15 Best Edible Landscaping Ideas For Your Yard

Landscaping with food is beautiful and useful. Why plant poisonous ornamental flowers, trees, and shrubs when you can have the same beauty with the added nutritional benefits of edible landscaping? You can easily reduce living expenses while beautifying your environment with these edible landscaping ideas. And don’t forget: edible landscaping is both physically and mentally beneficial.

1. Fruit Trees

Plant dwarf fruit trees like apples, pears, or cherries for a beautiful and fruitful addition to your landscape.

2. Berry Bushes

Blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries can be grown in shrub form, adding color and flavor.

Here are just a few ways you can use your berry fruit:

• Blackberry Leaf Tea: A Herbal Remedy for Your Health
• Easy Homemade Blackberry Jam Recipe
• Easy to Make Blackberry Drop Dumplings

3. Herb Spiral

Create a spiral-shaped garden with herbs like basil, thyme, and rosemary. Try one of these Easy-to-Grow Herbs.

4. Edible Flowers

Edible flowers are excellent for adding color and nutrients to salads. Some favorites are nasturtiums, pansies, and violets. Chives are also great in salads or garnish in soups and other foods.

Here’s a list of 50 edible flowers to try.

5. Citrus Trees

Grow citrus trees in containers or in the ground (depending on your location) for a refreshing touch.

6. Tomato Hedge

Plant a row of tomato plants in a hedge-like fashion for beauty and a bountiful harvest. You’ll need to keep on top of the yellowing leaves towards the end of the season if you want your hedge to look good.

Learn about growing tomatoes:

• What Is the Best Soil Mix for Tomatoes?
• How Far Apart To Plant Tomatoes For Better Yield
• Best Companion Plants For Tomatoes

7. Edible Ground Cover

Replace traditional ground cover with edible options like sweet potato, creeping thyme, or mint.

8. Vegetable Borders

Use vegetables like kale, chard, or lettuce to create colorful borders around flower beds. Lettuce is easy to grow and comes in many different colors and shapes. Here’s how to grow lettuce you can enjoy year-round

If you grow chard, try some of these recipes: 15 Easy Swiss Chard Recipes You’ll Love!

9. Grape Arbor

Create a shaded seating area with a grape arbor, providing fruit and a relaxing spot, and in the fall, you can make steamed juice with your grapes.

10. Edible Hedge

Use compact fruiting shrubs like currants or gooseberries to create an edible hedge.

11. Medicinal Herb Garden

Mix medicinal herbs like echinacea, chamomile, and lavender for beauty and function.

You can even make money from your herbs if you plan it right. Learn more about how in my How to Grow Lavender For Profit guide.

12. Cherry Tomato Hanging Baskets

Hang baskets of cherry tomatoes from pergolas or porch ceilings for a colorful and convenient snack.

20 Best Cherry Tomatoes to Grow in Your Garden

13. Edible Rock Garden

Nestle herbs and small vegetables among rocks for a visually appealing and functional rock garden.

14. Mushroom Logs

Integrate mushroom logs into shaded areas for an unexpected and delicious harvest.

15. Rosehips

Rosehip berries are excellent for jelly and make a delicious tea that is good for your health.

Have a wet spot in your garden? Grow some stinging nettle. If you live in a warm state, plant some palm trees in your landscape and get coconuts, dates, and other fruits, depending on which type of palm tree to plant.

Edible Landscaping Benefits

It is safe for children

Edible landscaping is a creative approach to beautification that includes all forms of edible plants: trees, shrubs, and even herbs.  With an edible landscape, parents can let their young ones wonder about and be their usual curious selves.

Saves money

With the pressures of today’s economy, it’s no wonder landscaping with food has a distinct appeal because of the potential savings it offers. People always seek creative ways to cut costs and increase their income.

With the right selection of edible plants, fruit trees, and herbs, your landscape will provide for your or your family’s needs. You’ll now enjoy yummy fruits, vegetables, and herbs you no longer need to purchase. You can also sell some of your extra produce for additional income.

Fresh fruits and vegetables are good for your health

Surprisingly, edible gardening positively affects the human body, both physically and mentally. The delight of sitting under a fruit tree, eating freshly picked fruit on a sunny day, cannot be easily mimicked.  It is priceless.

The health benefits of eating fresh organic fruit are well known.  By cooking with natural herbs and spices picked fresh each day as meals are prepared, you replace processed salts and seasonings and help reduce high blood pressure.

Planting a food garden provides positive mental stimulation through several senses:  your eyes, ears, and, indeed, your nose.

Edible garden landscaping is beneficial to the environment

Edible landscaping is the green approach to outdoor beautification: it has amazing benefits for the environment and people.  A splash of bright red, yellow, and green apples dazzling your horizon, complemented by the scent of your rosemary bush, could only make you smile after a long, hard day.