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Consider Edible Landscaping for Truly Beautiful Food

By Flower | July 4, 2009

It’s possible to create beautiful landscapes that not only provide natural beauty, but can also provide food and other useful items. Quite a few vegetable plants are very striking, and many edible plants have decorative varieties. Since fruits and vegetables are getting more and more expensive, smart people have decided to grow them themselves.

If you’re interested in edible landscaping, you’ll likely want to opt for perennials, since they will return year after year, saving you a lot of work each spring. After they’re planted, they’ll go on providing beauty and food for as long as you tend them.

Most of them just need regular water and feeding, and occasionally weeding and pruning, as well as insect control. There is an abundance of vegetable types that will continue to feed you for years to come. Usually the upper foliage will die off in winter but new growth will come from the roots in the spring.

You might think that you’re not up to the task of caring for a traditional vegetable garden, because they involve so much labor. Constant weeding, raking, hoeing, watering, fertilizing, and spraying are all associated with the conventional vegetable patch. However, edible landscapes require scarcely more work than traditional ones. This is all easier than you may think. You can simply replace some elements used in traditional landscaping with edible plants. For example, plant fruit trees rather than non-fruit bearing varieties. Perennial herbs are an option to replace ground covers and shrubs. And ornamental vegetables can be used in place of flowers and borders.

Try combining edible plants with ordinary flowers and ornamental plants for an attractive arrangement. Herbs are great edible plants to add to traditional flower garden beds. You can blend many varieties of plants together to create a distinctive and appealing landscape.

Sage and oregano work very well as small shrubs, especially as edging for larger shrubs. Try planting curly parsley among your flowers. Leaf lettuce looks pretty as an accent. Leaf lettuce comes in different colors and shapes – combine them for a stunning look, edged with a border of grass.

Plants with edible flowers are another alternative. You can enjoy both colorful beauty and tasty garnishes. Snap peas, for instance, besides producing peas, also give you the gift of beautiful pink, white and purple flowers on attractive vines. Chives have remarkable purple globe-shaped blooms. The red and white flowers of fava beans add interest to any garden. Dill’s yellow, pleasant smelling blossoms are an attractive and fragrant addition. Nasturtiums are another beautiful edible flower, and bloom in shades of orange, yellow and red. Sage and salvia both have purple and blue flowers.

Perennial vegetables and herbs are great to plant in edible gardens, since they don’t call for much maintenance. Perennial broccoli, dandelions, sweet potatoes, rhubarb, sorrel, artichokes, chives, fennel, ginger, and asparagus are excellent examples.

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