Edible plots can be pretty as well as productive, says Janice Marriott.
Edible gardens can be as aesthetically pleasing as any perennial border. Try planting a path with veges and herbs along each side. This makes picking the produce so easy, and it's lovely to brush past the plants and smell them.
Or plant up that area at the side of the house, beside the drive. If the border faces north you'll have plenty of herbs to choose from. Plan for colour, variety of shape and texture.
For the edge of this display bed, you could plant a mat of thyme, backed by red or green lettuces, then lime-green chives and beetroot, which has dramatic blood-coloured veins in the leaves. Behind that plant parsley, which is bushy and dark, and sage, which is silvery. Behind this try coriander and dill and, at the back, fennel, coloured silverbeet and maybe an artichoke or cape gooseberry.
If the border is wide enough, you could have permanent bushes of upright rosemary or lavender at the back.
If your path is in the shade, lettuces, alpine strawberries, Vietnamese mint, coriander and silverbeet will grow well.
