Add Color and Variety to Gardens with Edimentals

By Caroline Bloomfield | March 8, 2019
Image by Monrovia
by Caroline Bloomfield
March 8, 2019

Big or small, estate or apartment, your garden is even more meaningful with beautiful plants that truly pull their own weight. Edimentals will satisfy the artistic gardener in you while lending a gourmet touch to your meals. These special plants reward us with the compound pleasures of beauty, nutrition and memorable flavors.

Thinking Outside the Box

Think of your garden as a holistic space of beauty and practicality. Here’s a great idea:  incorporate a couple of Monrovia’s globe artichoke plants into your flower bed for a little drama. The sharp, spiky foliage and intense purple blooms are secondary only to the juicy flavor of luscious home-grown artichokes.

Herbs: More Than Just a Good Look for Your Garden

Who doesn’t love a stem of fragrant English lavender popped into a glass of fresh lemonade? And speaking of stunning plants, when did you last amaze your family with the savory flavor of a dark, exotic bay leaf in a bowl of hot pasta? Both these edimentals boast beautiful foliage, and add touches of striking texture to your garden.

As you design your garden this spring, slip in some Little Ragu Sweet Bay plants with their waxy, multi-toned deep greens. Together with prolific spiky purple splashes of Thumbelina Leigh English Lavender, these evergreen herbal edimentals deliver years of beauty and heady aromas.

Go Big or Go Home

Maybe your garden wants a wow factor of rich, exotic edimentals like fruiting olive trees or pineapple guava. The Manzanillo Fruiting Olive, for example, is one of Monrovia’s most popular edimentals. Smaller than a typical olive tree with fleshy plump olives, its exotic grayish foliage lends a romantic note to any warm-area garden.

The tropical white blossoms of a pineapple guava are reminiscent of the islands. The waxy white, red-streaked flowers are tasty, not to mention impressive. Toss them into fruit salads, ice water or anything that calls for a pop of the exotic. Then wait for the fruit that will make your mouth water.

Both these amazing plants pull double duty by intensifying your garden visually, as well as adding to your pantry. Beauty and taste – what more could we ask?

Luscious Beauty

No need to separate vegetables from fruits, or isolate them in their own plots. Try tucking edimentals in among your flashiest plants for an amazingly creative look. The lush foliage of a compact, bushy blueberry is almost as enjoyable as its fruit in your morning muffins. 

Ever heard of a beach plum? They grow wild in some areas with no special care at all. Monrovia’s Beach Plum grows almost effortlessly. Delicate white blossoms in the spring give way to juicy purple fruit in the summer. Tuck one of these in for texture, and for late summer jellies and jams.

Your friends will talk about your talents long after the dinner party when they discover those intense flavors and visuals were plucked right out of your beautiful garden. Maybe you’d like to treat them to a Monrovia gift card.

Edimentals from Monrovia: For clever gardeners.

The above article was sponsored by Monrovia. The information contained in this article may contain ads or advertorial opinions.
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