Vegetable Growing in a Flower border

I have posted two photos- at the top of this post is my south facing front garden border in Winter, the start of February to be precise. At the bottom is the same border now in August. Most of the planting was done with annual seeds, but I have some perrenials in there too. Bearing in mind the summer we've just had (Low temperatures, cloud, the lowest hours of sunshine in...AGES...), I think the second picture isn't too bad...
But what you may not have noticed is that in amongst the flowers and shrubs, I have included some food planting, in a kind of experiment. I'm convinced that the vegetable plants will be less likely to succumb to pests when they're not planted all together. And so far it's doing great despite the weather. In the bed I have Broad Beans, tomatoes, courgettes and Rhubarb. In the front, where it's really sunny (if it weren't so cloudy) I have parsley, sage,rosemary and, thyme. Along with marjoram, tarragon and mint (the tea type).
I've recently transplanted out three Purple Sprouting Broccoli plants (and the pigeons haven't found them yet!) I also have some rainbow chard ready to go, to provide colour and spinach-like leaves in Winter.
I will definitely be trying this next year again. And maybe it's because of all the vermicompost in the bed, but the broad beans and tomatoes have no aphids, the courgettes haven't mildewed
And although the fig tree at the back probably won't provide any ripe figs this year (lack of sun again) it's certainly looking healthy.







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