Tired of Mowing? Replace Grass with an Edible Landscape

Your landscape can be both beautiful and edible!

Your backyard may be a lovely place to view, picnic in, and even sleep under the stars–but how much of your landscape can you eat?

Most landscapes today, unlike those of yesteryear, are devoid of edible plants. Edible yard landscaping expert and author Rosalind Creasy writes: “(In previous generations) the main interest (in the landscape) was food. Beauty in a producing plant was a bonus, not a requirement.”

But as the cost of lawn care escalates along with food prices, and food freshness and security become a priority, some homeowners are beginning to eye their backyards in a new way: Food producer.

But some people may want more than the standard rectangular Victory garden. For that, you can create an “edible landscape” which combines beauty and functionality at the same time.

How to Design an Edible Landscape

An edible landscape simply incorporates edible plants into an existing landscape. It combines the ornamental plants and flowers in a garden bed with trees that produce fruit or nuts, berry bushes, herbs, vegetables, and edible flowers. (Check out Treehugger.com’s list of 18 beautiful edible landscape plants.) The design can take the shape of any garden style and can include non-edible plants, as well.

While the sky is the limit on your edible garden design, it does need to have plenty of sunlight (at least six hours of full sunlight per day), although shade areas can be planted with medicinal herbs or mushrooms.

An edible landscape can be beautiful, it can eliminate the need for mowing, and it can nourish you and your family throughout the growing season.

For more tips visit the Ohio State Extension’s fact sheet on edible landscaping .