7 Vegetables that Double as Ornamentals for the Cottage Garden, RANKED 

Keep in mind, if your carrots are heirloom and you let them go to flower you can harvest them for seeds, so it is not entirely a loss.

I’ve needed this! I grow more veggies than anything else but love the look of ornamental gardens!!! Thank you! Also, I’m so excited every time you post! Best production quality of any gardening channel!

Your videos are like sitting down with a good old gardening book. Not that I would let living in a more modern house stop me, but the dual method seems right at home in old home as you have. The old timers would have done exactly this with limited space.

The seven vegetable are: peppers, kale, carrots, cardoon (never heard of it before), basil, black salsify, and Jerusalem Artichoke. What about chives? Chives look like an ornamental grass. It’s a great crop!

Gosh- love your videos! Thank you for existing ✨

I never buy carrots seeds but have many in our garden! From carrots I buy from the supermarket, I often will leave about a half inch or so of the head of the plant and place in the garden soil. They'll either grow and eventually flower and I let them self-seed in the garden, or the kitchen scrap doesn't revive and just becomes more compost. A win for me either way. Same if I have old carrots in the fridge (or many other root veggies) that are no longer fresh enough to eat, I often just plant the whole carrot or top half of the carrot back into the ground and end up with a lovely large healthy carrot to harvest later in the year (or to let go to seed).

Thank you! Wonderful ideas! I found an excellent way to prepare Jerusalem Artichokes that removes the "toot". Ferment them with carrots, garlic, and ginger! Yum

Oh marvelous... A tea cup one of your video... Perfect Sunday morning...

Every video from you is a fulfillment of joyous expectation. I love the garden ones and also the structures, decor and design. One viewing of each is never enough for me. Keep them coming. Please. How about some more Dark Victorian Aesthetic rooms? Darla, A friend and not to distant neighbor, in the beautiful Blue Ridge of the Smokey mountains.

I love this subject! Im so glad you made a video on it! Some edibles that I think are also very beautiful are Redbor Kale, Malabar Spinach, Chinese Lantern Tomatillos, Amethyst Basil, Chamomile, Bronze Fennel (or any fennel), Nasturtium, Red Dye Amaranth, Red and purple Mustards... Oh there are so many!

Your videos are always so interesting and inspiring 💐

I love this cardinal basil suggestion! I used to grow African blue basil which was a flowering purple basil - such a pollinator magnet and really beautiful.

I would add okra to the list. The flowers are stunning and you get edible food though the season too.

I'm so happy to see you've posted! I have been gardening much more mindfully lately and your videos have been a huge inspiration! So everything I grow is edible and medicinal, and many can also be ornamental. I am in zone 9a. Here is a list of mine: Parsley (flat leaf and curley leaf), all types of basils including thai, tulsi, and greek columnar, rainbow chard, lemon balm, sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano, lavender, dianthus, daylily, chamomile, nigella, corn flower, dwarf kale, borage, crimson clover, sweet alyssum, black berries, bay leaf, hollyhocks, Roselle, damask roses, olive trees, aleppo pepper, violas, calendula............ I realize most of these are not technically what we call vegetables but they are all edible/medicinal..

Missed you!

How much did I enjoy your video ? X2 Ten out of Ten ❤. I love not only your gardening ideas but also the lovely, vintage plates and cookware that you use in your videos.

love your photography Siloe 📽💪🏻

I love the kale varieties scarlet and dino. Scarlet has beautiful a burgundy color with frilly leaves and dino has dark green long leaves that have a very nice structure.

I have been trialling ways to make soil blocks as I find them very good for growing and your way is genius

That basil really is beautiful. An untrained eye could definitely look at it and think it's just a flower. I've been growing boxwood basil. It can be shaped to look like a little boxwood bush. I recommend it to all my friends who are stuck in an hoa.

Totally agree. Super easy setting up drip irrigation once you figure out the steps. I held off doing it for years but took the plunge and it is now a must when setting up a new garden.

