Edible Landscaping

Edible landscaping is using plants that produce food to accentuate your landscape. More and more people are opting for the concept of edible landscaping rather than the traditional ornamental landscaping. A majority of the people use perennial vegetables as edible landscaping as these plants are capable of producing food year after year.

Moreover they are easy to maintain with occasional periods of weeding and pruning, insect control, and some amount of watering. You can use the edible plants to replace the ornamental ones which will make your landscape equally attractive. The fruit trees are excellent shade trees like the apple tree which can replace the standard trees

The edible plants can be combined with other plants to create beautiful landscapes such as parsley which are curly and can make wonderful combination with pansies, strawberries and lobelia. Sage and oregano make wonderful shrubs for your landscape. They can be used as edgings in front of the larger bushes.

You can use lettuces as accents with a variety of colors and use border grass as edgings. You can use blueberry bushes that give a lovely hue. You can have mint beds instead of the ordinary flowerbeds. Cabbages and kale are available in various colors and so are peppers and tomatoes. You can use grape arbors that would give a striking look to your landscape and the fruit of course can be consumed.

Edible flowers

Some of these edible plants also have edible flowers like the sugar snap peas which have white, pink or purple flowers and have the most delicious peas. The Fava beans have red and white flowers. The chives produce exquisite purple colored flowers in the shape of globes. The Nasturtium blossoms have red, orange and yellow flowers. Sage has blue and purple flowers and so does Salvia.

Nasturtiums, borage, daylilies and violas can be used as decorations on cakes and salad enhancements. Teas are also made out of flowers and the extracts from flowers are used in cakes, candies and frostings. Roses and Nasturtiums are rich in Vitamin C while dandelions have the qualities of both Vitamin A & C.

Perennial vegetables

You can try edible landscaping by using low maintenance perennial vegetables like the broccoli, sweet potatoes, artichokes, dandelions, rhubarb, ginger, chives, fennel, asparagus and garlic chives.

Golden Streaks is a type of mustard which is golden in color with jagged leaves. It has a slightly sweet and mild taste and makes for a lovely edible landscaping enhancement with its striking color. The Hansel Hybrid Eggplant produces bunches of eggplants that look like small fishes with a deep purplish color. Red Popper is a miniature bell pepper variety whose fruits are sweet and delicious. The red poppers against your green lush shrubs will give a rich look.

Care needed

There are many more edible plants, flowers and shrubs that can be used for landscaping purposes. However, you should be careful as all plants and flowers are not edible and some can be highly toxic also. It is always better to first seek guidance from experts and do thorough research before you plan on edible landscaping.