Kate O'Donnell Published: 3:55PM BST 03 Sep 2009  The Homebody by Kate O'Donnell Photo: NUNO DA COSTA  I went to the Dalmatian coast this year for the first time and, along with the sublime, untouched landscape, I was very taken by the country gardens I saw.  Instead of places in which to grow flowers, the vast majority were being used for growing vegetables: they were, literally, vegetable gardens. Clearly the need for home-grown produce lasted decades longer in Croatia than it did elsewhere in Europe.  But not only were these gardens productive, they actually looked very beautiful – some were embellished with a few (edible) flowers, such as nasturtiums, that were planted in drills just like the veg. In today’s grow-your-own spirit, there’s a renewed interest in having an allotment, or at least having a vegetable plot in the garden, but, as anyone who has a small garden knows, the amount of vegetables you actually get from a plot isn’t that great.  What if, as in Croatia, the entire garden was turned over to fruit and vegetables – complete with aestheticallypleasing willow poles and glass cloches – instead of just a corner of it?  Vegetable gardens can work in even the most urban of city settings. The photographer Cindy Sherman and musician David Byrne have one at their Manhattan apartment overlooking the Hudson River. Designed by fashion-designerturned- plantsman Todd Oldham, the garden doesn’t just feed them, it almost feeds their whole block.  Incidentally, I still remember the kitchen garden that Terence Conran exhibited at the Chelsea Flower Show back in 2004. He won a medal for it, but not gold – which I thought a travesty, as he’d got the future of urban living exactly right. Gardening trends reach their highest form of expression at Chelsea, but sometimes I wonder how the winning show-gardens translate to reality.  These days, I detect a turning away from conventional ideas about planting, in favour of something looser, freer and more romantic.  The garden designers Julian and Isabel Bannerman, favourites of the Prince of Wales, open their own garden to the public. Called Hanham Court, they have integrated planting and buildings in a way that’s truly organic and enchanting, juxtaposing topiary with tumbling roses and delphinium spikes.  Upcoming plantswoman Sarah Price makes me want to sprinkle about the contents of every packet of cottage garden seeds that I can find. She, like the cult Dutch landscape designer Piet Oudolf, finds beauty in dead and dying grasses as much as in new ones, recognising that plants take on a new life even in decay.  The more urban the setting of her designs, the more romantic the resulting planting looks. This means that city dwellers get the best of all worlds: the sometimes severe lines of classical and modern architecture softened by nature at her sweetest.  Terracotta pots grown green-andwhite with mosses look more chic than new ones. Buy them ready-aged from Marston & Langinger, or speed up the ageing process yourself by painting them with live yogurt or drenching them while you’re watering the plants.  Prop or hang a mirror in your garden, as garden writer Elspeth Thompson does: it makes the space seem larger and more mysterious.  Take inspiration from Mary Wesley’s novel The Camomile Lawn and grow your own next Spring. Morehaven sells the plants by mail order, but buy them at the crack of January 2010 or they’ll be sold out.  Sparrow & Finch’s bug, butterfly and bat houses are nature-friendly and pretty, but I also rather fancy Burford’s cute bee house – designed for solitary bees: it’s ideal if the thought of a big beehive scares you.  Sparrow & Finch: www.sparrowandfinch.co.uk . Burford: www.burford.co.uk  Visit Seed To Plate for tips on when to sow and when to reap.  Show off the fruits of your efforts inside. Outdoor plants in quirky pots are a lovely alternative to a flower vase on the dinner table.  Late fashion great Gianfranco Ferré’s sartorial signature was to combine stripes with checks in his designs – in Ferre’s hands the combination never jarred I was reminded of this when I saw pictures of a checked throw on a striped sofa at Singita Castleton Camp in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve, South Africa, which shows it can be done.  A foolproof tip to combining the two? Use similar colours: black with grey, red with pink, purple with lilac and so on.  For some reason, Brits are very unadventurous when it comes to bedlinen – preferring bleached-out colours and sofaint- you-can-barely-see-them prints. I think it’s time to throw caution to the wind and buy into the mood-lifting colours, prints and patterns that are coming onto the market. My preferred sources are:  Lulu & Nat for cheery, butterfly-printed cotton. 020 7371 8756; www.luluandnat.com  John Robshaw’s vivid Indian cottons at Tissus d’Hélène. 020 7352 9977; www.tissusdhelene.co.uk  Tobias And The Angel for spectacular handblocked cloth. 020 8878 8902: www.tobiasandtheangel.com  Zara Home for all things prettily boho. 020 7432 0040; www.zarahome.com  Good scented drawer liners are hard to find. So joy abounded on discovering vibrant patterns in a selection of delicious scents, including rose tea, mandarin and coriande at Hammocks & High Tea on a recent trip to New York.  Hammocks & High Tea: 001 347 405 75170; www.hammocksandhightea.com .  Drinkers at London’s Mandarin Oriental and other top bars this summer have been dipping sugar-pink Rose de Reims biscuits into their glass of Moet & Chandon Rose Imperial; a regional French custom that’s begging to be continued into autumn and beyond to Christmas.  You don’t have to stick with rose: dunk a sponge finger (the type you use in trifles) into brut champagne for a couple of seconds to soften it, then enjoy. It’s a bit like the Champagne version of a rum baba. Beyond delicious, I can’t tell you.  The second style steal? As seen at Claridge’s: mulled wine served in shot glasses. And Re are selling mulled wine gift sets with herbs, spices and a jelly mould so you could have your mulled wine both ways: hot and cold. Liking it all. Mulled wine gift box, £17, by Re. (01434 634567. www.re-foundobjects.com).
Kate O'Donnell reveals how the modern vegetable garden can be pretty and    practical, and takes a fancy to a new home &ndash; for bees.