Flowers or vegetables

In these trying times, many of us may doubt the wisdom of planting flowers. The solution is a decorative vegetable garden. In the winter we had curley parsley in our decorative herb garden together with sage, thyme and rosemary. Rosemary makes a nice bush on its own, and as long as it is in well drained soil grows excellently in many areas. It will take a hard Houston freeze, and it will take the drought as well. Around the roses we had cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli. Looked nice and tasted good as well.

So in the spring and summer, why not plant your squash around your roses. We have our row of tomatoes behind the cana lilies. Many hot peppers make decorative plants as well. In the Houston area, as long as they don't freeze, they will grow several years. Just pick the peppers. Have too many. Fill up a wine bottle with several different types and colours and fill with vinegar for a nice slightly different east Texas pepper sauce (traditionally used on veggies, but goo for what ever you want to spice up.) You can also put them in nice bottles for Christmas or birthday presents.