The October issue of Fine Gardening magazine features an Editor’s Letter from Editor Steve Aitken, defending his commitment to focus on ornamental rather than edible plants. It’s high time someone extolled the virtues of creating a garden simply for beauty’s sake. Growing edible plants is wonderful, if that’s where your interests lie, and most people know that many edible plants also have ornamental value. However, some vegetable gardeners seem to fertilize their plots with a heavy helping of sanctimony. Needless to say, this does nothing for the quality of the crops and tends to harm the quality of discourse between the sanctimonious gardeners and others who prize different kinds of plants.
We gardeners are all part of the same fellowship–no matter what combination of plants we choose to grow. The birds, bees, butterflies and other species who frequent our gardens don’t make arbitrary distinctions based on plant function. We shouldn’t either.