I have always enjoyed the idea of being able to walk through a garden and pick from it food as you wander. Like paradise basically, minus the flamingos. Kiwis dangling, fresh fruit at your feet and your fingertips. Maybe some chickens Baaaawww Gaaaak in the background as you harvest some kale and radishes that are growing alongside your mother onions which is right next to your herb garden.

Now, there is a certain effort that is to be had in a veggie garden, maybe slightly more so than a regular “flower and shrub” garden. But, you do get to eat it during and after its days of glory. Unlike a regular shrub garden that flowers and then drops its colour leaving you waiting until next year, a blueberry bush can give you early spring colour with its flowers, followed by beautiful blue fruit that looks and tastes amazing, and then the leaves turn beautiful colours in the fall before dropping its leaves. 3 out of 4  seasons with interest plus you can eat it. The blueberry bush. I also heard they are antioxidants and good for you, but I am no expert.

The Edible Garden concept allows you to build food plants into your design ideas. You can utilize the functionality of having fresh food close by along with the different textures and  colours that food plants can provide.

Garlic planted 3-5 plants wide along a pathway creates a cool screen as the garlic grows up. The scapes create a very artistic and almost zen like pattern. Before you cut them down and eat them. Later the garlic matures and you pull it up and plant your winter kale and chard along the pathway so you can eat it all winter long.

As you plant different things in different parts of the garden each year it means that each year to a certain extent your garden is changing and evolving which leads to its evolution and this creates a really cool space that is not only beautiful and thriving but it is feeding you healthy expensive food at the same time.

Strawberries as ground cover, grapes and kiwis for shade cover, espaliered fruit trees along the fence lines as privacy. Cool little micro greenhouses for winter growing and beautiful basil that makes the best pesto with your freshly grown garlic and lemons.

Building your paradise is possible. It takes more than a few seasons to really hone it in and have some of the bigger ticket items start to pay off. But the coolest thing about growing food is that you can start eating it within 30 days. Bam, from the ground into your belly while beautifying your yard at the same time.

Happy harvesting

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