With my large fruit crop this year, I have had several people ask me how to get started with edible landscaping. The first thing I did was research. I looked at what best grew down here and the kind of light that it needed. Next. I assessed my available space and landscaping. It was easy for me to widen my beds to add more plants. Next, I decided on what kind of things I really wanted to have.
The next step was plant placement.. This was the most complicated step. This took in looking at lighting and spacing along with plant needs. One way to do this is to get graph paper and lay it out on paper. First put in the current landscaping that you are going to keep especially trees and bushes. Next, put in plants you want to plant. I started with the bushes and trees and went from there. I am a visual person so my next step was to lay it out in my yard using different things laying around the house. First, I put flowerpots where I wanted to plant fruit and nut trees. I visualized them there at different times of the day to check sunlight. It also let me see if I was going to like the arrangement. After I was satisfied with tree placement I put the larger plants in such as fruit bushes and permanent herbs. I used the same procedure with this.
After I was satisfied with all of this, I developed a long term plan. I looked at varieties of plants that did well in our area. You can get this information from your local extension agency. Our state has a website that you can go on to obtain that information. Many fruit and nut trees need two varieties to pollinate each other. I also looked at this information. I also looked at what our budget could afford. Each year for a few years, we would dig up an area and I would put the trees and bushes in designated for that area. The next year we would repeat the process until all the beds were completed.
The last part was interspersing perennial plants within the landscaping. I intermix many flowers and herbs within my beds. I have also left large areas open with borders of flowers around them for annual vegetables. Good ones for this are squashes, cucumbers, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower and other similar plants.
We live in an addition within the city limits. You may ask how my neighbors like my edible landscaping. I would tell you that I have people stop and tell me how beautiful my beds are all the time. They are usually surprised to hear that many of my plants in them are also edible. I will try to post pictures later of some of the areas. to give you some idea of what it looks like.
The next step was plant placement.. This was the most complicated step. This took in looking at lighting and spacing along with plant needs. One way to do this is to get graph paper and lay it out on paper. First put in the current landscaping that you are going to keep especially trees and bushes. Next, put in plants you want to plant. I started with the bushes and trees and went from there. I am a visual person so my next step was to lay it out in my yard using different things laying around the house. First, I put flowerpots where I wanted to plant fruit and nut trees. I visualized them there at different times of the day to check sunlight. It also let me see if I was going to like the arrangement. After I was satisfied with tree placement I put the larger plants in such as fruit bushes and permanent herbs. I used the same procedure with this.
After I was satisfied with all of this, I developed a long term plan. I looked at varieties of plants that did well in our area. You can get this information from your local extension agency. Our state has a website that you can go on to obtain that information. Many fruit and nut trees need two varieties to pollinate each other. I also looked at this information. I also looked at what our budget could afford. Each year for a few years, we would dig up an area and I would put the trees and bushes in designated for that area. The next year we would repeat the process until all the beds were completed.
The last part was interspersing perennial plants within the landscaping. I intermix many flowers and herbs within my beds. I have also left large areas open with borders of flowers around them for annual vegetables. Good ones for this are squashes, cucumbers, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower and other similar plants.
We live in an addition within the city limits. You may ask how my neighbors like my edible landscaping. I would tell you that I have people stop and tell me how beautiful my beds are all the time. They are usually surprised to hear that many of my plants in them are also edible. I will try to post pictures later of some of the areas. to give you some idea of what it looks like.
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