I think all vegetables are pretty and would plant any of them in the front. Rhubarb is a nice structural veg and has a unique flower. I like the rainbow chard, although I've never had them last a winter so have never seen them flower. I have strawberries bordering the front walk (which isn't a veg but....). But my #1 double duty veg would have to be the perennial scarlet runner bean.

Also reccomend alliums. Where I live in the PNW hookers onion and nodding onion are native, both have lovely flowers, will persist for years, and can be ready harvested whenever needed. Camas lilies are also native, and have extremely showy flowers. Their roots need to be cooked for a long time, but Ive heard they are sweet to eat, also produce a lot of inulin and cause gas. Many gardeners prize evergreen hedges, so I encourage people to use evergreen huckleberry if it is not a full sun spot. They can handle part sun or deep shade, and produce delicious berries in the summer. Pollinators love the flowers.

I love your old timey aesthetic

I love cilantro as a double duty plant. Once it gets hot it flowers and then the flowers turn into green coriander that you can dry

I adore the bitterness of artichoke leaves. Maybe I need to grow cardoons now. A tasty bitterness is harder to find, and underappreciated in cooking.

Wow. I haven't seen a new vid from you for awhile. Your vids r informative and beautiful!!

Always looking for great double-duty growers...learned of a great one here!! Thanks!

Your videos are beautiful

Glad to see you again! Your videos are always so informative and detailed. And your vintage artsy graphics are a joy! I'm glad I'm not the only one who saves various kinds of containers to repurpose. I once grew some beautiful purple Russian kale, but it got so thick with aphids I had to toss it out. Here in S. California, drought has been an issue for a long time, so rot is not often a thing. Cardoons are show-stoppers! I lady up the hill from me had them in her yard. They were huge...almost 4 feet tall. I haven't grown carrots from seed, but I'm obsessed with the purple ones, and have planted the tops and let them flower. I think that would be a way to eat them and enjoy the pretty lacy flowers too. Bees and butterflies loved them. I personally love "Lettuce Leaf" basil, which has very large leaves. I'll put two or three leaves on top of a thick slab of Cherokee Purple tomato in a sandwich, and it's divine! I let some of the plants flower and go to seed, then just crumble the dry flower clusters and seeds over the soil; they come back like gang-busters on their own. Keep doing what you're doing, sir! :)

what a great perspective. personally, I use jerusalem artichoke in the front yard. they look beautiful and are unbeatable in so many ways.

You give us good germination tips. Thanks.

Yes 👍🏽 loved it ; would be awesome 👏🏽 to see more videos like this on vines, flowers, perennials butterfly flowers and even west coast cottage flowers-keep up the edibles SO inspiring and fun!

This guy is the most impressive person on the internet. Puts Leonardo da Vinci to shame.

I really enjoy watching your videos. So well done!

❤this subject and clarity of information. I would love to have other suggestions on edible landscaping- a video highlighting flowers that are edible would be interesting as well. Thank you for your inspiring and creative videos. Lovely style of garden and great focus.

never having heard of that pepper, i will try to find some this year! listed plants: Aji Cachucha Pepper, Red Russian Kale, Carrot, Cardoon, Cardinal Basil, Black Salsify, Jerusalem artichoke i like to look at many of the hedges and bushes that are ornamental AND edible. juneberry (aka shadbush or serviceberry), current bush, aronia berry, and of course ROSES! many plants we grow as flowers only are also edible! daylilies (not other lilies), grape hyacinth (not regular ones), dahlias, violets, agastache, stock, lavender! etc oddly enough most lettuces are ornamental if grown in amongst flowers. all members of the onion and garlic family have lovely flowers. of course most herbs have more decorative members: creeping or variagated thyme, golden sage, tricolor sage, ARP rosemary can be grown to zone 5/6 in a semi sheltered location, Good King Henry, and other spinach substitutes are lovely small green plants...

These videos are so awesome. Your style is so unique and the categories you select makes sense and are very insightful. This is my new favorite channel.

