Row 1: ‘Ashbrook’ from Dobies; ‘Nymans’ from Nicky’s Nursery; ‘Erika’ from Nicky’s Nursery; ‘Bijou’ from Mr Fothergill’s
Row 2: ‘Revolution’ from The Cook’s Garden; ‘Tom Thumb’ from Seeds of Change; ‘Dazzle’ from Unwins; ‘Lakeland’ from Thompson and Morgan
Row 3: ‘Frillice’ from Unwins; ‘Delicato’ from Mr Fothergill’s; ‘Multy’ from Thompson and Morgan; ‘Sioux’ from Mr Fothergill’s;
Row 4: ‘Red Salad Bowl’ from Mr Fothergill’s; ‘Hardy’ from Nicky’s Nursery; ‘Yugoslavian Red’ from Thompson and Morgan; ‘Red Romaine’ from Plants of Distinction.

Lettuces provide a rich palette for the potager. Planted in contrasting rows, they silence anyone who would claim the vegetable patch is a boring space hidden at the bottom of the garden. So before you make do with a packet of icebergs this year, take a look at our top ornamental lettuces.

I’ve always found slighty odd things exciting. And plant hormones are just one of those things. I genuinely do think auxins are quite cool. I’m not expecting anyone else to jump on this bandwagon, but you could at least pinch out your sweet peas once you’ve finished groaning at me. I sowed mine back at the start of February, and they are now about eight inches tall.

As I’m not planning to plant them out for a while, and because I want strong plants which produce plenty of beautiful flowers, I have pinched off the growing tip with my thumb and forefinger. This means the auxins (plant hormones - the things that make the plants grow) move from the main growing tip down to little side (auxiliary) tips. These tips then start to grow, giving you a bushier, and stronger, and altogether more cheerful sweet pea plant.

Patricia Fox’s modern take on the potager, ‘Freshly Prepped’, went down a storm at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show last year. The designer decided to create a kitchen garden (which was also a kitchen in a garden), where every single plant was edible. But that wasn’t enough - this isn’t just a working veg plot - it’s a hot veg plot, tuned to perfection using contrasting textures, colours and patterns.

This garden room makes the very best use of the tiny space available by growing not just in every nook and cranny, but also vertically. To do this, Patricia and her team at Aralia Garden Design had to re-think the way veg is grown.

Most of the crops in this garden are grown on a soil-less hydroponic green wall system. The wall took up a very tiny amount of space, which meant more room for entertaining in the garden. And watering was done via a pump, for ten minutes each day.

There are no straight rows of veg here, or any sign of freshly tilled soil. But if you look closely, the garden relies heavily on geometric designs and contrasts, which is a modern interpretation of the principles of the potager.

And once Patricia had run out of wall space, she decided that the only way was up, and so created an arching structure over the garden for growing climbing vegetables such as runner beans.

if you’re feeling inspired by Aralia’s work, skip over to their website.

My client wanted to combine her love of food and flowers in some arrangements for a wedding anniversary party. As the event was to be held on St. David’s Day, I chose to use a hand tie of Daffodils which were placed in a fishbowl vase.

Double-sided tape was used to attach several leaves taken from a savoy cabbage, disguising the container.

Image by Remy Erra.

Before I begin the wrap-up this week, I’ve had a request from top garden photographer Rachel Warne. She is looking for gardens that are a bit lost and in need of restoration to photograph. They might be grand, or they might be teeny-tiny little city gardens. If you know of any, email me - contact@fennelandfern.co.uk - and I’ll pass your emails on to Rachel.

{Weekly wrap-up}

Hot posts, stories and images from the web this week.

Another good debate on the Guardian Gardening Blog about this year’s series of Gardeners’ World. What did you think?

Fab, provocative piece on Garden Rant about why permaculture might not be the answer.

VP of Veg Plotting shares a visit to The Courts garden.

And while you’re here, don’t forget to enter the F&F Mother’s Day giveaway with Victoriana Nurseries.

If you’re reading F&F and have your own blog, please introduce yourself in the comments below. Or say hello by dropping us an email: contact@fennelandfern.co.uk

…these delightful recycled products from Hen & Hammock. Both this trug and planter are made from recycled tyres, and look fabulous to boot. I have to admit that normally I have a bit of phobia of trugs, and, at the risk of offending any readers, the women who carry them (Mrs Bennett in Pride & Prejudice being a prime example). But I really, really love this trug. It looks nicely stylish and urban, and not at all twee. Because we don’t really do twee at F&F. And neither do Hen & Hammock, which is why I’m such a big fan of their products, especially their lovely recycled range.

