Interest in patio vegetable gardens and edible landscapes apparently is gaining popularity, both here and in Europe, if recent horticultural trials are any indication.

At the annual industry trials in early spring, a company called Floranova showed us the future, and it looks mighty tasty. A deck and patio at the English company's trial site in California was strung with bountiful baskets of tomatoes such as 'Tumbling Tom'. Containers with small but sturdy 'Totem' tomato plants were loaded with fruit.

Containers of 'Buckingham' yellow zucchini squash, 'Balmoral' acorn squash and 'Windsor' pumpkins were loaded and ready to harvest. Other, smaller containers were filled with peppers – sweet ones like 'Mohawk' and 'Redskin' as well as hot ones such as 'Cheyenne'.

Pack trials are virtually unknown to consumers, but they offer a preview of what will be on retail nursery shelves late this year and in 2009.

At another location, there were incredible bowls of leaf lettuce growing on decks. Artfully planted, the large bowls had red and green varieties of 'Galactic' leaf lettuce. Leaf lettuce is easy to grow and can be sown in multiple crops. Later, you can harvest however much you want and whenever you want it.

The pack trials were held in late March and early April. Next, we started reading about food shortages and the higher cost of produce because of shipping costs related to oil prices.

Since then, sales in vegetable seeds and transplants have taken off – not just for containers, but for edible landscapes and even small square-foot gardens.

By mid-July, just the thought of gardening makes us break out in a sweat. Luckily, you can still plant edible plants in containers. Look for transplants at local garden centers as well as seeds for some quick sow-grow-and-harvest products such as basil.

Believe it or not, fall garden planting season is a couple of months away for several crops and a little longer for some others. One thing that is nice about containers is that you can place them in the exact amount of sunlight the plant needs. The containers don't need to be extravagant to grow a bounty of produce.

Lastly, at our own trials at the Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center, an eggplant called 'Slim Jim' with dark purple leaves and long, light purple-to-lavender fruit was a big hit. It can be grown in the field, in an edible landscape or as the thriller plant in a mixed container. Use it with yellow or orange flowers, and you'll have an award-winning combination – plus, you will be eating eggplant parmesan before you know it.

Norman Winter is a gardening lecturer and author of several books on gardening.