Homegrown vegetables are undoubtedly tastier than any store-bought ones, which is why gardeners around the world enjoy ‘growing their own’. On top of this, there are also beautiful ornamental specimens which can bring color and texture to fall decor. You can grow and show this month, before you enjoy those homegrown flavors.
Growing your own crops opens up a world of veg in different colors and shapes than you normally see on shelves. Rainbow carrots, purple cabbages and cauliflowers, bright green romanesco, vivid Swiss chard, dazzling peppers, and ornate squash and gourds can be arranged together for rustic displays.
Think of your vegetable garden as an artistic palette as well as a place for ingredients for seasonal dishes. You can make stunning displays in this vintage willow wicker basket on Wayfair to place on a porch, side table, or make a centerpiece for fall gatherings. Here are our picks of seven ornamental vegetables to harvest in September for breathtaking seasonal displays.
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1. Pumpkin
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Pumpkins are potentially the vegetable most associated with fall decorations. There are many ways to decorate with pumpkins, from placing them on your porch to making a table centerpiece out of them. And you don’t need to go mad with pumpkin carving to make an eye-catching display.
How you display your crops will depend on the pumpkins you are growing. Larger pumpkins can adorn porch steps to create a spectacular entrance, or miniature pumpkins can line baskets or wooden trays on a table.
In September, pick pumpkins off the vine once they have a bright orange color, the skin is hard and can’t be pierced with a fingernail, and it sounds hollow if you tap them. The stem should also be dried.
You can get a variety pack of pumpkin seeds on Amazon for fruits in different colors, sizes, and textures. If you want to grow mini pumpkins, these Wee B Little pumpkin seeds from True Leaf Market are ideal and can even be grown in raised beds or containers.
2. Squash
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I have always enjoyed growing squash, and one of the reasons is due to the wide range of shapes and colors there are to pick from. There is such a diversity of both summer and winter squash you can add to any vegetable garden.
From teardrop-shaped butternut squashes to ridged acorn squashes, through to scalloped pattypan squashes. There are smooth, ribbed, or warty skin textures that can add character if you add them to fall displays. Once you’ve enjoyed their unique decorative characteristics, you can bake or roast the squash and add them to a variety of comforting seasonal dishes.
In September, the window for harvesting winter squash is well and truly open. As with pumpkins, the rind should be hard, the stem woody and dry, and color deep and solid when the squash is ready to pick.
I always adore butternut squash (seeds available at Burpee) and Blue Hubbard (seeds available at True Leaf Market), both of which offer ornamental value on top of sweet flavor.
3. Gourds
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Gourds are a quirky addition to any vegetable garden. They are ancient vegetables that have had many uses over the years – from water carriers to musical instruments – but nowadays they are grown for unique decorations. Gourds are easy to grow and feature an array of different shapes, colors, stripes, warts, and ridges.
You can create a kaleidoscope display of gourds in a basket or tray, or simply dot individual ones around a table or on a mantelpiece for a novel show that is sure to spark questions from guests.
Harvest your gourds and place them somewhere warm and dry to cure for a few weeks. You can wash them with soapy water to remove any soil, and, once dried, spray them with a mix of 10 parts water to one part vinegar to toughen the skin and preserve them for longer.
This packet of decorative mix small gourd seeds at Amazon is perfect for growing a fun mix of different gourds to display on porches, mantels, or tablescapes.
4. Rainbow Carrots
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Mention carrots and the overwhelming majority of people will undoubtedly picture the iconic orange roots. It is understandable, as that is all you see in stores.
There are, however, many different varieties that offer a rainbow of colors. Historically, carrots were purple, yellow, or white before breeding in the 16th and 17th centuries created the bright orange carrots we all know today.
If you want to grow carrots at home, it offers an ideal opportunity to look outside of the norm. You can still get scarlet red, vivid yellow, bright white, or deep purple carrots (seeds available at True Leaf Market) to sow and grow in your vegetable garden.
