STYLE : GARDENS : Mixed Greens

Landscape designer Ivy Reid sees nothing strange about lettuces bedding down with lamb’s ears, or carrots popping up beside columbines. In fact, while most people banish their salad greens to some back-yard Siberia, Reid has given hers a place of honor in her Pacific Palisades front yard, in two small beds bordered by lush perennials. Not only do they get the best sun there, but they also proclaim her philosophy of landscaping: “A garden should fulfill all of one’s needs,” she says. “It should give you tranquility, and it should also make you healthy.”

Reid transformed her front garden--once dominated by lawn--after an illness. She planted herbs, vegetables and aromatic plants using the biodynamic method of chemical-free cultivation developed by Rudolf Steiner in the 1920s. Her flower-encircled beds yield lavish crops all year: broccoli and cauliflower during the winter, squashes and tomatoes in the summer and an almost constant supply of beans, radishes, potatoes, lettuces and herbs.

Though the bounty is on display for all to see, theft has never been a problem. Instead, people stop by to talk vegetables. Reid now tries to include edible plants in every landscape she designs. “You get strength from being self-sufficient,” she explains. “And watching everything develop from seeds is like watching your life grow.”