A Tomato Grows in Wheaton

The newest display at Brookside Gardens is far more than a pretty sight. It's appetizing.

So appetizing, in fact, that field corn, fruits and herbs have gone missing, taken by visitors, leaving only a hole in the soil.

This year, the gardens are using their trial beds near the conservatory entrance to plant and harvest food, a new theme for a garden than has featured dahlias, candy plants and pollinating plants in the past.

Alongside a main vegetable garden bed are "great grains" — field corn, rice patties and wheat — and "sweeteners" — from stevia plants to sweet potatoes. After a full summer in the sun, the trial garden is rivaling the gardens' collection of flowers and plants.

"We wanted to show a beautiful garden can also be functional," said Leslie McDermott, marketing and media relations manager at Brookside Gardens.

A stroll around the gardens reveals that a few of the flowering vegetables, especially the sweet potatoes, have grown out along the path. In the vegetable bed, though, items are tightly packed and arranged without rows, to make the most efficient use of the bed shape.

Phil Normandy, head plants manager, said that the arrangement also prevents weeds from growing as fast and the soil from baking and drying out.

Food harvested from the trial garden is donated to Martha's Table, a D.C.-based charity that provides meals to low-income and homeless children. One harvest produced about 50 pounds of tomatoes, eggplant, squash and okra.

Other plants are there for solely educational purposes, like a cardamom plant and rice patties, to show visitors what these foods look like before they make it to the grocery store. These plants don't necessarily produce food, as the season is too short.

Normandy even confessed he had not seen a rice patty before this spring.

"People have no idea where these grains come from, and it might be of interest to see what the plants look like that provide the corn for our corn flakes or the rice for our Rice Krispies," said Roger Haynes, who designed and planted the grains bed.

"The design was laid out in blocks to resemble rows in the field, and the rice was planned for the front of the bed to show itself up close," he said.

The three beds of the trial garden are centered on a walkway near the conservatory and the popular Wings of Fancy exhibit.

"It's a great surprise how pretty it is," Normandy said, describing the visual effect of the trial garden. "Overall, it's pretty lush here."

Brookside is looking forward to installing interpretative signs next to each bed in order to help visitors understand the theme behind each bed and some connecting information. Right now, signs describing the common and scientific name of each plant are placed nearby. The descriptive signs, which were held up by budget concerns, are scheduled to be installed by late summer.

The trial garden and the rest of Brookside is open to visitors from sunrise to sunset.