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GLT's Grow: Edible Landscaping

Cultivar413
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Flicker via Creative Commons
Plants like castor bbenas, herbs and chrysanthemum work well together in edible landscapes

There's an exciting new trend in gardening that's as beautiful as it is delicious.

  • Edible landscaping gives you the chance to eat your yard!
  • It involves growing food crops among landscape plants. So right next to a flowering vine, you can grow a grape vine, or plant herbs such as mint and basil among some ornamentals.
  • Dwarf fruit trees lend beauty to the landscape, plus fruit for putting up ... or into pies.
  • Adding edibles to your landscape design results in a dynamic mixture of textures, colors and silhouettes, rather than just ornamentals alone.
  • Berry shrubs are an excellent choice to start with in an edible landscape.
  • Use a wooden lattice flat on the ground rather than straight up to encourage climbers, and plant a geometric pattern of peppers, butter lettuce or tomato plants. Tomatoes can actually grow better in flower beds because they need to be moved to a different spot each year to prevent disease. Isolating tomato plants from each other also prevents the spread of disease.
  • Don't forget the possibilities of edible flowers! With these, as with all edible landscapes, an organic approach is best. Spraying weed killer where you grow food is a Grow Corporate must-not.

GLT's Grow is your source for sage gardening advice and down-to-earth tips. Host Patrick Murphy and co-host Laura Kennedy are ready to take on all your gardening questions, so submit yours today.

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Reporter, content producer and former All Things Considered host, Laura Kennedy is a native of the Midwest who occasionally affects an English accent just for the heck of it. Related to two U.S. presidents, Kennedy appalled her family by going into show business.