Your videos are so informative! I don’t have a house yet, but when I do I can’t wait to have a garden I devote some of my free time and work to.

Happy to see these plants from seed to flower. So helpful, thank you!

In my area, carrots and red Russian kale grow better in winter (Georgia, zone 8a). I love them both. Their interesting leaves give winter interest and they can be harvested in late winter through the cooler parts of spring. The yellow flowers of the kale bloomed along with the earliest of spring flowers and lasted about three - four weeks this year. As for the carrots, the beautiful fronds were especially beautiful early in the morning under a light frost or dew. I love the carrots so much that they’re never around long enough to bloom. The cardinal basil doesn’t do well in my garden but I have several other varieties. Many are used as a tea, in cooking, in salves but all are allowed to flower. I especial love the pink flowers of the purple ball basil. While I think you have a great list, not all of the plants will do as well elsewhere. What I have learned from this video is to watch all stages of plants growth from planting to harvest and beyond to see how they may work best in your own garden. Thank you for your thoughtful and inspirational content!

Awesome video as always!! 👏 I absolutely LOVE Cardinal Basil. I discovered it a few years ago & it is now a staple in my garden. Also, I tried Red Russian kale for the first time last year & I think it will be the only variety of Kale I grow in the future because the taste is far better than the other Kales I grew (in my personal opinion)

Siloé. Just keep doing you. So great! Look forward to next video. June, July??? Be well. ❤

Deer have been the bane of my gardening existence here in Ellicott City! When vegetation grew sparse in fall, they even jumped the 7' fence and chowed remaining tomatoes, kale, sweet potato foliage, and even rhubarb! But they left my purple erasmus asparagus completely alone. It's probably my top ornamental vegetable, not counting beautiful herbs.

As always, thank you for such an informative video! I will definitely be adding the Cardinal Basil to my herb garden next year...

What a great video! I have a 9 m2 garden that I call my own and there is just never enough space for everything. I've just put out some seeds of that "oyster plant" to recreate your amazing recipe. Secretly I am always waiting for more "Garden to Table" episodes that are underlined with your lovely artistic and hypnotizing music

Love your work can’t wait for another deep dive into a vegetable. My favourite video is your beets. The lettuce and. Cucumber videos were also fantastic.

Sir, Thank you. It is a little thing, but you using part of a PVC pipe and a spice container? You have saved me so much money on soil block presses. I watched this video when it first came out, but it autoplayed and I caught that detail this time.

your kale recipe reminds me of a simplified version of my vegan Potlikker Greens. so yummy. I can imagine that it's fantastic!

I like this approach, giving us the seed to plate info. I also think carrot flowers are beautiful and nice to include in a flower border. I never saw cardinal basil before, that is beautiful. Thanks

I lobe your carefully edited videos. Should be a tv show !

Please share your soil block recipe. Thank you for sharing your videos. Love them.

Sweet! Just came in for a lunch break from planting artichokes. Inspired me to do a search of cardoons vs artichokes. Is that a checkered lilly in the beginning...my favorite flower!

That was a fun video to watch. I love how you take clips from different times of year to show the whole lifecycle of the plants. Your timing was great because just yesterday I was looking at my Suzhou baby bok choy, which has just begun to bloom, and thinking about what a beautiful plant they are and that they should be in the front of people's flower borders.

Thank you for sharing this information. It has so much information and attention to interesting details, including additional views of your beautiful garden structures as well as the plants themselves. It really inspires me to allow myself to enjoy every moment of my own hobbies. You have a way of making seemingly ordinary chores -elegant.

might be considered cheating so as an honorable mention, ill throw in "a bunch of fruit trees". things like plumb trees put out lovely blossoms and then form fruit to eat. does require a bit of patience and a lot of space though lmao. I also quite liked onions flower, while something like strawberrys can make nice edging flowers.

I love your content!

Loved this video.

