Prominent balcony gardener Mark Ridsdill-Smith showcases a beautiful edible growing space.

In France there is strong tradition of beautiful food growing (have a look at these examples of potagers). But in the UK, the emphasis has been more on functional vegetable patches – the ubiquitous row of carrots or onions, for example.

All this is changing. More of us want to create beautiful edible gardens. This resurgent interest in beauty may be because many of us do not have the space to separate our ornamentals from our vegetables. We want our attractive plants – and to be able to eat them.

You can strive for beauty in the container garden in several ways. You can find attractive containers or make and decorate your own. You can arrange your containers aesthetically, using different configurations and different heights. And you can grow crops that look beautiful and combine varieties that look great together.

As part of my experiments in balcony food growing I’m always on the look out for productive, tasty crops that look great, too. I want my growing to look good for my own benefit. But, as much of my growing is in public view, I also want it to be attractive to passers by.

Here are some of my favourite beautiful food crops.

Edible flowers

Edible flowers are an easy way to brighten a growing space. They are great for small spaces because they also attract beneficial insects – as well as being a treat to eat! There are loads to choose from and experiment with. Favourites (for beauty combined with taste) include:

Nasturtiums: few things brighten a small space better than a swathe of bright orange, yellow or red nasturtium flowers. You can grow climbing varieties (eg to cover a water butt) or trailing varieties (look great trailing down a street side wall), or varieties that grow in big clumps. The flowers are amongst the tastiest of all edible flowers, adding zip and real flavour to salads. The young leaves are tasty, too – and their round shape adds a pleasing variety to your foliage.
Chives flower early in the year and profusely once established. They look (and taste) great. Bees also bees love them.

Blackcurrant sage sends forth a joyous profusion of bright orange flowers throughout the summer and autumn. The flowers have a good flavour and can be used in baking or fruit salads.

Runner beans were first grown in the UK as an ornamental and can look very handsome in containers. They are also one of the most productive food crops for a small space. The flowers (red or white) are edible and extremely tasty. Use your creativity to create a beautiful trellis or wigwam for the beans to grow up.

Wasabi has the benefit of growing well in a shady spot – and flowering in January or February. It’s mainly grown for the root, but the leaves and pretty white flowers are delicious when eaten fresh.

Other attractive and tasty edible flowers include day lillies, lavender, pot marigold, viola, Japanese chrysanthemum, and the pretty flowers that most of the Asian greens produce – like pak choi, mizuna and Chinese broccoli.

Foliage colour

You can, of course, add colour with foliage as well as flowers. Here are a few ideas:

Bright lights chard is a brilliant container crop. The mix of bright yellow red, yellow and green stems is vibrant and cheerful. You can grow it for small, pretty salad leaves. Or put it in a big pot to grow into large, stately specimens to be harvested in winter and spring. (Just take care to protect from the hungry winter pigeons!).
Red salad leaves – there are several varieties of salad that produce red or purplish leaves (some almost black) to add contrast your salad growing pots. These include red (or magenta) orach, lettuce red cos, mustard red giant, red amaranth and the Japanese herb red perilla (this leaf has an attractive frill, too).

Different shades of green: you can also experiment with different contrasting shades of green. The lettuce, black seed simpson, for example, has vibrant lime green leaves, while cavalo nero leaves are dark green, almost bluish.

Leaf shape and texture

As well as (or instead of!) colour you can find beauty in foliage shape or texture. You might experiment with:

Fennel: the fronds of fennel look beautiful in containers, particularly when grown with contrasting leaves – try mixing it with the pretty leaves of Russian Kale, for example.

Cavalo nero: sends up a majestic plume of leaves that look fantastic in containers, particularly in winter – so, so much better than sad empty pots. It’s also as hardy as old boots and will survive frosts, snow – almost whatever you throw at it!

Sage: the silvery, furry leaves of common sage add a pleasing contrast in containers. You can also try variegated varieties – although personally I’m not a fan of these as I don’t enjoy the flavour so much.
Salad burnet: this is actually a wild flower, but I’m including it for its pretty leaves. In the kitchen, it can be used to add another dimension to salads (add in small quantities).

Fruits

Fruits can add colour and interest. Here’s are a few ideas:

Blueberries are a top notch container crop for beauty and productivity – you get pretty blossom in spring, blueberries in summer, and attractive redish foliage in autumn.

Purple podded peas: many pea varieties have beautiful blossom and some also have attractive fruits. One of my favourites is Ezeta`S Krombek Blauwschokker, which produces purple mange tout. I grew these outside the front door last year and they looked great.

Fat baby achocha: ok, so these aren’t exactly beautiful – but these weird, alien like fruits do add visual interest!
Chillies: are available in red, yellow and even purple, and the fruits look pretty and exotic.
Squash: many varieties produce fruits that are eye catching for both their size and colour. Favourites include the bright orange red kuri squash, and the long snake like squash of tromboncino (Italian for trombone).

More flowers

As well as edible flowers, you can grow flowers specifically to attract beneficial insects (phacelia is a personal favourite) or crops that have pretty flowers – broad bean flowers can be very beautiful, for example.

Mark runs Vertical Veg, a non profit enterprise that inspires and supports food growing in very small spaces. He is also giving a talk in Islington, London, on Tuesday.