A new way to design your garden is with edible plants. This type of design is called “foodscaping”. Admittedly, fruit and vegetable gardens are not necessarily anything new, but conscious garden design with them is. By planting fruits and vegetables in a decorative way in the garden, you can make it just as beautiful as with other types of plants, only here you get a practical bonus and that is of course the delicious fruits. Sounds very promising, doesn't it? Today we will introduce you to this type of garden design and show you how you can use vegetables and fruit to maintain a beautiful and well-kept garden.
As already mentioned, foodscaping is a garden and landscape design that uses more than just decorative plants and flowers. Instead, numerous edible plants such as herbs, vegetables and fruit, but also berry bushes, nut trees and the like are used in order to obtain sufficient greenery and flowers. With proper planning, you can also provide yourself with plenty of organic, home-grown vegetables or fruit, which are not only much tastier and healthier but also significantly cheaper than those from stores. So you kill two birds with one stone!
With foodscaping you also create and guarantee a perfect and sustainable ecosystem in which insects and other animals can feel comfortable, so that in this way you are doing something good for nature. In this sense, a garden consisting exclusively of vegetables and fruits is no different from one made up of decorative plants and flowers. Another advantage is that such a garden is easy to maintain. You only have to intervene in the resulting ecosystem relatively rarely.
Where can foodscaping be implemented?
In principle, any garden and any area of the garden is suitable, provided it offers the necessary conditions in terms of soil, sun and shade conditions and nutrient supply for the respective varieties. If you don't want to miss out on your beloved lawn, you can create beds around it with vegetables and fruits, just as you would with shrubs, perennials and flowers. How about planting vegetables and fruit in front of a privacy screen, fence or wall in the garden? You can line them up in the same way as other types of plants: put the tallest specimens in the back row and gradually let the plants get lower towards the lawn. This creates texture and also ensures that each plant gets enough light.
It is not uncommon for the front garden to be chosen for foodscaping. You can create a fruit and vegetable garden there just as easily as in any other area. They can be used especially for the front garden, for examplebeautiful vegetables and fruitschoose to offer an interesting sight to those walking past. Below you will see that the selection is anything but small.
Many people are still of the opinion that vegetables in particular are not very attractive. For this reason, the furthest corners of the garden are usually chosen for vegetable gardens for growing fruit and vegetables. But with the right combination and composition of different varieties, even the most unattractive plant can look much more beautiful. Mixed cultures can prove to be very practical here. In addition, there are many types of vegetables that, upon closer inspection, look much nicer than you thought. We will introduce you to some of them below.
Vegetables with an interesting and beautiful appearance
Vegetable plants can be really attractive and add plenty of color to the garden. And we don't just mean the flowers. Anyone who eats very healthily and likes to try out different types of vegetables and salads often is probably aware of this. Many of these plants have different colored leaves that can be used wonderfully to decorate the garden. Many a hobby gardener may have even decorated pots and flower boxes with the help of some of the following species and at least seen arrangements made with them. Here are a few pretty varieties of lettuce and vegetables that you can plant in your bed if you want to design it with vegetables and fruits and do foodscaping.
- Mangold
- Kohl
- runner bean (Phaseolus coccineus)
- Paprika (sweet potato)
- ornamental cabbage (Brassica oleraceaour.acephala)
- different types of kale
- blood dock
- Kohlrabi
- Zucchini
- Aubergine
Fruit in the garden
Thatfruit treesand shrubs are pretty to look at, especially because of their flowers, is nothing new. Even those who don't have time for vegetables usually have at least some trees and shrubs planted in their garden because they are easy to care for and attractive. So you shouldn't miss out on foodscaping with vegetables and fruit. Try it with classics such as the apple, pear or cherry tree or choose mirabelle plums, khaki, as well as oranges or lemons in a bucket. The selection is really huge. The alder-leaved rock pear (Amelanchier alnifolia), as it is easy to care for and provides a little shade. The same applies to sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) and for the Nashi pear (Pyrus pyrifolia). So feel free to use lesser-known or typical trees when combining vegetables and fruits for foodscaping in your garden.
While the trees are mostly used in the middle areas of the garden and are often deliberately used to provide shadeShrubscan also be included in the vegetable and fruit bed and, depending on the size, occupy the middle or rear areas. The selection is no less large than for trees: blackberries and raspberries are just a small selection. The tree nursery is the best place to find out about the selection and choose the right varieties based on the location of your garden.
