Pansies Provide Cold-weather Colour for Edible Container Gardens

Pansies can be used to add a splash of colour to your edible container garden and a touch of minty flavour to meals

As I continue to build on my edible-container courtyard garden (like most gardens, it will never actually be completed), I’ve been working to include four-season interest wherever I can, particularly in the larger pots where there is lots of room for layers of plantings.

As winter’s chill pervades, I’ve been ever so happy with my combo of kale and Cool Wave pansies, which provide a blast of colour to the planters also housing alpine strawberries and now-dormant fruit trees.

And what, may you ask, are pansies doing in a food garden? The good news is that the mildly mint-flavoured blooms of pansies are sweet to eat on cakes and other desserts, as well as in salads, as shown by this recipe shared by the folks at Cool Wave and Burpee.

Bloomin’ Salad Recipe

Ingredients

• Burpee BOOST Healing Hands salad mix
• Cool Wave pansies
• Burpee Home Gardens® Fernleaf Dill
• Burpee Home Gardens Sweet Italian Large Leaf Basil
• Burpee Home Gardens Triple Curled Parsley
• Goat cheese
• Walnuts
• Salad dressing

Instructions

1. Cut four cups Healing Hands salad mix, rinse and place in a bowl
2. Cut 3⁄4 cup Cool Wave blooms and 1⁄4 cup each dill, basil and parsley
3. Mix Cool Wave and herbs with salad mix, goat cheese and nuts. Toss with your favorite dressing and enjoy!