Backyard Dining
Category: Issue, August 2010, Columns, Interior Insights, Featured
By: Chip Clark
Blueberry bushes are worked into a front-yard landscape.
Hardy kiwi grows well in this area.
Lavender can make a fragrant small hedge, and the dried flower buds can flavor baked goods.
Strawberries make an excellent ground cover.
It’s no secret that most of our food travels thousands of miles before arriving at a local grocery
store. It’s also no secret that most of our home landscapes use few, if any, edible plants. Most of
the trees and shrubs in our neighborhood—and very likely yours—are from the same small
palette: barberries, burning bush, sand cherry, yews, holly and privet. Favorites of landscapers,
these plants are inexpensive, widely available and need little care after planting. But imagine if
those plants around your house not only looked great but also provided your family with food.
The idea gives backyard dining a whole new meaning.
After moving back to State College a few years ago, my wife and I took a walk in our new
neighborhood. Attractive as the landscapes around many of these houses were, I was struck by
the sight of one particular shrub near the sidewalk. It was sporting large, yellow fruits—a quince.
Not only is this plant beautiful in all seasons, with striking white blossoms in the spring, glossy
green leaves in the summer and multiple upright stems in the winter, that quince also gave the
owners something else—food for the table. Aromatic quince fruit can be mixed into applesauce
and jarred as preserves.
Quince is just one of many edible plants that can liven up your landscape. Small trees include
juneberries, which have clouds of white blossoms in the spring and delicious small blue fruit in
the summer, and Kousa dogwood with its dangling red fruit in the fall. Shrubs include
blueberries and Nanking cherries, which offer white blossoms in the spring and tasty small fruit
in summer and fall. Clove currants have clusters of fragrant yellow blossoms in the spring and
sweet black fruit in the summer. Strawberries and lingonberries make great groundcovers, with
red fruit among the green leaves when in season. Passionflower, hardy kiwi and grapes can
quickly climb a fence and provide an attractive screen as well as autumn fruit. And don’t forget
many traditional fruits, such as apples, cherries, peaches, pears and plums. Many new cultivars
are available which have been bred for disease resistance and grafted onto dwarfing rootstocks to
keep them compact.
Even your flowerbeds can contribute to your table. Consider tucking a few pepper plants in with
your perennials to add color to the beds and food to your table. Culinary herbs such as basil, sage
and lavender also can look great in the landscape. Many have silvery leaves which look
particularly beautiful in the evenings when most of us are at home. And don’t worry when they
go into flower—most flowers of culinary herbs are edible too.
Some of these more unusual edible plants are not always available in big box stores. However,
many local nurseries have them in stock, and if they don’t, they’re usually happy to order them
for you. Many plants are also available through on-line sources, which will ship plants to you
when the season is right for planting. Landscapers will work with you to find plants they may not
have in stock.
The Centre County Master Gardeners can help with advice on what edibles to plant into your
landscape. Visit their website at
centre.extension.psu.edu/Hort/MG_website/Master_Gardeners_of_Centre_County.htm or call
the county extension office hotline at 355.4897 with specific questions if you are considering
replacing some of those overgrown ordinary plants in your landscape with something both
fruitful and beautiful. So go have dinner in the backyard. • SCM
Chip Clark is a Master Gardener in State College. He eats well from a landscape that produces
juneberries, strawberries, blueberries and dogwood fruits