Landscape Now

Edible landscaping is landscaping with products that can be used as food. There are many reasons for doing this.

Some Advantages

Why should you use this type of element in your landscaping design?

They not only serve as food, but beauty as well. Although many people will keep these types of plants in the back portion of their yard, you would be surprised at how beautiful a bush of raspberries can be at the front of the home as well. There are many plants that can be used, such as fruits and vegetables and even herbs. Placing fruit trees at the front of your home can be quite lovely and tasty.

You don’t need to put as much effort into your lawn. More edible options means less lawn, which means less lawn maintenance. The larger your lawn, the more you need to pay someone to take care of it. So adding edible elements can help to reduce the cost of your lawn.

Your Health

You can also enhance your life. If you enjoy gardening, taking care of edible landscaping elements get a fair amount of exercise. When you exercise, your body is stronger and healthier. And, this increase in your wellness can improve your condition overall.

Fresh air is also good. Did you know that you can get sick from remaining indoors too much? The dust and particles in the house enter your body and can make you ill. If you have a reason to be outside more, then you automatically remedy this situation.

When you choose edible landscaping, you can choose not to use pesticides and therefore eat foods that are better for you.

Plus there are many mental health benefits to it as well. When you are growing something you improve your self worth.

It’s also family time. This is a great way for you and your family to get together and to work together. It is a learning aspect that children need. They can be sitting in front of the TV or they can be enjoying time spent together working on a family project.

Benefits for the environment are also present. When you are growing your own food, you lower the demand on factory farms and processed foods. This helps the environment. And, when you do not use pesticides, you are also protecting the environment. Truck emissions can be lowered because you are not in need of as many products from the grocery store.

Save Money

Of course, your budget can also be helped here too. When you use edible landscaping, you save money on your grocery bill. You can grow enough food to freeze and store for the winter. You can save money on expensive fruits and you can make your own jellies and jams from them.

In the summer, you can purchase next to nothing from your local grocer in the way of produce. Grow the things that work in your area and you can benefit from a much more cost effective method of eating.

Finally, you can plan your edible landscape any way that you want. Not everything needs to be in rows and organized. Put things the way that works for you to give you visual appeal as well as an excellent source of good food.

Because of their year-round beauty, hardiness and longevity, evergreen trees are worth their slight extra cost over deciduous trees (which lose their foliage in winter).

Evergreens range from broad-leaved shrubs such as laurel and rhododendron to cone-bearing pines and stately spruces.

Most effective as windscreens, the giant spruces and firs are widely used not only because for their attractiveness, but also because of their shape. Furthermore, they do well in the shade, which makes them excellent for foundation planting.

Here are some popular evergreens to consider (in alphabetical order):

Cedar

The ornamental Arbor vitae, such as cedar, produces the flat evergreen branch found in flower arrangements at Christmas. It is best in moist, protected places. Although it can be cut to any size or shape, untrimmed it forms a broad 35 to 50 feet tall pyramid.

Fir

Hardy, healthy, and drought-resistant, the Douglas fir grows quickly and compactly. The best fir for windbreaks and screening, its lofty pyramid makes a good lawn element. White fir has an attractive silvery color while balsam fir, the Christmas tree, is noted for its fragrance and lustrous foliage.

Hemlock

The hemlock, with feathery foliage, is most effective when planted in a grove with others. The Canadian hemlock can be sheared for symmetrical effect.

Juniper

The tall species of juniper, such as the formal columnar juniper and the upright juniper, are very useful in planting. As a spreading evergreen, the Pfitzer juniper is best used for banks, edgings and ground cover. Its green feathery foliage grows rapidly, can withstand crowding and its height at maturity is 8 feet, and width up to 12feet. Ground-covering junipers include creeping, prostrate, Sargent, and Waukegan.

Pine

The most widely known evergreen is the pine. Noted for its long, soft, light silvery-green needles, the white pine can reach 60 to 80 feet at maturity. In addition to the white pine, the red pine is splendid for backgrounds and windbreaks. A broad, compact tree, the ponderosa pine is used for protection and ornamental screens.

The Austrian pine (black pine), popular in the Midwest, has a rich, green color and spreading branches.

Spruce

Short and thick, with light blue-green needles, the white spruce reaches 70 feet and is good for landscaping and screens. Although it suffers in drought and heat, the Colorado blue spruce is a hardy tree. Because it withstands dry weather and the thick green foliage has a bronze in winter, red cedar is a fine ornamental evergreen for hedges and windbreaks.

Probably the most widely planted windbreak evergreen, the Norway spruce is hardy and quick growing. A slow grower, it has short needles of dark green and is compact and pyramidal in shape. The Black Hills variety grows to 40 feet in time, and is hardy and drought-resistant.

Yew

With its thick, glossy needles and dense, upward-reaching branches, the yew is useful as both a shrub and tree. Although it grows well in sun and shade, it’s best used as a single feature against a wall of the garden rather than as foundation planting. The low-spreading bushy dwarf yew can be clipped, while other varieties such as the upright yew and Japanese yew are tapering or conical plants best used for hedges.

Protection

Since evergreens tend to be adversely affected by dry, hot summer weather, they should be watered every 10 to 14 days during this time of year. Be sure the water reaches at least 6 inches deep.

A good way to protect the tree from loss of water in dry weather is with a mulch of grass clippings or peat moss. To help an evergreen thrive, pruning in the late spring is recommended, making sure that the inner branches will develop.

Formal trees should be kept trimmed with no ragged branches sticking out; badly-shaped or deformed trees can be corrected through shaping. When exposed to too much wind and winter sun, evergreens may dry up and their branches will crack under the weight of snow or the force of wind. To prevent this, water them deeply before the ground freezes in the late fall.

Another way to protect evergreens is to use screens of burlap mats. They only need to be shielded on the sunny side, unless the wind and winter sun is too strong. Be sure that burlap covers are well-ventilated.

To prevent breakage under heavy snow or ice, prop up the heavy limbs of old trees with boards. So that smaller branches won’t crack, you can tie cloth strips to tall shrubs or small evergreens.