Containter Tomatoes
Creating your Edible Landscape
Beneficial Insects
Growing Herbs

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     Beautiful plants are beautiful - but why not have beautiful and useful? And what better use can plants be than to provide fresh, healthy, and delicious food?

     Although many people have vegetable gardens, most of us don’t consider adding edible plants to the overall landscape. By selecting plants carefully, your attractive landscape can also be a source of great food. You’ll soon find that you have a bountiful harvest that will provide taste treats year-round.

Trees

     Fruit and nut trees are the obvious choice for your edible landscape. Pecans, walnuts, and almonds all grow in Texas. Peaches, plums, apricots, apples, jujubes, pears, loquat, papaya, and other fruit trees provide shade, encouragement for beneficial insects, plus really wonderful juicy taste.

     The pecan is the state tree of Texas, and it is a fine choice for any but the very smallest landscape. Pecan trees are excellent shade trees and will grow in almost any soil type. Most people plant bare-root trees in the winter, and that is an excellent practice, but container-grown trees can be planted any time. Select a variety that does well in your area — ask your county agent or other people who have pecans in their yards. Most people prefer hybrid paper-shell pecan varieties because they make bigger nuts that are easier to shell, but the native tree is very hardy and the nuts, while small, are especially tasty. You can grow native pecan trees easily from seed. Select a spot in full sun with soil that drains well. Because pecan trees get large, make sure there is room for your tree to spread (80’x80’). Plant the tree at the level at which it was growing and add a layer of compost on top of the soil to protect and slowly feed the new tree. Add mulch on top of the compost. Do not prune the tree. Spray your young tree regularly with liquid seaweed/compost/fish emulsion blend. You’ll have tasty nuts and wonderful shade in no time.

     Plum trees grow all over Texas, and the fruit is great fresh, wonderful in jams, jellies and conserves, and even delicious made into fruit leather. Plums are compact trees that will fit into smaller landscapes. You can plant bare-root trees in the winter or container-grown trees any time. They should be planted in full sun, in well-drained soil. In the spring, the trees produce beautiful and fragrant flowers that are edible and very attractive to pollinators. Varieties such as Methley, Morris, Bruce and Santa Rosa are good choices in Texas. Our native Mexican plum also produces highly fragrant flowers, but the fruit is less than tasty for eating fresh. It does make good jams and jellies, however. It is often found at the edge of woods.


Shrubs


     Small fruit trees and large herbs are excellent edible choices for foundation plantings or other spots in the landscape where you want something larger than a flower and smaller than a tree. Pomegranate, fig, elderberry, blackberry, blueberry, dewberry, rose, and agarita all have edible fruit that grows on attractive plants. Many herb plants are excellent landscape plants as well. Rosemary, germander, Mexican oregano, bay, turk’s cap, and althea all have edible leaves or flowers. Herbs have the added advantage of being virtually pest-free.

     Rosemary is under-used as a landscape plant. It grows into a beautiful fat evergreen shrub in no time and with little care. Plant your seedling in a sunny, well-drained spot and stand back. Rosemary enjoys rocky, poor soil, but will also thrive in richer soil, as long as it dries out between watering. The beautiful blue flowers are an added benefit. The leaves taste and smell great and a stem tossed onto barbeque coals adds a terrific taste.

     Turk’s cap is a perennial that forms an attractive shrub in either sunny or shady locations. Although it dies down in the winter, it quickly regrows in the spring. The flowers and fruit are edible and sometimes made into tea. Cheerful red flowers against the bright green largish leaves make this a good looking shrub that requires very little care. This old-fashioned plant is drought tolerant, resistant to disease and pests, and will grace any empty spot in the garden

Annuals/Perennials

     Many different plants are both edible and attractive in the garden. Herbs, flowers, groundcovers, and vines can be found that will create just the sort of landscape look you want. Although we most often think of vegetables growing in straight rows in a vegetable garden, many of them are very attractive plants that will fit right into decorative borders and plantings. Lettuce, spinach, kale and other greens are beautiful growing in beds during the winter months when very little else is green. Swiss chard, especially the new cultivars with vivid colored stems, will grow year-round in some areas and add color and texture to garden beds. Garlic, leeks, onion and shallots are pretty plants that have the added benefit of repelling pests from the garden. Grapes, beans and peas, and squash can cover an arbor or climb a fence and grace it with both flowers and fruit. You can also grow vegetables in containers as good-looking patio plants.

     Edible flowers make beautiful additions to salads and desserts. Before you eat at any flower, make certain it is an edible variety and has been grown without toxic chemicals. The great benefit of growing your own is that you know they have been cultivated using organic principles and are therefore tasty and healthy! Common flowers such as marigolds, begonias, nasturtiums, daylilies, dianthus, pansies, purslane, salvia, hibiscus and roses produce edible blossoms. Sunflowers have edible petals and the seeds are also a taste treat. Most people won’t make a meal of flowers, but they are lovely garnishes for many kinds of dishes.

     Herb plants have many uses. Thyme, oregano, and prostrate rosemary make excellent sunny spot ground covers. Mint and gotu kola cover the ground in the shade, and all of the herbs smell divine when stepped on.

     It is easy to fit herbs into any landscape plan. Chives and society garlic are excellent border plants and much more useful than monkey grass. Basil comes in a variety of colors, tastes good, looks good, and blooms throughout the summer in the very sunniest spot. Fennel and dill make lovely ferny background plants that will feed both you and the butterflies. Comfrey, lavender, pineapple sage, beebalm and many other herbs produce beautiful flowers that look great in the garden and in arrangements in the house. Lemon grass make a wonderful clumping plant that is also a base for tea and many oriental dishes.

     Many plants have medicinal properties in addition to their purely culinary uses. Including gingko, ginger, purple coneflower, and other medicinal plants into the landscape is fun and interesting.

     Whether your edible landscape feeds you or the whole neighborhood, you’ll find that growing useful plants is rewarding in many ways. Your kids and grandkids will love helping and harvesting. Share your bounty with others and enjoy it yourself. All it takes is imagination to turn your whole yard into a buffet fit for a king and queen!