me smile.
‘Bright Lights’ chard comes in a mix of colors. Here, bright orange and yellow chard plants shine in a flower/vegetable border.
how to grow a rainbow garden
Renee’s Garden seeds sprays the seeds of their colorful vegetable mixes with dyes
With a few exceptions, most unusually colored vegetables grow much like standard vegetables. For detailed information, consult “The Rainbow Vegetable Encyclopedia.” For the nuts and bolts of soil preparation, fertilizing, watering, composting, mulching, and garden maintenance, see Appendix A.
Starting with Seeds
A small number of rainbow varieties are a little challenging to grow; for example, yellow beets are somewhat harder to germinate than the red varieties. Also, the all-red and the all-blue potato varieties usually yield half as much as most modern hybrids, so you must plant more than the regular amount.
Quite a few rainbow vegetables, however, are downright advantageous. For example, purple beans, blue-podded peas, and golden zucchinis are easier for gardeners to find on the vines than the usual varieties. As unpicked peas and beans make the vines less productive, with colorful vegetables you need not wonder why the beans and peas have stopped producing or what to do with a three-foot zucchini that has grown unnoticed for a week or two. ‘Hopi Blue’ corn needs less water than the average corn crop. And purple and yellow string bean varieties can be started in much cooler soil than standard string beans. Purple and orange cauliflower varieties need no garden blanching to be tender and sweet. The only real problem with growing a rainbow garden is locating the seeds of some varieties. While the market is changing, many unique varieties are not readily available from local nurseries. The seed companies listed in the Resources section are good places to start.
The color-coded seeds help gardeners know which color vegetable the plants will produce. Colorful herbs and vegetables can sparkle in a mixed border. ‘Red Rubin’ basil has been planted among lemon basil and species orange zinnias at the Kendall Jackson Winery display gardens in Santa Rosa, California.
Growing more than one color of snap beans makes the harvest more appealing. Pictured above are three varieties of bush beans in one bed: yellow ‘Roc d’Or,’ ‘Purple Queen,’ and green ‘Slenderette.’ All are available in one package from Renee’s Garden.
Rainbow flowers and vegetables make a Technicolor presentation. In the basket are ‘Burpee’s Golden’ beet, ‘Gypsy’ peppers, ‘Ruby Red’ chard, ‘Mandarin Cross’ tomato, ‘Gold Rush’ zucchini, and ‘Albina Verduna’ white beets.
Color Planning before Planting
The color range of your harvest will be a major planning consideration. You’ll need to pay particular attention to the number of plants to grow, and to selecting and coordinating particular varieties. For example, the special effect of some colorful vegetables depends on lots of different colored varieties being served together. Envision three colors, not one, of tomatoes or peppers arranged on a tray. To achieve that effect, you’ll want to grow two plants of three or four varieties where possible instead of three or four plants of one or two varieties. For a mix of color with root vegetables and lettuces, forgo planting one row of each color. Instead, mix the seeds of many colors of beets, carrots, or radishes and sprinkle them together in the planting bed. In most cases you’ll be able to tell the colors apart when you harvest because beets have distinct foliage and most shoulders of these vegetables show above the soil. (See the interview with Renee Shepherd for more information on mixing colorful vegetables in the same bed. Her seed company, Renee’s Garden, offers packages of mixed colors of vegetables and the seeds are color-coded so you can see which colors you are planting.)
designing a rainbow garden
Cheryl Chang helps to harvest the glorious bounty from the Hidden Villa rainbow garden.
When I first planted colorful vegetables, I primarily focused on their use in the kitchen. Finding many rainbow varieties more lovely in the garden than their monochromatic cousins, I soon started planning gardens that featured their bright colors. About the same time I became fascinated with colorful vegetables, I developed an interest in edible flowers. Again, their enticing colors drew me to them. Soon my passion for edible flowers and colorful vegetables dovetailed and I often grew them together. My favorite combinations became purple and pink violas and tulips with burgundy lettuces; orange and yellow nasturtiums and calendulas among the red and orange chards and beets; red onions and scallions with red dianthus; and ‘Lemon Gem’ marigolds interplanted with orange and yellow peppers.
With each garden I’ve grown, the rainbow effect gets stronger and the palette of plants expands. My first rainbow garden looked mostly green. Even though the radish roots were red and the corn kernels blue, their green foliage gave little hint of the unique vegetables. To enhance the impression of a rainbow garden, I’ve learned to include flowering plants in primary colors such as zinnias, salvias, violas, statice, calendulas, and marigolds. At first, I randomly interspersed the flowers. Now, for my favorite rainbow gardens, I arrange separate beds for the red, orange, yellow, green plants. Using poetic license, I combine the purple, indigo, and blue plants in the fifth bed.
Checking the Site
When planning a rainbow garden, I use the same techniques as when designing landscapes for my clients. My first step is to make sure the light exposure is correct. Most all edible plants need at least six hours of midday sun to survive; eight hours is better. I check for good rich soil and great drainage. (Appendix A includes information on soil preparation.) Then I compile a list of the vegetables to grow, noting each plant’s height and spread, and which varieties grow best in my climate.
Drawing to Scale
My next step is to draw the garden area to scale, one-quarter inch equaling one foot. Graph paper or an architect’s vellum with a grid for one-quarter-inch scale drawings is helpful. The vellum is available from drafting supply stores and can be purchased by the sheet. With my scale drawing and vegetable list ready, I design the garden.
I start by noting the garden’s southernmost point on the scale drawing. This is important because I want the tallest plants situated on the garden’s south side so they don’t shade the shorter plants. I also plan paths or locate stepping stones for easy access to weed and harvest.
Creating the Rainbow
Next I plan the beds according to the order of the colors in the rainbow—red, orange, yellow, green, and a combination of the blue and purple tones. It’s fun to select red vegetables for the red beds, orange varieties for the orange beds, and so on. I flesh out the unusual colors with the more common varieties by adding, say, orange carrots to the orange bed and red beets to the red bed. Using the height and spread data from my plant list, I arrange the red row from back to front, choosing the tallest plants for the back, south side.
