Growing Ornamental Kale

Add this beautiful and tasty vegetable to your gardens and landscapes.

By Kate Rogers Gessert
Updated on November 12, 2024
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Adobe Stock/Jeremy

Why keep your flower garden and the vegetable plot separated? Learn about growing ornamental kale that is both delicious and beautiful.

For some years now I’ve been experimenting with the use of food plant varieties as decorative additions to my garden. My ideal dual-purpose fruit or vegetable would be attractive in leaf, in flower, and in fruit. It would also be tasty and have a long harvest season. Furthermore, this versatile “dream” variety could be grown in combination with strictly ornamental trees and shrubs or in a largely edible landscape composed primarily of flowers, vegetables, fruits, and nuts.

As you’d imagine, few food plants meet all these criteria. However, there is one that does satisfy a good many of them. The kale vegetable is a hardy and healthful green that can be either an ornamental food plant or a valuable contribution to a nondecorative vegetable garden.

Winter Greens

Kale (Brassica oleracea acephala), a full-leaved member of the cabbage family, is similar to broccoli in growing habit and culinary use. And, since kale is quite winter-hardy, it can withstand temperatures below freezing (some varieties to as low as -10 degrees Fahrenheit!), and, if lightly protected, will continue to thrive during the cold season in many parts of the country.

Dwarf varieties grow in neat compact clusters that can reach 1-1/2 feet tall and 2 feet wide. Their finely curled leaves are usually bluish green in color, and make for tasty garden greens when harvested. In cold climates, the plants often stop growing in late fall and resume in early spring.

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