Creative Ideas to Include Fruits & Vegetables In Your Landscaping

If you lack the space for a full-scale garden, you can still grow your own fresh fruits, vegetables and culinary herbs. The only requirement is that you have access to an outdoor space, such as around your home’s foundation, deck, patio, or on a balcony.

This month, we're going to share some helpful tips - as well as an excellent FREE resource - on how to grow a beautiful, successful garden in a very small amount of space.

Here are a few stealthy ideas to grow more healthy and delicious fruits and vegetables around your home this year:

Vegetables and ornamental plants. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you live in a home with landscape plants around its foundation, you have plenty of opportunities to grow fresh produce. Assuming you have permission to modify the existing landscaping, you can weave in a many different kinds of food-producing plants. The key to doing this without making your home look like an eyesore is to look for plants that are both beautiful and yield a tasty crop. You will also want to be sure your ornamental plants aren’t sprayed with chemicals or pesticides that can contaminate your food-producing plants.

Most traditional landscape designs consist of a variety of ornamental trees, bushes, shrubs and flowering plants. While this approach can be very pleasing to the eye, it doesn’t do much for your stomach. So, instead of planting strictly ornamental landscape plants to improve your home’s curb appeal, start looking for edible alternatives that are suitable for your climate.

For example, many fruit-bearing trees, including apples, pears, plums, peaches or cherries, are available in compact, attractive varieties. Blueberries are both delicious and nutritious, but many people don’t realize they grow on beautiful ornamental bushes that can add 3-season appeal to your landscape design. Compact bush beans form attractive deep green mounds that look lovely, especially when planted en masse. The gorgeous Swiss Chard ‘Bright Lights’ variety creates an eye-catching color pallet with its deep red and yellow stalks and dark green leaves. 

In the fall, you can tuck some hardneck seed garlic in amongst your established landscape plants. To make them easier to find next year, plant them in clusters. Then, once they develop those charming gooseneck scapes in the spring, cut them off to force the plant's energy back into the bulb. Don’t let them go to waste, however. Tender garlic scapes are delicious chopped and used on top of baked potatoes, fresh salads or in soups!

Thyme is also a welcome addition to any landscape because of its gentle creeping habit and wonderful fragrance when it is disturbed. For this reason, thyme is ideal for filling in along paths and walkways. For a more distinctive look and wonderful citrusy aroma, look for the lovely lemon variety. If you plan to use your thyme in recipes, plant some in elevated containers or in an out-of-reach area where domestic pets or other animals aren’t likely to do their business on it.

Sage, with its soft greyish-green leaves, is another herb that is as beautiful as it is delicious. Planted in groups, it makes an attractive focal point at the front of a landscape bed. To enjoy, snip several leaves to make a delicious browned butter and sage sauce to top fresh gnocchi or pumpkin ravioli.

Herbs in containers. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Even plants that aren’t traditionally attractive can add visual appeal to a landscape. For example, cherry or pear tomato plants aren’t necessarily pretty by themselves, but look great when added to large colorful containers and set in amongst other ornamentals. Try this old design trick: use an odd-number of containers to create a strong visual statement. A collection of 3 or 5 cobalt blue planters with neatly staked and well-maintained plants creates a visually interesting display.

Speaking of containers, don’t forget to tuck fragrant herbs and edible flowers in amongst your more traditional annual ornamental flowers. Rosemary is a great addition to container gardens because it offers a strong vertical element that complements plants with more compact and trailing growth habits. You may want to consider edible flowers such as violas and chive blossoms, as well.

If your planting area is confined to a small patio or balcony, don’t despair. You can still grow a lot of wonderful culinary herbs, dwarf fruit plants and a couple of tomato plants in a very small space. In fact, you may be pleasantly surprised by how much your modest areas can produce!

Be sure to stay tuned later this month, as we'll be giving away a FREE E-book just for those looking to grow more food in less space!

Utilizing Small Spaces in the Garden

There are often small oddly-shaped spaces in the garden that are left abandoned simply because we can't think of anything to do with them.

This doesn't have to be the case as almost any area can be enhanced with a little thought and planning. Simply adding a garden seat can add to the enjoyment you can get from a garden as it offers a quiet place to rest and relax and look at the beauty of your work.

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Replacing a wet area with some paving and adding a pot or two can transform an unused area into a place that you and your garden friends will like to visit. Even adding a water feature or a pond for fish will make areas like this a lovely focal point of the garden. There are so many things that can be done to almost any area of any garden that you are only limited by your imagination.