Always like the colour of your garden and the food

Carrots... most gardners and cooks don't know that carrot greens are also edible and can be used in a variety of dishes from salads tto green curry

And rainbow chard!!! Spectacular!!

Thanks for presenting us with such well thought out videos..Super enjoyable to watch!

That carrot germination method is next level. Omg....

This was terrific!! I would love to see comparisons on bulbs, perennials, annuals and possibly tea plants.

A few others I'd add would be amaranth (really pretty and edible leaves), lemongrass, and chamomile. I really appreciated this though. I'll have to try that salsify and cardoon.

I like listening to gardening RU-vid videos while cleaning or gardening. Your videos, however, must be saved for a time when I can give them 100% of my attention. They are always so visually stunning.

Those Tofu kale sandwiches looks amazing!!

My favorite ornamental is a Scarlet Runner Bean. I love the red flowers plus the beans are delicious! I am going to try the basil!

Wonderful artist, film maker, and oh yes gardener farmer! Yes, we want more vids like this! Yes, of course! I give it 6 out of 5 😊. Double that.

Great format! Now I'll have to try the Aji cachucha peppers - who wouldn't love that branch of colorful, interesting looking peppers - Sweet! Hopefully that Cardinal Basil can be grown in zone ten. I would add two more - African Blue Basil - short lived perennial, 3 to 5 years - awesome flavor, big bush of fragrant flowers, bee magnet. It's sterile but easy to propagate, cut a medium size branch and stick in water. Can be a statement plant due to its size and over abundance of gorgeous lavender/purple blooms. No pests. Bronze Fennel - truly lovely golden yellow blooms, pollinator friendly, Swallowtail butterflies and practically carefree - tell people it is part of your butterfly garden (true:) and is so very tasty - chefs adore the leaves. I'm glad you mentioned the carrot flowers - they are tricky to grow here in Florida so I've given up but I can snip the top and grow greens - stick the organic carrot tops in the ground and get free flowers after eating the carrots. Love your channel!

I would recommend chives, they just self seed themselves, you don't even need to care for them, just contain them.

I always grow vegetables as ornamentals in my flower borders together with herbs ...try to have goid companion planting ...and I have less pests or diseases.

I just found your channel and I really appreciate how you take alot of time to educate each thing.I enjoy all the tips of germanting and planting.Your very thoughtful to take your time to share your knowledge.Thank you looking forward to seeing more videos and looking at your past ones as well.Also I love your collections and tiques beautiful home inside and out!

We are steadily entering tomato season!! With your joy of history, I was wondering if you’ve read the book, ‘10 Tomatoes That Changed the World’ by William Alexander? VERY informative and a fun read.

Deer ruin my plans for using edibles in an ornamental way… I love how most edibles look in a landscape but the deer eat them if I don’t keep them protected. Luckily I can use most herbs in the landscape at least, just not things like kale, lettuce, cucurbits, strawberries, even tomatoes & peppers get demolished 🦌

Well executed, informative and engaging, as usual. I enjoyed this video and made a screenshot to reference for next year’s cottage garden. I need to incorporate more edibles into my cottage garden; this was just what I needed. Thank you!

this was so interesting! Have you ever grown amaranth? The bright colours are so ornamental, but I’ve not tried them yet since I don’t know how I would use them in the kitchen. I have a small cottage garden so I have to choose my edibles very carefully. I don’t like to grow things that I’ll have to mollycoddle or protect with mesh or frost cloth because I have to plant amongst the flowers and that would spoil the view. My tried and true favourites are herbs and tea plants, along with pak choi, spinach, and lettuce. This year I’m also trying out a maroon basil variety called ‘Crimson King’ that I think will be lovely planted out in the summer. I absolutely love all umbellifers, and have wild carrot in the ground as well as mini carrots in containers :)

It’s a sick world we live in, having to ‘hide’ food. I have to tell people this stuff all the time. It’s really getting me down.

