Spring garden planning

The first things visitors notice in the kitchen garden at the Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens & School of Horticulture in Niagara Falls, Ont., are the lush colors and wonderful assortments of plants. The fact that almost everything in the beds is edible adds a delicious dimension to this garden where vegetables, herbs and edible flowers are grown together with no distinction between what's useful and what's beautiful. Every year, the garden -- a large plot made up of four rectangular beds, each seven by 15 metres, intersected by generous pathways -- is designed and planted by a student as part of his or her practical experience. And through the growing season, flavourful produce from the garden enhances the meals of students living in residence.

When student Maxine Crawford of Simpson, Sask., planted the garden one spring, her goal was to make it visually appealing as well as productive and in this, says her faculty instructor Liz Klose, she succeeded admirably. Crawford points out that you don't have to sacrifice flowers to grow vegetables. "Annuals such as nasturtiums, marigolds and nicotianas serve as repellents or attractants to keep bugs away from vegetables," she says, "and look beautiful, giving that cottage-garden feeling of controlled chaos -- plants almost on top of each other but growing together quite compatibly." As well, nasturtiums and many types of marigolds are edible.

Klose and Crawford share tips from growing their gardening experiences to show you how to produce a vegetable bed that yields a harvest rich in garden-fresh produce and beauty.