Careful design can make an area look bigger than it is, or lead you on to other areas of interest in the garden. Color choices in the surrounding plants will also determine the atmosphere that area will create for you. We need these small areas of the garden that are tucked away to compliment the bigger spaces and add a degree of mystery and intrigue to the overall plan.

There are other alternatives if you don't want the focus to be taken away from the main planting and this might mean that the area will be used better for hiding away an implements shed or, provided it is in a sunny position you might decide to use the space for a greenhouse so that you can extend your garden season into the cooler months - or even garden year-round!

Sometimes, with a little thought, these spaces on your property can become your favorite places, rather than something that you would prefer to forget about.

And if you can't think of anything whatsoever to do with such a space, then it sounds like it may be an ideal place to have a compost!

Garden Planning: Using Topiary In Your Garden

Topiary can be a fun addition to your garden or growing space if you have an imagination and some patience. Topiary is the art of shaping trees and shrubs into shapes of all types and sizes.

There have been some quite outstanding topiary shapes created by garden artists over the years and many people get pleasure from practicing this art in home gardens across the country.

While it is not quite as popular as it once was it is still something that can create a focal point in any garden and is an alternative to other forms of garden sculpture.

A topiary dinosaur. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you decide to try your hand at topiary you will need to have the right plants for the job.

The best plants to use are those that are evergreen. The plants should also have small leaves and the foliage should be as dense as possible to make shaping easier and the final result will look more professional.

From there it is time to start shaping the plant using your cutting shears. As this is generally done freehand it can take some time to get the experience needed to create even lines and curves. Until you have the experience to do this, many people use shaped wires to assist as a guide.

You will need to be patient and only cut off small amounts while you let the shape develop, as a cut too large will result in delays while the plant grows back again.

There is an alternative method that some people use in their garden where the shape is already determined by the use of a wire cage and plants such as ivy are left to grow over the wire giving the impression that it is topiary. This is the easy alternative but you will have to wait for the ivy to completely cover the cage before you have the desired effect.

The benefit of using this method is the fact that you have a lot more control over the shape of the structure and there is less skill involved other than creating the wire cage.

Even just a couple of topiary plants can be a uniquely fun and whimsical way to add visual interest to your garden area.

Learn More with Home Garden Topiary Guides:
   

Video - Garden Landscaping Tips

This short video gives you some helpful ideas for landscaping when planning your garden. Planning out your garden ahead of time can save you time and problems in the spring, so now is a great time to plan out the layout of your garden for next year, and get some of your landscaping in ahead of time if possible.

GARDEN PLANNING TIPS
Some helpful garden landscape planning tips that will save you a lot of time, money and heartache.

Backyard Landscaping Ideas

This time of year, when your garden has died down and you're thinking about planning next year's garden, is a great time to do a bit of landscaping, and map out a plan for what you would like your yard or garden to look like next time around. There are many different backyard landscaping ideas and most of them are pretty good but to find the one that is right for you and that is just what your yard needs may take a bit of planning and research.

Close up of hoarfrost and snow on several evergreen trees (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One good backyard landscaping idea is to use evergreens. The use of these fabulous trees will do much for most any yard. They will add a stately nature to the feel of your home while keeping it welcoming and warm. Many people like to use deciduous trees in the yard and this is great for some areas, but it is the evergreens that will give the yard the structure and the stability that it needs.

Deciduous trees will not be gorgeous in all seasons, most perhaps, but not all. Evergreens on the other hand are always fantastic and they look as beautiful in the winter as they do in the summer and this is why they make for such a great backyard landscaping idea. The key to any great landscaping design is to find ideas like this that will keep your yard interesting no matter what time of the year it is.

Another good backyard landscaping idea is to use hardscape. This is the use of things like rocks, fences and walls. These can make your yard look very interesting during all seasons. You can train climbing plants on these in the summer and spring, and plant pretty trees and shrubs around them that will look great in the winter.

Backyard landscaping underway! (Photo credit: ranjan.banerji)

When looking for a good backyard landscaping idea, look for other options besides just plants. There is more to landscaping than just plants and trees.

Walls and fences can frame your property beautifully and using them is a great way to accent your yard and home because they will just accent all of your other landscaping ideas. They will frame your yard as a picture frame frames a gorgeous painting. Try some of these tips to get your yard looking tip-top this winter, in preparation for next spring's growing season!