Easy Edible Garden Design

I pulled this image from Pinterest because I think it is wonderful design that can accommodate many different locations and tastes - literally. This design is so simple but with such impact that you could recreate it in your yard using ornamental plants. However, if want to introduce some edibles to your yard, this design would lend itself to this purpose very well.

This could be used as it appears, along a wall, or the design can be used to create a “room” within a garden or yard. If you’re on a budget, the design is simple enough that you can add to it every year to extend it around a yard. Alternatively you can invest in one element each year and build to the final design.

The Trees

In place of the ornamental trees, use dwarf apple trees. The trees can be pruned in an open format or espaliered along the wall. Either way, your garden producing fruit all season long will be beautiful to look at. In our cold climate of zone 3 plant them directly into the ground, eliminating the need (and cost) of the pot. Plant them 2-3 feet away from the wall ensuring that the graft is above the ground or you will lose the dwarfing affect of the rootstock.

The Pots

Since the pots don’t work well for the trees in our climate, if you like the structure they provide, you can change what they hold and plant annual vegetables and herbs to get even more production out of the garden.  Tomatoes or peppers that are bred to be planted in pots would work wonderfully here since they are often smaller and take up less space. Arrangements of lettuce or savoy cabbage would be an eye catching idea combined with other foliage textures like onions, garlic and squashes.  

The Shrubs

Replace the hydrangeas with berry bushes of any type. You could plant cherry, currant, gooseberry, blueberry, highbush cranberry, or elderberry. In order to get the same look as you see here, you will want to repeat with the same fruit type or alternate using two types of fruit to get a little more variety.

Edging Plants

There is a wide range of plants to use for the boxwoods. This is the area where vegetables could also play a role.  You could plant rosemary or other annual herbs. Catmint would look beautiful repeated with their lavender flowers. For a full look that comes back year after year, you could also plant day neutral strawberries to have a harvest almost all season long.

Next Steps

Whew...that might be a lot to take in all at once, but if you're more inspired than overwhelmed,  click on the link below to see all of our fruit products at a glance as well as our volume pricing.

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