
Bring the Garden to Your Next Gathering
By Melinda Myers
[July 05, 2025]
Make every dining experience fun and flavorful by
including garden fresh herbs, vegetables and flowers in your meals.
Allowing guests to harvest and season their drinks, entrees and
sides from the garden or container creates an interactive experience
they are sure to remember. |
Start your gathering with a review of the menu and a
tour of the gardens. Provide guests with a harvest basket and snips
so they can collect all their favorite ingredients. Or gather an
assortment of herbs and vegetables in advance and display them in
containers for your family and guests to make their own selections.
Include a few herbs and vegetables that can be
blended, muddled or added to yours and your guests’ favorite
beverage. Use the hollow stems of lovage as a straw for tomato juice
or bloody Mary. You’ll enjoy the celery flavor this edible straw
provides. Provide mint, basil or rosemary leaves to flavor iced tea
and lemonade. Just set the herbs near the beverage table for easy
access, provide needed utensils, and herbal cocktail recipes.
Bring the garden to the party by placing a few containers of herbs,
edible flowers and vegetables on your balcony, patio, deck or near
the grill. Use small herb containers as edible centerpieces and add
a pair of garden scissors or snips. Label the plants, offer
seasoning suggestions, and allow your family and guests to season
the meal to their taste when it arrives. Remind guests to adjust the
quantity of herbs used to allow for the difference in flavor
intensity of fresh versus dried herbs. In general, you will need two
to three times more fresh than dried herbs.
Add a bit of color and unique flavor to the meal with edible
flowers. Pick the flowers early in the day when they are at their
peak and taste best. Wash them by dipping the flower in a bowl of
water and gently shaking. Remove the bitter tasting base of the
petal and the reproductive parts from larger flowers before
preparing.
Make sure the flowers you select are edible and free of pesticides.
Let your guests know they can eat the flowers, or you’ll end up with
a pile of petals on the side of every plate. Try nasturtium and
daylily blossoms stuffed with cream cheese; calendula, pansy, and
borage petals sprinkled on salad; chive flowers for baked potatoes;
and mint leaves on top of a slice of chocolate cake.
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Harvest your garden and containers regularly to keep
plants looking good and producing. Cut the outer leaves of leaf
lettuce when they are four to six inches tall to keep the plant
growing new leaves. Pick peppers and tomatoes when fully ripe, so
the plant continues flowering and forming new fruit. Remove faded
flowers as needed to keep flowering plants covered with blooms.
Dress up your table with a bouquet of your favorite garden flowers.
Pick a few extras to send home with your guests and they’ll surely
remember your special gathering filled with homegrown flavor and
beauty.
Melinda Myers has written more than 20 gardening books,
including the Midwest Gardener’s Handbook, 2nd Edition and Small
Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses “How to Grow Anything”
instant video and DVD series and the nationally syndicated Melinda’s
Garden Moment TV & radio program. Myers is a columnist and
contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine and was commissioned
by Summit for her expertise to write this article. Myers’ website is www.MelindaMyers.com.
[Photo courtesy of MelindaMyers.com]
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