add their experience. the site is an experiment and it will probably grow and then i'll need to move it somewhere else.

the video is long, many viewers were bored. perhaps i posted it in wrong forum or need to edit - there's actually more that i didn't upload. the gun fired 5,500 rounds without cleaning, with no failure because of the lube. i want to put that tech with an adsorber, bag it to contain the atmosphere and allow metals to be stored for decades without degredation - coins, art, CDs and other electronic media, electronic components, hard drives, guns. for magnetic media, you don't need the lube.
i'm talking to maintenance people and millwrights for use on machinery to cut friction, save fuel, extend life of equip and less maintenance.

Hola pinewater, interesting video. Could you afford me the extended version, please. I am a bit confused here, the site: paraord.com maintains the gun is the hero, I see no mention of the polymer.
Regards Chris.

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