tmtresh wrote:

...I disagree. Many people plant annual flowers, and flowers such as daffodils
and tulips don't keep they're foliage year-round (or even all summer). When
vegetables stop producing, or are ready to be pulled (radishes, etc), you
can readily plant more. The ground doesn't have to be bare for long...


I will have to retract my "more than half the year" statement. In my
area the ground would be bare only from December through April. (unless
I put in something like winter rye)


... There is no reason food plants can't be
planted as display plants or even in the same bed as non-food plants (as
long as you can tell them apart, you wouldn't want to eat non-food plants)...


There are only a few plants that you really don't want to eat (i.e. are
toxic). The other non-food plants probably just aren't culinarialy
appealing. However, I agree that there's no real reason to separate food
and decorative crops.

As far as not harvesting a crop all at once, that certainly works with
some crops. I do not advise it with something like lettuce. You can peel
off the outer leaves of lettuce and make a salad. Eventually the plant
will get tired of that treatment and will bolt, at which time the leaves
get bitter. Much better to cut the head (or even better, pull it up by
the roots, wash them off, and place in a plastic bag with a little water
in the fridge, where it will last for a couple of weeks if you don't
finish it off sooner) and plant a replacement immediately. If you plan
ahead, you can have several lettuce plants waiting to go into the garden
as soon as you pull the ones that're ready.

Most people think that they should plant in the spring and enjoy the
harvest all summer. However, some crops need to be planted almost
continuously to enjoy a continuous harvest. My last lettuce planting is
generally in mid to late August. Lettuce will take temperatures down to
25F, although some varieties will show some tipburn at those
temperatures. I have picked lettuce at Christmas (MA, zone 5, but
certainly not every year).