For green thumbs, a garden is more than a couple of seeds thrown
in the ground and a prayer the results are healthy and robust. A
garden is a carefully planned mosaic, a unified piece of art.
For green thumbs, a garden is more than a couple of seeds thrown in the ground and a prayer the results are healthy and robust. A garden is a carefully planned mosaic, a unified piece of art.
For the rest of us, well, we’re just hoping something rises from the smattering of seeds now lodged underground. Perhaps, in an attempt to be organized, you sketched a blueprint of how you want your garden to look prior to planting. But alas, with pencil and paper in hand, you gave up, uninspired.
For inspiration for design, look no further than your own tastes and personality. What’s your favorite color? What kind of ethnic cuisine do you like to cook? Have you visited a foreign country and been struck by the gardens you saw there?
Designing a themed garden can be a fun way to reflect individuality. Take a favorite color, for instance. If it’s purple, you could plant lilacs, verbena, aster, snap dragons, gladiolas and pansies. If you want to grow vegetables, try purple onions, turnips, eggplant, beets, radishes and cabbage.
You also could plant a garden collage with multiple colors. For yellow and orange, for instance, plant sunflowers, goldenrods, buttercups, begonias, nasturtiums, roses and tulips. Winter squash, yellow peppers, pumpkins and carrots would add splashes of amber hues as well.
Themed gardens can go beyond color. If your favorite ethnic cuisine is Asian, for example, kaffir lime leaves, bay leaves, lemongrass and flowering chives are some items you could take straight from the yard to the kitchen to cook an Asian-inspired feast.
To get even more specific, plant a garden that would supply you with nearly everything you need for a particular food. For a pizza garden, you could plant oregano, French tarragon, sage, rosemary, thyme, cilantro, basil and parsley, all of which grow well in the South Valley’s Mediterranean climate, said Katharine Wright, a volunteer with the Monterey Bay Master Gardeners. The organization, which covers San Benito County, assists the public with gardening questions.
“Once (the herbs) are established, water them about once a week,” she said. “The more you water and fertilize them, they bigger they’ll grow.”
As the plants become taller, cut back the leaves so the tender shoots are exposed, Wright said. The more tender the shoot, the fuller the flavor.
But why stop with herbs? Try planting vegetables that commonly top pizza such as onions, tomatoes, mushrooms and peppers.
“If you want to go all out, I guess you could plant some wheat, to make the crust,” Wright said. “But it would take quite a bit of wheat to ground it to flour.”
Aesthetics also can provide ideas for creating a themed garden. To create an Asian-flavored garden with a sub-tropical feel, plant large, heavy-leafed plants such as palms and calla lilies, said Karen Aitken, president of the Gilroy landscaping company Aitken & Associates. While most of the gardens Aitken designs have some sort of basic theme, a few of them get very specific in their design, she said.
“The Mediterranean and Tuscan-style gardens are becoming more popular. People travel, and they’ll come back with pictures of these beautiful gardens they’ve seen, and they want their own garden to look something like it,” said Aitken, who has a lavender garden as well as a succulent garden in her back yard.
One of the most important things to keep in mind when designing and planting a themed garden is the timing, Aitken said, especially for gardens that produce fruits and vegetables. Know exactly which varieties you’re planting, so you’re not left wondering why a crop of late-blooming tomatoes, for instance, isn’t growing as quickly as the rest of the garden.
“In planting edible gardens, there’s always that unknown factor. Sometimes it seems easier to just go down to Nob Hill and buy what you’re growing,” she said. “But this way can be more fun.”
