Hi GPODers!
We see a diverse range of gardens here at Garden Photo of the Day, but I often wish we saw more edible gardens. Don’t get me wrong—I want to see any and all of the plants you grow, and what is shared with the blog on a weekly basis blows me away, but the beauty of a kitchen garden should not be understated. One gardener proving my point is Kimberly Moore-Dudley from Greensboro, North Carolina. Kimberly grows a wide variety of gorgeous vegetables and includes a lot of flowers to encourage pollinators. Her bountiful garden proves that gardening can be just as delicious as it is beautiful.
Hi! I’m Kimberly, and I live in Greensboro, North Carolina. I have a 1,000-square-foot vegetable and flower garden. I’ve always dreamed of having a kitchen garden full of the southern varieties I grew up with. I’m currently a Master Gardener volunteer intern with the NC State University Master Gardener Volunteer program working toward my certification in November. My family has always had gardens, and I’m sharing our traditions with my daughter, who graduated from college last year. Gardening will always be a part of my life, and it brings me so much joy.
You can find me on Facebook and Instagram under Kimberly’s Golden Garden.
Kimberly has ample space for growing; I know a lot of small-space gardeners are salivating at the sound of 1,000 square feet of open gardening space, but even a decent-sized plot fills up fast. Aside from the necessary room needed for maintaining plants and accessing her harvest, Kimberly utilizes every available inch.
And her hard work pays off in the form of these diverse and delicious harvests! A grocery store’s produce department is a rainbow of fruits and vegetables, but growing your own crop can open your eyes to the incredible diversity in varieties and flavors that are actually available. The gorgeous purple hull beans in the center are a great example. They are a type of cowpea and a nitrogen-fixing plant—beautiful, delicious, and beneficial!
A vegetable gardener’s best friends are some bright flowers that signal to the pollinators that it’s their turn to put some work in. Vegetable flowers tend to be small and can easily be overlooked by bees in their hunt for nectar and pollen. Planting some bigger blooms will attract the bees, who will eventually find their way to your veggie plants as well. Learn more about this technique here: Grow More Flowers to Harvest More Food. Kimberly’s impressive harvests are absolutely due, in part, to her abundance of flowers.
Another colorful and delectable harvest: You know your garden (and diet) is successful when you’re producing this much color.
Aside from the colorful harvest and beautiful flowers, the plants in a veggie garden can have some ornamental qualities. Your average tomato plant isn’t going to be anything to write home about, but the variegated foliage on Kimberly’s ‘Confetti’ sweet bell peppers is worthy of any garden bed.
Among all these stunning vegetables and flowers, Kimberly still finds space to grow some incredible fruit. This watermelon isn’t quite ready for harvest, but it’s shaping up to be a beautiful and delectable summer snack.
Thank you so much for sharing your incredible garden with us, Kimberly! The wide array of gorgeous crops that you grow is inspirational, and your mission to pass on the tradition of gardening with your daughter is truly heartwarming.
I know many more GPODers have vegetables patches, but opt to share “prettier” parts of their garden. I challenge you to share both! My favorite part of Garden Photo of the Day is celebrating all facets of gardening, from our ornamental beds to native havens, and edible gardens to indoor plant collections. No matter what you grow, we love to see it and learn more about it! Follow the directions below to submit photos via email, or send me a DM on Instagram: @agirlherdogandtheroad.
We want to see YOUR garden!
Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!
To submit, send 5–10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.
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