Great vegetable garden design for your backyard

Want plants that look great – and taste great too? There are a number of food-producing plants that you can use to bring colour and interest to your vegetable garden design.

Colour you can eat

Just because you're looking to inject colour into your outdoor spaces doesn't mean you have to plant a whole lot of pansies, petunias, camellias and azaleas. There are plenty of vegetables and fruit-bearing plants that perform an ornamental function as well as providing beautiful fresh, healthy food.

Fruit and vegetables for effect

Vegetables and fruit can provide a fantastic decorative effect. Consider bright yellow pumpkins, vivid green lettuces and bright red and green chillies. The bonus is that, unlike purely ornamental plants, you can harvest these plants and eat their bounty too.

Gorgeous vegies

Cabbages come in a number of different colours, from red, blue or slate grey through to vibrant green, while lettuces come in about 10 different colours, too. Artichokes have beautiful mauve-blue flowers and an interesting-looking vegetable. Tuscan black kale brings an unusual colour to a garden. And climbing plants like beans and peas have beautiful little flowers and brightly coloured pods.

Fronds, stalks and stems

Plants that produce bulbs and roots have interesting and attractive foliage that grows above the surface of the earth. Think of carrots with their lovely green ferny tops, leeks with their stiff upright form, and garlic and onions with their tall stalks. The different shapes and foliage types provide contrast as well as colour.

Hanging spots of colour

Fruit trees aren't always the most attractive of trees, sometimes with crooked, straggly branches, but many have bright and colourful fruit hanging from them. Think of apples, oranges, cherries and plums. And some dwarf fruit trees can be laden with colourful fruit without being overbearing in appearance.

Swap ornamental for edible

In most instances, where you plant an ornamental plant, a fruit or vegetable plant could grow just as well and look just as good. For example, any spot in which you have azaleas could also support blueberries, while camellias could be replaced by avocados (so long as you don't get heavy frosts).

For a great vegetable garden design full of colour and nutrients, head to a nursery today: