The 16 small gardens next to the DABG Visitor Center are taking a "fresh” approach this season by mixing vegetables and herbs with traditional annual flowers.

Dubbed “The Kitchen Gardens,” these flowerbeds will display a variety of plants, both edible and decorative, while also promoting sustainable gardening practices and healthy eating. Already the new plan has required less energy for heating and cooling the greenhouses, less potting soil and water, and fewer volunteer hours for planting and irrigating.

Summer visitors will still see the usual splash of colorful annuals in the drive-by flowerbed next to the road and in the two large gardens alongside McKay Plaza, including blue salvia, white pentas, carmine wave petunias, and apricot vinca. Annual flowers will also border the kitchen gardens. But most of the vegetables and herbs within those beds have been planted directly in the ground, enabling the plants to develop stronger roots and more normal growth patterns than when sown early in a greenhouse. Slower-growing plants (peppers, tomatoes, and cabbages) were purchased as seedlings from local nurseries.

Traditionally, a “kitchen garden” is located just outside the kitchen door, making it easy for the cook to dash outside and grab a fresh zucchini or sprig of basil. Should we be lucky enough to produce any bumper crops this year, we will donate our excess vegetables so that they can be eaten!

In addition to vegetables, edible flowers to look for in the kitchen gardens include lemon marigolds, nasturtiums, and calendula. Interesting color will be added by purple cauliflower, rainbow Swiss chard, and black pole beans. Blooms that may be unfamiliar to some visitors are rose-red buckwheat, okra blossoms, blue butterfly pea vine, and a globe artichoke. A collection of herbs in one of the gardens includes parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme.