I’ve learned a new gardening term – edimentals! With this new podcast knowledge, I realized that I’ve gradually gravitated towards planting edimentals. What are they”
They are plants that do double duty, serving as both ornamental beauties and practical, edible food and/or medicine. For the grammar nerds out there, the portmanteau combines “edible” and “ornamental.” Such plants have become the over-riding architecture of my garden. They are not only edible , but also beautiful!
Several characteristics of edimentals include:
1. Space Saving – I don’t have to relegate them to a designated vegetable patch, but can integrate borders and patio adorment, while creating an aesthetic focal point.
2. Low Maintenance – Many edimentals are perennials or self-seeding annuals since they come back year after year withouit needing to replant.
3. Better Diversity – Their diverse heights and widths, vibrant blooms, and deep root systems attract a diversity of pollinators and improve soil health.
A few of my favorite edimentals include:
1. Sun-loving Chard is a strikingly colorful vegetable. Its brilliant red, yellow, and white stalks pair nicely with other varigated leafy plants like coleus and caladiums. Chard is used extensively in Mediterranean cuisine.
2. Echenacia accents my flower borders all summer long with sturdy, tall, pink blooms. It is a popular medicinal flower used as tea for stomach aches.
3. Any common kitchen sulinary herb (mint, sage, rosemary, basil, parsley, dill, taragon, oregano, thyme, hyssop, chives, cilantro) are not only packed with flavor and define regional cuisines, but their blooms thrive during the hottest months and eventually provide next year’s seed supply.
4. I plant edible flowers primarily for their beauty but many can flavor and adorn baked goods and fresh salads like nasturtium, comfrey, yarrow, lavender, calendula, violas, and violets.
Keep learning, keep growing, and keep your gardening adventures fresh with new ideas!
What is your favorite edimental?
“There is a season, turn, turn, turn.” (The Byrds)
To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.