There were many great ideas and new varieties for me to try this year, thank you! Especially that basil is gorgeous and basil is easily my favourite herb! I would have added asparagus on this list, since I find the whispy ends after spring harvesting season quite beautiful and once you get a patch growing it's reasonably easy to take care of. Although one won't get to eat them for first few years I still find asparagus worth it as an ornamental and edible plant 😍

I have very limited space. I have a west facing condo balcony. I container garden. I would have loved to hear container and light needs. To for sharing.

Another interesting plant i use as ornamental is Brussel sprout plant .... it is visually different and adds a quirkiness to my garden i enjoy

But your garden really beautiful

I always enjoy your videos and learn soo much. From seed to plate I give 5/5 leaves!

As always, lovely job on this video! I enjoyed it from beginning to end and your editing/animation is always on point 👌🌿

I have very little space, only about 6X4 balcony. It seems like everything dies in August from the extreme sun. I am in DT Portland Oregon. Great videos and thanks!

Garlic Chives?? it grows well in full sun to part shade.. has nice white flowers for pollinators.. Great for adding to ramen or stirfry. Plus it's perennial.

Thank you for creating this wonderful garden vegetable comparison video! I would love to see more videos like this along with any flower cottage garden design ones! I love how you dress up for your filming! Love the vests and suspenders :) So classy :)

Those woody, old carrots still have great carrot flavor so save them to use to make vegetable stock. Also, some of the best carrots I've ever had were when I let my bolted carrots just drop their seeds. The seeds started to grow so early in the spring so I had carrots very early the next year.

I love the red Russian Kale. They're hardy in my area. We don't have wabbits and other night thief animals in my area. Well, birds are starting to enjoy my summer fruits. I'm sure mice do too. I will stick with the artichokes LOL Oh yes, basil is my all time favourite.

I have ourmental Perenial vegables have you ever heard of they’s before I have sea kale which makes big white beautiful flowers and is a Perenial kale relatives with blue foliage and lots of flowers. I have Chinese lantern a cool looking tomato relative that makes. sour exotic looking fruits. Turkish rocket is very good with yellow flowers and is Perenial vegable like a broccoli substitute. Chinese yam and Japanese yam discorea are very exotic looking climbing plants with edible tubers. Tree collard are very easy to grow and beautiful kale plants that get huge they much easier grow then other brassicas. Slyvettia arugula has yellow flowering Perenial arugula that has a wild spicy flavor that is very good. Giant flowering sea kale crambe cordifolia is very cool huge beautiful kale relative that is very ournamental but very hardy to get. Maximillion sunflower is wild relative of jursuleum artichoke that is very cool and better smaller leaves and aren’t as invasive.

I stumbled across you this morning. I'm in the UK and whilst not all your content applies (basil outside! Not a chance 😂 ), the rest is fabulous. I love cottage gardens and try hard to style mine around the same aesthetics. I wish I had come across you 2 weeks ago BEFORE I tore down my old shed :( Please keep the content coming as it IS possible to teach an old dog new tricks ;)

You are a true inspiration and your videos are a work of art. Thank you for creating for us! I would love love love to see more videos like this one.

Beautiful and great information. Please do a tour of your house.The background of your clips are beautiful.Thank You

Great video! My favorites my also include chives and mashua/nasturtium! Oh and loads of woody perennials. But I also think veggie gardens are as pretty as flower gardens!

The carrot gel video was the first of yours I saw! It was already one year old. Then I ran into you again a year later, and then I spent three nights watching all your videos!

Cur the carrot top off. Use it to grow greens. Greens can grow into flowers. Flowers can develop seeds. Seeds for more carrots. I have done it and like all great discoveries I did it unintentionally 😅

Yay! You are back!!!

I have heard about the board method in growing carrots but would like to know if you have to keep the board wet and how long do you leave it on? thank you for your time and effort making these videos.

These are incredible! Thank You for all of your hard work! I have learned so much from these documentaries and gardening how-to's. ❤

Love these videos! I would really like more cooking as well!