Julie Weisenhorn / Flickr
When working in a limited quad , it can be significant to choose plant and design that dish up multiple functions . Although I ’m primarily concerned in agriculture and food output , my garden quad belongs to my in - laws , who are more interested with esthetics : I feel myself working at the intersection of edibles and ornamentals in purchase order to satisfy both of these estimation about the space .
Because I work mostly with trees and shrub , I take brainchild mainly from the Edenic “ solid food forest ” concept inpermaculture . However , in full term of vegetable horticulture , I ’ve learned much from emulating the Frenchpotager - manner decorative kitchen garden . In essence : I endeavor to make food yield look beautiful .
This means choosing the fruiting tree and shrubs with the most riotous and unique blossom , and the vegetables with the most interesting foliage and harvest . It also means training plant into aesthetically pleasing forms : Sometimes this can come at the cost of yield , but compromise between these note value is constant when work out in a limited infinite .
In integrating decorative floral cultivation into productive spaces , it ’s important to know which peak are edible or useful in some way and which are not : The comestible landscape painting should preferentially hold plant that serve a affair . Edible , medicinal or utilitarian flowers should take priority over those that are but pleasing to seem at or are poisonous .
This approach has benefits beyond the esthetic : My garden is always buzzing with a diversity of pollinators andbeneficial insects . It ’s become a sort of agro - ecological home ground space , rather than a tilled field with row of crop .
In terms of selecting flora , options bristle . Decide what you care to look at , what can grow in your climate and microclimate , and what you will realistically expend . In forgetful , cultivation of eatable ornamental is idealistic for urban or suburban farmers who want to habituate the garden infinite as both a topographic point of beauty , and a place of production .
Here are some comestible flowers you might deal .
1. Toscana Strawberries
Lynsdey Grosfield
These pink - flowering strawberry were succeeder of the 2011/12 FleuroStar Award in Plant Breeding .
2. Japanese Flowering Quince
Lynsey Grosfield
This bush produces small , fragrant , astringent fruit colligate to Malus pumila and pears .
3. Red Russian Kale
This variety give gives a spectrum of vivacious color in addition to being both sizable and delicious .
4. Tricolor Variegata Chili Pepper
Purple flush give way of life to savoury little purple chilli on this variegate works .
5. Fruit Tree Espaliers
Thisheart - shaped pear espalierwas formed with Williams on one side , and Buerre Hardy on the other .
6. Artichokes
Essentially an edible thistle , if you do n’t eatartichokesin time , they change by reversal into beautiful blossoms .
7. Daylilies
Many daylilies ( Hemerocallis fulva ) are edible and are often use up in Eastern Asia .
8. Borage
This industrial plant is a quadruplex scourge : All parts of the plant are edible , the seed can be pressed for oil , the flowers are beautiful and constant , and they are particularly dear of pollinators like bees .
9. Nasturtiums
A member of the brassica family , Tropaeolum majustastes like a sharp cress or cabbage and is edible from root to fritter away .
