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Lots of people are making the move to more natural landscapes. This includes gardens which showcase plants that are practical or which produce food. Quite a few vegetable plants are very striking, and many edible plants have decorative varieties. And with the prices of fresh fruits and vegetables increasing at a shocking pace, it might not be such a bad idea to produce your own.

If you’re interested in creating edible landscapes yourself, you’ll likely want to opt for perennials, since they will return year after year, saving you a lot of work each spring. After planting them once, these plants will give you food and something pleasing to look at for years to come.

These plants require little in the way of care; just watering, feeding, a bit of weeding, pruning and keeping any insect pests under control will be sufficient. There are plenty of perennial vegetable plants which are great choices. Remember, perennials do die back in the winter, so don’t be alarmed when your plants appear to go away in the fall - they’ll come back in the spring!

You might not want the responsibility of caring for a traditional garden. Normal gardens are a lot of hard work. A traditional garden will require constant activity - weeding, raking, hoeing, watering, fertilizing, and spraying. However, edible landscapes require scarcely more work than traditional ones.

Regular landscaping can be replaced with many varieties of edible plants. For example, plant fruit trees rather than non-fruit bearing varieties. To replace ground covers and shrubs many perennial herbs are possibilities. Also, ornamental vegetables can be an option instead of flowers and borders.

Beautiful mixes of edible and non-edible plants are also possible. Herbs are great edible plants to add to traditional flower garden beds. To achieve a different look, you can combine different kinds of plants together.

Curly parsley is striking in combination with a variety of other plants. Try mixing it with pansies, lobelia, strawberries, dusty miller, or dianthus. Sage and oregano are highly attractive plants, and make for a wonderful border. They are also attractive as edging around a large shrub.

Planting beds of leaf lettuces can easily create accent areas. Edge with a border grass and then fill the plant bed with your choice of multi colored varieties of leaf lettuce.

Edible flowers are also a wonderful idea. There are plants which give in more ways than one. Snap peas, for instance. Besides producing peas, they also give you the gift of beautiful pink, white and purple flowers on attractive vines.

Chives are a joy to behold with their purple flowers (edible and great in salads as well). 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. Salvia and sage boast blue and purple flowers which are a welcome sight and nasturtium (did you know the flowers are edible?) flowers are colorful.

Perennial vegetables and herbs are great to plant in edible gardens, since they dont call for much maintenance. Perennial broccoli, dandelions, sweet potatoes, rhubarb, sorrel, artichokes and Jerusalem artichokes, chives, fennel, garlic chives, ginger, and asparagus are excellent examples.

Tags: garden, landscaping