- currants
- Gooseberries
- blueberries (Blueberry corymbosum)
- Aronia berries (Aronia melanocarpa)
- Blue honeysuckle (Lonicera caeruleaour.eat)
- elderberry (Sambucus canadensis)
Climbing plants for the edible garden
Also forget about edible onesclimbing plantsNot if you plan a garden of vegetables and fruits. Grapes immediately come to mind, but kiwis should also be considered as they are relatively easy to care for and can survive the winter even in our latitudes. A variety with small fruits and fantastically beautiful leaves and flowers is the decorative leaf kiwi (Actinidia colomicta). The combination of male and female plants in the garden is important for fertilization. Pepper, vanilla, hops, the beautiful passionflower and the yam are other climbing specimens. Blackberries and raspberries, as well as pumpkin plants, are also suitable for climbing.
Edible flowers
We often forget that flowers can be edible. The beautiful flowers are wonderfully suitable as decoration for various dishes and in salads, which of course also makes them perfect and essential for foodscaping. If the garden of vegetables and fruits is too boring for you, despite the texture and colorful varieties of vegetables and salads, because their flowering period goes by too quickly or the bright colors are not enough for you, we strongly recommend that you also include some of the following edible flowers when you Want to grow fruit and vegetables in the garden:
- cloves
- Pansies
- Lavender
- Dahlias
- Dandelion
- daisy
- lilac
- Jasmin
- Rosen
- Daylilies
- Geraniums
- Chrysanthemums
- Marigolds
- violet
- Magnolias
- Forget-me-nots
- Cornflower
Spices and herbs
In a homemade salad or dish with products from your own cultivation, fresh spices and herbs that also come from your garden should of course not be missing! And you might be amazed at how big the selection is! The advantage of these plants in addition to vegetables and fruits is not only their great aroma, which refines food. Some varieties also produce beautiful flowers, which turn them into a decorative element in the garden. SomeHerbs you can use, are:
- Melissa
- sage
- peppermint
- Thymian
- Parsley
- Dill
- Basil
- Coriander
- chives
- Rosemary
- cress
Plant vegetables and fruit with structure
In principle, you can plant the trees, shrubs, vegetables and fruits however you like. However, a certain structure should be adhered to. Ultimately, you want your garden to look neat, not unkempt. As in any other garden, the tallest plants are always at the back. Alternatively, for a round bed in the middle of the garden, this is the center of the circle. These areas can be occupied by trees as well as tall shrubs and bushes as desired. The plants then become gradually lower. Cabbage varieties or low specimens of the edible flowers can be planted in the front areas (or in the round bed in the outermost areas) and thus form a beautiful finish. In this way, all plants remain visible and are provided with sufficient sun and air.
It is also important that all plants are easy to reach. After all, you want to be able to easily get to the fruit later when harvesting. For this purpose, the beds should either not be too wide or should be provided with small paths or stepping stones and the plants should also have a sufficiently large distance between them here and there. But this is also necessary so that they can thrive. You can also opt for a more natural garden design instead of, for example, creating exact rows. This makes later care easier.
Herbs and spice plants grow at different heights, which is why you can use them for different areas in the bed and plant them between vegetables and fruits. For example, sage is suitable for the middle to front areas, while thyme grows very low and should be in the front row and can also be used as a ground cover. For foodscaping, you can also plant the herbs and spices separately and, for example, build a herb spiral. It is important that you find out in advance which herbs get along and can be in close proximity to each other.
By combining perennial edible plants and aromatic plants, you can simplify care. You don't have to replant perennial plants in particular every year. A great substitute for the native onion, for example, is the beautiful air onion (Garlic onionour.proliferate). A plant similar to parsnip is sugar root (Of his arms) and the cabbage you can replace with the two-year-old sea kale (Crambe maritima) replace or supplement. Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosum), which is also called earth pear, Jerusalem artichoke or borbel, is an edible root plant that has a similar taste to the artichoke, is very popular as a probiotic and is often used as a substitute for potatoes. Since this plant sprouts very strongly and spreads itself, it is recommended to plant it in a pot and then plant it in the ground to avoid spreading.
Ideas for the small garden
Even in a small garden, you can easily choose foodscaping as a garden design and plant herbs, more compact trees, vegetables and fruits in this way. For this purpose, simply use all free areas that you can convert into beds, as well as containers, flower boxes and pots.Espalier, columnar and dwarf fruit treesare a good alternative to the normal-sized fruit tree, while most vegetables, including strawberries, can also grow well in containers. The white cabbage (Brassica oleracea) or ornamental kale in combination with the white pineapple-strawberry 'Natural Albino', which attracts everyone's attention with its appearance, with the Malabar spinach (Basella alba) and the blueberry BrazelBerry 'Jelly Bean' are the perfect ingredients for your everyday smoothie and are also very easy to maintain in the pot. The compact plants can also be used in the garden between vegetables and fruit be planted.
Some varieties even survive the winter in the container without any problems, especially if it is made of textile. Such edible plants are raspberries, Siberian blueberries (Lonicera kamtschatica), the sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides), the chives (Allium schoenoprasum), marjoram (Oregano marjoram), some species of sedum and stonecrop (Sedum).
