What if you could turn your yard into an edible landscape with fruits, vegetables, and herbs? Edible landscaping, also known as foodscaping, brings more homegrown foods into your life while beautifying your home landscaping. And it’s easier than you think! While a lush green lawn is lovely in its own way, edible landscaping is, as gardening expertRosalind Creasysays, “a much more noble use of the soil.”
What Is Edible Landscaping?
Edible landscaping is using vegetables and fruits instead of ornamental plants and grasses to landscape your yard. So, kinda what it sounds like. Grounded in the tradition of theVictory Gardensof World War II, edible landscaping allows you to keep your yard green and growing while enjoying a delicious harvest.
Depending on your needs, almost any food plant can be used as edible landscaping. Vining plants like passion flower, squashes, and melons would be great for fencing around the yard. Alternatively, fruit trees like cherry, fig, elderberry, and apple might be nice for edging the property.
Some plants are more beautiful than others – like towering, purple-flowered artichokes or frilly asparagus plants along walkways, bright nasturtiums or hearty mint as ground cover, or tall sunflowers along the property line. Edible landscaping allows you to free yourself from the limitations of row or garden-box growing and turn the whole yard into a garden.
根据你的气候、需求和能力,你可以选择主要种植多年生植物,如水果树和坚果树、浆果、芦笋和其他灌木,或一年生植物,如西红柿、豌豆和根茎作物。多年生植物会多年为你提供大量的新鲜水果和蔬菜,而一年生植物每年都需要重新生长。所以,根据你想要如何组织你的花园,以及你想要重新种植种子的频率,你会考虑使用多年生植物、一年生植物,或两者结合。
Modern Farmerhas an excellent breakdown of how to craft a “food forest” using different levels of space to create a garden that utilizes space most efficiently. Their list also includes less-common edible foods.
Benefits Of Edible Landscaping
There are innumerable benefits to edible landscaping. The main benefit is getting to use your yard as a productive space to grow nutrient-dense, super local, yummy fruits, vegetables, and herbs. And as with any gardening you do at home, you get to try a range of foods that might not be readily available (or might be very expensive) at your local stores, liketurnips and cauliflower,broccoli leaves,nasturtiums,edible flowers, and more.
By growing at home, you’re helping to improve the local ecosystem by attracting bees, butterflies, birds, andother beneficial pollinatorsto your garden. Hopefully, you’re alsoinspiring your neighbors做同样的事!
Growing food (or really any plants) helpsconnect you with naturein a powerful way. Whether you’re nurturing a sprout into a full plant, weeding a garden, or pruning a fruit tree to be abundant, connecting with plants and nature is deeply grounding. Nourishing your body with foods that you’ve cultivated is deeply satisfying, too.
Plant Options For Edible Landscaping
As with any gardening endeavor, the types of plants you can grow in your edible yard depend on your microclimate and local climate zone. These are usually referred to asUSDA zonesand can be a large determining factor, especially when it comes to shoulder seasons (early spring and late autumn). In some cases, your hyper-local front yard garden ideas may be constrained bylocal zoning laws, so be sure to look into it before you start digging or buying new starts!
But assuming your local city and town is hip to the idea of self-sufficiency, your edible landscaping is really just dependent on your needs. For example, how many people you want to feed and which foods you wish to grow.
My backyard is filled with vining plants like passionflower and Okinawan sweet potato, as well as sturdybrassicaslike collards and kale. My garden reflects exactly what I want to eat, and as such, I choose not to grow things like chard, arugula, or turnips. It’s not that I can’t grow them, it’s just that I don’t prefer eating them.
Edible Landscaping For USDA Zones 6-8
Oregon State Extensionhas an excellent list of the types of plants that you can grow in your yard. They break down their list by vines, shrubs, small trees, and ground covers. These are – of course – plants that would grow best in USDA Zones 6-8, those with mild temperatures:
- Vines:Grapes, cucumbers, kiwi, raspberry, marionberry
- Shrubs:Blueberry, tomato, salmonberry
- Small Trees:Apples, elderberry, fig, persimmon
- Groundcovers:strawberries, lettuce, chard, kale
Edible Landscaping For USDA Zones 2-5
If you live in colder zones (2-5), your edible landscaping might include the following:
- Trees:苹果、樱桃、李子、杏子和桃子——这些水果可以抵御寒冷的温度,在春天开花,开出可爱的花朵,然后在夏初到夏末几个月结果。
- Ground cover: Lettuces and herbs will grow throughout the year, and kales and other brassicas will thrive until at least the first frost, if not longer. Arugula, spinach, and chard will do well all season, and rainbow chard will bring a lovely pop or orange, pink, and yellow to the garden. Carrots, kohlrabi, and turnips can grow 1-2 feet of greens above ground and add to ground cover and edging.
- Vines:Peas and beans are excellent for growing along fences, pillars, and rows.
- Herbs:Most herbs are quite easy to grow in cooler climates, although the growing season is shorter. Grow extra in the summer months and thendry your herbsfor cooking all winter.
Edible Landscaping For USDA Zones 9 and Up
Edible landscaping in warmer zones (9 and above) might look something like this:
- Trees:柠檬、青柠、橘子和其他柑橘树、桃子和杏(如果天气不是太热的话)。
- Ground cover:生菜和香草在凉爽的月份(春天和秋天),草莓在生长季节。羽衣甘蓝、羽衣甘蓝、西兰花和花椰菜在平季很适合,但炎热的夏天可能太热了。
- Vines:瓜,南瓜,黄瓜和各种各样的南瓜,春天的豆子,供早期攀登者在杆子和栅栏上使用。西番莲是一种耐寒、高产的藤本植物,会开出华丽的花朵(但只会在非常温暖的气候下结果)。
- Herbs:Basil, mint, oregano, sage and other herbs will grow quite well through a good part of the season.
The best time to start planning your edible yard or personal food forest is late fall: You’ll have time to prepare the ground before the winter, and once winter comes, you can buy bare root crops to get the edible landscaping underway.
Mapping out your property (and knowing the sun and wind patterns) will be helpful as you plan. So get some paper, a seed catalog, and get sketching!
Mitchsays
This is the first article I’ve read on the topic and it is direct and to the point. Well written, clear and laid out beautifully.
我今早在网上买了Rosilind Creasy的《可食用园林绿化》你在开篇就提到了她。我立刻意识到我得到了一个好帮手。
Thank you,
Mitch
Jeffsays
What a very well written post thank you for educating us on this content. Very detailed and even with bylwas and USDA zones you covered it all. This was a great read!
Greg Sungreensays
I’ve been trying to find the perfect blog as far as edible landscaping is concerned, and it seems I’ve finally come across the right page. This is precisely what I was looking for! I’m glad I came across it.
Mariano Aquinosays
Hello, We are the Garden Society of Escondido located in Escondido, California a homeowners association of 242 homes with relatively large back and front yards. We are starting a series of articles on Edible Landscaping and Foodscaping in our monthly newsletter. After reading this excellent article, we are asking permission to reprint excerpts into our Newsletter. Please allow us and promote the trend of edible landscaping in San Diego County, California.