When you harvest these carrots in early fall, they make a vibrant display in baskets alongside other seasonal produce. Keep the leafy tops on and don’t think of peeling them.
Carrots won’t make a long-lasting display, but they can be a talking point at a dinner before being stored as normal in a refrigerator to be used in dishes.
This Kaleidoscope Blend of carrot seeds at Burpee has mixed seeds of five different types. Gardeners can sow them and crop red, purple, white, yellow, and orange carrots.
5. Purple Cabbage
The deep purple heads of these fall and winter cabbages provide dramatic, deep shades for displays.
These cabbages, commonly known as red cabbages despite their darker color, look good either on their own or mixed with other crops in lighter colors. As an alternative, the ruffled leaves of savoy cabbages can add textural interest to any vegetable display.
September marks the end of the window for summer cabbages and the start of the season to harvest winter cabbages. Different varieties of red cabbages can be planted to pick from August into winter.
If you squeeze the cabbage head and it feels firm, that means it is ready to harvest. Waiting too long to harvest cabbages can cause the heads to crack, which isn’t ideal if you want to utilize their vibrant colors in any displays.
‘Red Acre’ is a popular purple cabbage variety to grow. This heirloom vegetable has deep purple heads and goes from sowing to harvesting in under 100 days. You can get ‘Red Acre’ cabbage seeds at True Leaf Market.
6. Romanesco
(Image credit: Getty Images/Sergio Amiti)
Romanesco is a very unique vegetable. A cultivar of cauliflower, though often referred to as romanesco broccoli, it has a lime-green head that displays buds in a distinctive spiral Fibonacci sequence.
Whether in a basket of its own or surrounded by other seasonal veg, it is likely that not everyone will be aware of romanesco, so the surreal heads can make a real talking point. If you have included it in dishes at a dinner party (romanesco has a texture like cauliflower and a nutty flavor), save a head or two for the table so guests can be enamoured by the beauty of this lesser-known veg.
Romanesco is really structural and capable of bringing something to displays that no other vegetable can. Even in a fall garden, it stands out and remains one of the prettiest vegetables to grow in a flower border or kitchen garden.
Romanesco is grown from seed in late spring and harvested from September onwards. Once its buds are compact and firm, the entire head can be cut with a sharp knife. Just like when you harvest cauliflower, make sure to pick before the heads begin to separate.
You can get romanesco seeds at True Leaf Market. Or, for a breathtaking display of cauliflowers, this cauliflower seed variety pack on Amazon contains seeds to grow purple, dark green, and lime green heads, along with the classic white cauliflower.
7. Leeks
You can grow leeks from late summer through to early spring if you plant different early, mid, and late varieties. As leeks are one of the best vegetables to overwinter, cold-hardy varieties will happily sit in the vegetable garden throughout the colder months to be harvested as needed.
Different types of leeks can have deep green or blue-green tops above the bright white base. If you harvest leeks this month, lay them out in baskets or lean them against larger vegetables, such as pumpkins or squashes, in an artistic manner. Their blue or green stems and white portions will contrast nicely with a deep orange pumpkin.
I would wipe down the stem and snip the roots back to the base with pruning snips or garden scissors before putting them on display. This quick job will neaten the leek. If the outer foliage is very dirty, consider removing the top layer.
These Giant Leek seeds on Amazon can be sown to grow large leeks with tall white stems.
What to Shop
If you want to grow a unique, decorative twist on a homegrown favorite, look no further than heirloom tomatoes. If you opt to grow heirloom tomatoes, there is a wide variety of these old-fashioned cultivars that come in colors and shapes you never see on supermarket shelves.
With heirloom tomato varieties coming in shades of pink, yellow, green, purple, and black, as well as classic red and sometimes striped, there is a whole spectrum to discover. For example, this colorful heirloom tomato seed variety pack on Amazon offers a chance to grow black, white, green, pink, and bi-color tomatoes.
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