How to Design a Decorative Tomato Garden

Mix practicality and beauty by growing an ornamental tomato garden.

Tomatoes are a favorite vegetable of many gardeners, but tomatoes started out being cultivated in Europe as ornamental plants, not for food, because they were thought to be poisonous. Since tomatoes come in so many growth habits and colors, you can make growing them into an artistic project. Using the lush green foliage, bright yellow flowers and fruits in a variety of shapes and colors, there are many ways to design a decorative garden with tomatoes, so you can enjoy both the beauty and the fine taste of your tomatoes.

Things You'll Need

• Chain-link fence
• Posts
• Hanging containers
• Eggplants
• Peppers

Instructions

1. One way to design a decorative tomato garden is to grow the tall types (indeterminate varieties) as a fence. Plant tomato plants all along chain link fencing to turn the fence into a decorative hedge. You can also support tomatoes on posts in a row to create a tall, temporary fence between any two areas. Just make sure your supports are strong and well seated in the ground.

2. Another decorative way to use tomato plants is to plant them in ornamental hanging containers and attach them in a row. You can hang one on the edge of each step of a sunny, outdoor staircase to form an edible and decorative tomato "bead curtain" down the edge of your stairs. You can do the same along a railing or the overhead edge of a balcony, or any other area that needs a little sprucing up.

3. Design a decorative tomato backdrop for your vegetable garden by planting an assortment of different colored tomatoes in a row in the back of your vegetable garden.

4. Make a tomato privacy wall for your patio by planting tomatoes like shrubs along the sides of your patio.

5. Tomatoes like to grow with members of their own family, Solanaceae, so grow mixed colors of tomatoes with various colors of peppers and eggplants at their feet, for a riot of colorful vegetable fruits. For a larger space you can add some tomatillos -- green, purple or orange varieties.

References

• Iowa State University Extension; The Ornamental Vegetable Garden; Cindy Haynes; April 14, 2000
• University of Vermont Extension; Grow Vertical Vegetables; Leonard P. Perry