How Do You Plant A Visually Appealing Vegetable Garden?

Vegetable gardening is a fun hobby that also provides you with a constant stream of fresh, nutritious vegetables. Unfortunately, many homeowners shy away from vegetable gardening because they worry about how the garden will look compared to the rest of their landscaping — straight rows of vegetables can look drab, and they can detract from the rest of your backyard. Thankfully, you're not limited to gardening in straight rows, and it's easy to make your vegetable garden look great by following a few tips. To learn how to plant a vegetable garden that's both productive and visually appealing, read on.

Use Raised Beds to Grow Your Vegetables

One of the best ways to make your vegetable garden landscaping look great is to use raised beds instead of planting directly in the ground. Using raised beds allows you to grow vegetables in self-contained sections, which makes your garden look much more organized. In addition, growing vegetables in raised beds tends to be easier as well — you have the chance to add nutrient-rich soil to the raised bed, which can make a big difference in how well your vegetables grow if the existing soil in your yard is lacking in nutrients.

Mix Vegetables With Different Colors in the Same Bed

Making use of a variety of colors is a good way to add visual appeal to your vegetable garden. Squashes, for example, come in several different colors and can all be grown together in a single raised bed without issue. Peppers, whether mild or hot, can be planted in the same way — by mixing red, green and orange peppers together in the same bed, you'll both have access to a variety of home-grown peppers and add a dazzling splash of color to your vegetable garden.

Don't Leave Much Space Between Your Vegetables

If you're trying to make your vegetable garden look nice, it's a good idea to plant your vegetable seeds closer together than you normally would. Your vegetables will be smaller, since they'll be competing for nutrients from the soil that they all share. However, you'll reduce the amount of bare soil that's visible in your raised beds when you cover all of the space in vegetables. This technique works particularly well with leafy greens like lettuce and kale, as they can easily spread out over the entire space with their large leaves.

Use Trellises to Enclose Your Vegetable Garden

Plants like tomatoes grow best on a trellis, and it can be difficult to integrate trellises into a beautiful landscape — they block your view, so they break up the natural flow of your yard. It's best to treat them like fences. Enclose two sides of your vegetable garden in trellises in order to create a distinct space for it while leaving the other two sides open. This allows you to grow a wider variety of plants using the trellises while not greatly obstructing the view of your backyard.

When you combine the tips above, your vegetable garden will look great and supply you with a constant source of fresh vegetables. If you need help installing raised beds, placing trellises or starting your new vegetable garden, contact a landscaping contractor in your area — they'll be able to show you how you can make your new garden blend in with the rest of your landscape design and get it ready for planting for you.