any ideas on landscaping with food bearing plants???

[fancie217]

We have raised tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and such... is their any plants that we could use in landcaping that would look both decrotive plus give us stuff to nibble on?

I am adding strawberries and rasberries, but I am thinking of taking the flowers out and replacing them with something else.

Is there any fruit bushes.

Thanks for your help.

I live in the Iowa area for growing btw.

 

[MorelCabin]

I've seen alot of magazines and stuff where they actually mix thier vegetable plants into thier flower gardens and it seems to work well! Fruit trees are a wonderful way to enhance your landscaping. There are many berry bushes that can be used as landscaping shrubs.

 

[Woodland Woman]

I think pepper plants look decorative. Lemon balm, basil, and other herbs would work. In cooler weather I've seen people use cabbage. I could see a row of carrots bordering an area. How about colorful swiss chard?

 

[miss_thenorth]

Most herbs are quite decorative--imo., esp basil.(my fave). I'm sure you could interplant many veggies--just make sure the light andsoil requirements are met in the 'landscape ' garden.

 

[Wifezilla]

I planted Flowering Kale in my big whiskey barrel planter this year.

 

[freemotion]

I did most of my foundation plantings last year with veggies after ripping out the old ugly stones and rotting timbers. It wasn't too bad, I just need to make a little adjustment for sunshine this year. One spot got less sun than I figured on, so although I planted both sides of the front to somewhat mirror each other, one side did great and the other was pathetic. Forgot about the maple that shaded that side in the later afternoon.

I considered the height of each plant when I chose what and where, using tomatoes as my "bushes" and going from there. I planted lots of marigolds, nasturtiums, and alyssum in front of and in between things. Root veggies create a nice backdrop for short flowers, too, think beets, carrots, etc for this, and they also create some texture. Bright Lights Swiss Chard also has some great color, and is bigger.

Don't think in terms of neat rows so much if you are going for pretty. Plant in curves and circles.

I tried to create visual height differences across the front of my house, so from the road it would look similar to traditional foundation plantings. Besides tomatoes, you can get height with climbing plants and something for them to climb on.

Keep in mind what will be ripped out and when, can you fill the gap or do you even need to.

This year, the neat lines are going, and I will dig up more of the front lawn and create curved lines to soften the look. Hated those timbers and rocks. I will edge my curves with flat rocks I pick up from a "falling rock" spot on my travels that has lots of almost brick-shaped rocks, but not so "square" so stacked they create lots of interest. I also have a good collection of round ocean rocks that turn pretty colors when wet.

Gotta create a clear edge here or dh goes nuts with the weedwacker!

 

[enjoy the ride]

Blueberries are one of the all time great landscaping/edibles. There's a cold hardy kiwi for a great , colorful vine. bush beans would work well as would asparagus for a ferning back of the bed. Currents are also one of my favorite landscaping plans- elderberry if you have room. Hazel nut trees are great as are mulberries.
Nasturiumshave edible flowers- as do lots of other plants. Tomatos could climb a fence.
The only thing I woul be careful about is to make sure the that the needed sun gets to your veggies and watch about putting plants that are slug prone next to plants that can shelter them and make sure not veggies can deal with the extra water you might need to give edibles.
There are sooooo many that you can use. At one time almost all my plantings were edible and ornimental both.
Good luck

Oh I forgot- you could get super dwarf apples or columnar apples- you could espallier almost any fruit tree.

 

[Dace]

Perfect timing...I hope you can view this!

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4933073n

 

[ORChick]

Check out your library for "Edible Landscaping" by Rosalind Creasy - or really, any book by her. She has a lot of good ideas.

 

[freemotion]

Is that the book I got on interlibrary loan (didn't have it nearly long enough!) and it had instructions for training a grape vine into a weeping tree shape? That was so cool!