Image by Michiteru Kodama.

Chaenomeles x superba ‘Crimson and Gold’ likes to lie low in the garden. It creeps up to you in early spring and shouts ‘I’m flowering! Pay me attention!’ And you do. Soldier-red flowers with regal gold stamens make you sit up and look. And so do the enormous, fragrant and edible (if a little dull) fruits that follow in the winter, which look like a curious cross between a lemon and an apple.

This is an easy-going shrub, which will either sit happily at the front of a border, or trained against a sunny wall. Its stark, oriental growth habit means you shouldn’t want to prune it any more than necessary.

Vital stats:
Location:
Any
Light:
Happiest in full sun
When to plant:
Autumn
What can I expect from this plant?
Height: 1m
Spread: 2m
Flowers: March - April

Click here to buy the Japanese Quince.

Image copyright Nobu.

I’m quite a fan of mixing purely ornamental flowers and veg, but sometimes I wonder whether this is rather silly, given the number of stunning flowers  which go on to produce fabulous edible crops. So before you plant up your patch with plants you can’t eat, here are some crops with very striking flowers indeed.

The snake gourd (above) bears beautiful filigree white blooms. These are almost too good-looking for a flower bed, let alone the veg patch.

Image by Paulo Sérgio Ignácio.

This is a bottle gourd flower.

Of course, normal pumpkin flowers, fat and cheese-coloured, are really gorgeous as well. And you can eat the male flowers.

The hyacinth bean bears purple or white flowers with stunning purple-veined leaves.

Image copyright Phill Bower.

The Scarlet Runner Bean is fiesty and fiery-flowered.

Image by Rebsie Fairholm.

Pea flowers are so soft and childlike. And when you start looking at heritage cultivars of culinary peas, you’ll fall so in love with them that your sweet peas might need to start looking for a new home. The flowers above are from ‘Kent Blue Pea’.

Image by Rebsie Fairholm.

The very talented Rebsie Fairholm has bred these red-podded, red-flowered peas.

Image by Rebsie Fairholm.

The salmon-flowered pea blooms at the top of its stalks and is marvellously girly.

Image by Rebsie Fairholm.

And if you’re looking for a girly fix, there are pink-flowered broad beans…

Image by Rebsie Fairholm.

…and red-flowered broad beans.

Image copyright Shannon Lucas.

If you can bear it, leave a few of your leeks to produce cloudy, dreamy blooms. You won’t be able to eat them once they have flowered, but the bees will thank you, and your plot will look hot into the deal.

Image by Sarah Gilbert.

This is an okra flower, the hibiscus of the veg patch.

Of course, you can also brighten up your plot using edible flowers, herbs, and beneficial plants, which we’ll be looking at in coming weeks. But for now, what are your hottest veg patch blooms?

Unless you have many rambling acres of gardens in which to grow your veg, chances are that like most F&F readers, you’ll be trying to combine flowers, pumpkins and somewhere to enjoy the fruits of your labours all in one plot. And growing veg doesn’t mean that you automatically sacrifice the chance of having a hot plot. In fact, as our new series for March will show, vegetables can be really, really ridiculously good looking.

The Hot Plot series will take you through all the features you need to make a gorgeous potager (that’s pretty kitchen garden to you and me), and showcase the work of some designers who are using vegetables to make stunning gardens.

And if you’ve created a hot plot yourself, why not email five photos, or a link to your blog to us? We’d love to hear from you on contact@fennelandfern.co.uk

Every so often, I like to snuggle up under a big warm duvet and watch a very silly girly film. When I did that last weekend, I had an extra-special treat as I had some strawberry popcorn kernels from Victoriana Nurseries. so I made myself some sweet popcorn, and settled down for film night.

Popcorn is dead easy to make at home. And it tastes a whole heap better as well. All you need to do is pull the red seeds from the cob, heat a little oil in a heavy bottomed pan, throw the seeds in, and cover. Next thing you know, popcorn will be whizzing around inside the pan and, hey presto! You have warm, tasty popcorn for a fabulous film night.

In fact, the popcorn made me so happy that I’m going to grow some this year in the garden. I’m growing ‘Britpop’, which is a white popping corn. It grows in the same way as sweetcorn, so there’s no rush to sow the seeds just yet, as you can’t plant out until the frosts have passed. But instead of harvesting the corn fresh, you need to wait until the kernels are hard and dry. And then it’s time for another warm bowl of popcorn and a night watching silly films.