There is increasing interest in planting edible landscapes, gardens which contain food for the eyes as well as the body. This isn’t a vegetable garden with straight rows of tomatoes, zucchini and green beans set in front of the foundation plantings, but landscaping that contains edibles among the perennials and shrubs. This concept, referred to as foodscaping, is gaining a foothold among gardeners who are looking to add variety to both their landscapes and their diets.
It makes sense in several ways. Many of the food plants we eat are attractive — rainbow chard, red-tinged lettuce, red-stemmed kale to name a few. And I know people whose foundation plantings and perennial beds contain herbs, tomatoes and peppers. There are gardeners who are planting attractive trees and shrubs with edible fruits. With planning,
gardening sense and good maintenance, even the fussiest land owner associations will not be able to complain about the visual appeal of a mixed garden.
There are a few details to consider:
Look at your yard and decide how you want to try this idea. If you consider only the area around your house’s foundation, evaluate the available space among the plantings already there. Are there spaces you usually fill with annuals? How about replacing half the annuals with a few vegetable plants? If you are replacing perennials, there is space
for vegetables there. How about other garden beds around the house? There might be places you could tuck in a bok choi or frilly lettuce there, too. And don’t forget the beautiful vines of cherry tomatoes, though they take more space and some support. Try a compact ‘bush’ zucchini; its large yellow flowers every morning are an appealing sight. There are yellow and white
fruited zucchini, as well as yellow summer and patty pan squash, too.
While you are considering planting around your foundations, think about the environment of the location. If your siding and foundation are light-colored, the summer sun will reflect from these surfaces. This makes the south and west side of an unshaded house very warm for several hours a day, but this also can lengthened your ‘growing season’ in
the early spring and fall. Sometimes the soil around foundations is more alkaline. This will make some plants happier, while many others do not tolerate alkaline conditions well. It’s much easier to find another place for them than it is to change the soil pH at those locations.
Think about adding interest to your landscape with an island garden. The focal point can be one or two fruit trees, filling in around them with annuals, perennials, vegetables and herbs. Native fruit trees, such as persimmon and pawpaw, are handsome additions to replace some of the lawn. Native trees usually have fewer disease and insect damage
issues than apples and peaches. Since we live in Adams County and we get good locally grown tree fruits, we can plant beautiful native fruit trees with fewer problems and less demands on our time. If you decide on pawpaws, keep in mind that you need two of different varieties to set fruit. Pawpaws are not large trees; two fit nicely in a bed with a mixed assortment of
vegetables, herbs and native pollinator-attracting flowers.
Another consideration in your planning is the amount of time you can dedicate to your ‘foodscape.’ Vegetables can take more time than flowers, but proper planning can eliminate some of that. You will be picking food instead of dead-heading plants! If you are training clematis to vine, consider scarlet runner beans instead. These are edible and they
attract humming birds. However, vegetables take more time in insect and disease control. Be careful how you pair vegetables and flowers. Your pollinator flowers planted next to kale will certainly attract white cabbage moth butterflies. You’ve given the adult butterflies food and inevitably a place to feed their caterpillars, too. Planting a mildew-prone plant, such as
bee balm, near a squash will lead to mildewed squash. Consider similar problems as you plan food in your landscape.
Another thing gardening author mention as they tout the virtues of foodscaping, is planting root vegetables. It’s not that this is a bad idea, but the roots of the neighboring flowers, shrubs and trees in your landscape will be entwined with the roots of your food plants. Beets and onions have roots that don’t stray too far from the rest of the
plant, but harvesting vegetables that require soil disturbance to harvest — such as potatoes, sweet potatoes and even carrots — can damage neighboring plants. That means that if I decide to plant potatoes this year they will have to go into the large vegetable garden behind the house.
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