Whether you’ve heard or not, edible gardens are quite popular nowadays. Funnily enough, they still tend to be seen as quite distinct from the rest of the yard. California-based landscape designer Christian Douglas has another perspective on this: “What if we’d embrace vegetables, fruits, herbs, and berries, and let them share the prime real estate in our gardens, alongside our paths and patios?”
That’s exactly the premise of his new book, “The Food Forward Garden”, where he spotlights the ways in which you can make food crops an aesthetic and vital part of your home garden. Let’s see if he’s onto something, shall we?
Launch a fruitful endeavor
This nicely landscaped backyard has a sweet secret: It’s full of fruit to harvest. Douglas decided to go with the trees with wonderful foliage and delicious fruits, which also include the dwarf “Bonfire” peach and red Abyssinian banana trees in the foreground, the “Arctic supreme” peach, and the Fuyu persimmon. Around the stepping stones, he also added some herbs like thyme, marjoram, and oregano.
Frame a patio
What is it gonna be: an entertaining space or an edible garden? Well, you don’t really have to choose between these two, especially since a suburban chic backyard would prove. According to Douglas, you can frame a lounge area on the patio with some raised beds filled with herbs, and an espalier lemon-and-lime hedge.
Moreover, “dark purple basil will border the backrest, beautifully scenting the air and offering a stunning contrast to the eye-catching orange and crimson pillows.” he explained.
Step it up
In all honesty, we’re all in the lookout for ways to blend hardscape edibles. In this yard, his team managed to cleverly backfill the timber steps with soil, instead of simply traveling it, then planted a bunch of culinary herbs at either end along with some “Elfin” thyme as a groundcover.
Share sunny spaces
Instead of simply delegating raised beds to their own and separating the spots in this yard, Douglas thought it would be a better idea to let the vegetables “share the sunshine with the pool.” The stacked redwood structures extend from the house, which leaves them overflowing with herbs and vegetables, bringing more beauty into a high-traffic space.
Go front and center
If you’re the lucky owner of a sunny front yard, then you should consider swapping out the front lawn for a more productive and efficient landscape. In most cases, “front yards offer unparalleled sun exposure, so hiding-in-plain-sight space becomes a great place to grow food.
You can try angular raised beds, that would make quite a graphic statement, and they’re also filled with a mix of edibles and flowers for an extra curb appeal. For all the new gardeners out there, it’s highly advised to start small. You can start by planting only a couple of edibles, in amounts your own household could easily consume, and then, add more as your confidence increases.
Create an herbal vignette
Douglas’ idea of perennial herbs in terracotta pots makes for a charming moment that feels more than right in a formal garden. Elevating the pots on a table won’t just stand as an elegant design decision, but it will also make the herbs much easier to harvest.
Soften the edges
Edibles serve as a very important design function in this yard because it creates a sense of enclosure around the seating area. Douglas also filled redwood planters with lettuces, rainbow chard, and herbs, but decided to go a bit further than that.
Alpine strawberries, yerba buena, oregano, and some marjoram are also interplanted around the stepping stone path with alpine strawberries, as Flame Seedless table grapes grow over the pergola to provide the much-needed shade.
Plant more fruit trees
We’re talking apple, pear, peach, plum, and cherry trees. They all add a vertical interest to your outdoor space, and it’s honestly charming. With all the varieties out there, including plenty of dwarfs, which are adaptable to many regions, these trees are a wonderful choice for any garden.
Many of them can be grown in planters, which makes them ideal for smaller outdoor spaces, like an apartment or even condo balconies. Besides giving you a sweet harvest, these trees can beautify your garden: plenty of blossoms in spring, and colorful fruit and leaves in summer and fall.
Try adding an edible groundcover
You can easily swap out the traditional groundcovers with a bunch of edible options like creeping thyme, alpine strawberries, nasturtiums, or even oregano. It adds to the functionality and flavor around your home.
These are also versatile, low-growing plants that can be used along garden pathways, either as lawn alternatives, in between pavers and stepping stones, or even as garden edging. Not only will they offer fresh and homegrown ingredients, but they’ll also suppress weeds, attract more pollinators, and prevent soil erosion.
Go vertical
If the space is tight in your yard or balcony, then you should aim to create a shady spot and install a trellis, arbor, or even lattice. You can plant the grapes on an arbor. This way, the ripening fruit will dangle within easy reach for picking.
Climbing vegetables, like beans, peas, melons, cucumbers, winter squash, and Malabar spinach thrive with support systems, producing all this abundant food in a small footprint. Growing these vegetables could often result in higher yields, especially compared to traditional ground planting.
Add containers and some hanging baskets
Containers and hanging baskets aren’t simply to show them off. You can repurpose them (actually, it’s a bit of a stretch, considering that that’s actually their real purpose), to plant lettuce in early spring for tasty gourmet salad greens.
You can also grow cherry tomatoes in hanging baskets, so their fruit tumbles down on the sides. Then, create themes with your containers and baskets. You can fill a salsa container garden with tomatoes, peppers, cilantro, and even onions. For example, a pizza container garden could have tomatoes, peppers, basil, oregano, parsley, and onions in it.
Make some room for berries
In all honesty, nothing compares to the taste of freshly picked berries in the summer. That’s why we’d advise you to make some space in your yard for strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, currants, and even raspberries.
They are all low-maintenance plants, but they produce more than a factory. If the space is restrictive, you can add a strawberry tower to your patio or balcony. These towers are all made of stacked pots or specifically designed planters with more than one planting pocket that will allow you to grow many strawberry plants in a smaller area. They can also keep the strawberries off the ground and away from pesky rodents and insects that would love to get a piece of them.
Mix ornamentals and edibles
Edible landscaping doesn’t really have to be all or nothing. In fact, not every plant in your outdoor space has to be edible. Instead, you can mix edibles and ornamental plants for a more practical space.
For instance, add some purple kale or rainbow chard to your flower beds or even containers, so you can get a striking and tasty display. You can tuck the tomato plants among the flowers. Artichokes and cartoons also have silvery foliage and thistle-like flowers that are quite dazzling in large decorative containers. They can add plenty of height and diversity to your annual flower beds.
If you found this article interesting, then you should definitely check this one, too: 7 Stunning Tropical Plants for a Year-Round Staycation Vibe
