Who doesn’t love pizza? If you can’t get enough of this classic dish, good news – many of your favorite ingredients can be grown right at home in a pizza garden. These fun themed gardens combine easy-to-grow pizza herbs and veggies with a creative twist. Hungry for more information? Read on to learn how to create a pizza garden.
What is a pizza garden?
Pizza gardens riff off of classic vegetable gardens and herb gardens. By creating a circular garden divided into “slices” to grow common pizza ingredients, these gardens are a fun and thrifty way to get all the benefits of edible gardening.
Benefits of a pizza garden
Pizza gardens offer plenty of positives for your yard. They’re a creative way to get kids excited about gardening, and they’ll save you time and money that would otherwise be spent shopping at the grocery store or ordering delivery. There’s no need to do either when you can grow your own toppings for homemade pizza!
These gardens also open the door to a full edible landscape. They’re a great complement to outdoor kitchens and pizza ovens, and they’ll be right at home next to the radishes and cucumbers in your veggie garden. You can even create a pizza-themed outdoor dining area!
Supplies for a pizza garden
To create a pizza garden at home, here’s what you’ll need:
- Tomato plants
- Pepper plants
- Herbs like basil and oregano
- Straw or mulch
- Twine or stones
Optional supplies:
- Raised garden bed
- Perforated landscaping fabric
- Garden soil
How to create a pizza garden
Creating a pizza garden is easy, and the design offers plenty of opportunities to customize to your tastes and get creative. These guidelines will show you how to create a pizza garden of your own in a few easy steps.
1. Plot your pizza
To start your pizza garden, plot a large area of your yard that gets full sun – ideally six to eight hours of sunlight per day. This will be where you build your pizza. Your pizza garden can take the structure of a typical garden, but setting it up in the shape of a pizza is a fun way to take it to the next level.
Once you’ve decided on the perfect spot, consider adding a raised bed to your garden. In addition to offering structure for your garden design and protection to your pizza plants, a wooden border is the perfect way to give your garden a pizza crust.
After you’ve mapped out your pizza, till your soil and supplement it with garden soil if needed. Then, divide the garden into sections using stones or twine. These will later be filled with veggies and herbs.
2. Pick your plants
To pick out the perfect plants for your pizza garden, start with your favorite toppings. The options are endless! You can grow roma tomatoes for pizza sauce, or cherry tomatoes to steep in olive oil for homemade sun-dried tomatoes. Basil, oregano, and chives are great herbal additions, while green peppers, garlic, and onions add more homegrown flavor.
When selecting plants for your pizza garden, keep in mind which ones will make good companion plants in the shared space. Tomatoes and bell peppers will grow nicely with onions and benefit from their natural aphid-repellent properties, but save any beans or pea plants for another spot in your garden.
3. Sow your seeds
Now that you have all your ingredients, it’s time to get them set up in the garden. First, consider adding perforated landscape fabric. This natural netting will protect your plants from weeds while still giving them room to breathe – the perfect garden pizza dough.
Once you’re ready to plant, set up your pizza garden according to each plant’s instructions. Tomato plants and pepper plants will enjoy having extra space to spread out, but miniature herbs can be planted closer together or in containers.
4. Dress it up
There are plenty of functional ways to dress up your pizza garden. Containers and smaller circular beds nestled into the “pizza pie” will resemble classic toppings like pepperoni and sausage. A layer of mozzarella-like straw on top of your plants will keep them safe and warm and complete the pizza picture.
The final word
A pizza garden makes for a fun and delicious introduction to edible landscaping, but there are plenty of options to expand. If you’re looking for a garden that’s good enough to eat, our landscaping pros are just a call or click away to help.
Main photo credit: Juan Rodriguez
