Eat your landscape! One of the hottest trends today is the resurgence of interest in consumption of healthy, organic foods. Exercise, fresh air, and a healthy diet are all the rage right now and new homeowners starting a family are looking for ways to fit all this into their everyday lives. Farmers’ markets are very popular and many new ones are popping up. Once the weather starts to warm up and local gardeners and farmers can get a yield to market, the healthy grocery stores will start to lose some business. If you want to try and grow your own produce, why not give it a try. Bringing the food garden into the ornamental garden is trending.
In the past year we have featured at least two articles regarding the mingling of fruits and vegetables with our regular, ornamental landscape plantings. Here is a quick refresher to help get you started.
Shade Trees
Instead of planting a sugar maple or red oak, try planting a large tree that can give you food as well as shade: pecan, walnut, chestnut, hickory, and ginkgo. Plant at least two to facilitate pollination. The female ginkgo tree produces a smelly fruit but the nut inside can be roasted and is quite tasty.
Ornamental Trees
Smaller trees that are used for focal points in the garden are generally trees such as crabapple, dogwood, and redbud. Instead of planting these trees, try some that bear edible fruit: apple, cherry, peach, pear, persimmon, and serviceberry.
Shrubs
There are many beautiful shrubs that produce edible fruits also: blueberry, currant, raspberry, blackberry, gooseberry, and filbert. Hedges of these plants are also very attractive and functional.
Vines
Whether you are covering a trellis or a fence, try some of these plants: grape, cucumber, edible pea, melons, or pole beans.
Herbaceous Plants
Try mingling vegetables and herbs within the perennial flowerbed. The pollinating insects attracted to perennial flowers will give you a bonus with a bountiful crop. Many vegetables have beautiful fruit and leaves: the colorful eggplant varieties, fennel and dill, peppers, kale, rhubarb, and asparagus are examples of plants with striking fruit and/or foliage.
Screens and Groundcover
To create a visual screen or barrier, try using rows of sweet corn or sunflower plants. If you desire a nice groundcover, try using strawberry. The foliage is beautiful and it’s tough to beat a fresh strawberry. The alpine strawberry actually prefers partial shade, so that’s one for a darker spot. A mass planting of lettuce or spinach makes an excellent groundcover.
These are just a few ideas to bring the vegetable and fruit garden into the ornamental garden. Don’t be afraid to experiment and try something new. The possibilities are almost boundless. It’s a lot of fun and we all love to eat. So get planting and Eat Your Landscape.
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