Artichokes in the Ornamental Garden

Since my garden is so small, I’m lucky to be able to visit the Sunshine Community Gardens once a week where I help Karl take care of his hive. Usually, I also check out the veggies and take notes on their professional methods of growing tomatoes.

But they don’t just grow vegetables in the garden. Here’s a sunny patch of sunflowers. There are sunflowers all over the garden. The bees love them as much as I do.

Some plants at the Sunshine Community Garden are both edible and ornamental. The artichoke is one of the best illustrations of this functionality.

It has incredible form, beautiful flowers, and they’re tasty too.

Artichokes are hypnotic and slightly unreal looking. They seem like something from another planet.
The artichoke is actually the bud of the plant before it opens. Here’s a shot from above of the artichoke in bloom.

So do yourself a favor and make room for an artichoke. You won’t be sorry that you did.