10 Plants for Edible Landscapes
Learning Objectives
- Describe plants suitable for edible landscapes.
As part of green infrastructure, gardening for food production offers a wide range of environmental, economic, and social benefits. Growing local food within and around communities supports:
- habitat for pollinators and biodiversity,
- regulation of local climate and water management,
- reduction of energy use and carbon footprints,
- food security and local economy, and
- physical health and social connections.
Urban agriculture is the process of growing, processing, and distributing local food and food products. There are many types of urban agriculture including community gardens, boulevard planting, green roofs, vertical farms, urban chickens, bee keeping, aquaculture, and small scale faming for farmers markets. Some other forms of food production are edible landscapes, food forests, urban orchards, gleaning (public land harvest), grow a row donations and backyard sharing, and guerrilla gardening. Figure 10.1 shows an example of products of urban agriculture available for purchase at a farmers market. Read more about the benefits and different types of urban agriculture at The Urban Farmer [New Tab].
Communities plan and manage urban agriculture through policies, zoning bylaws, and land use regulations that allow certain public green spaces to be used for growing food. For example, community gardens for non-commercial food production that are allowed in some or all land use designations will have guidelines for safety, accessibility, maintenance, and aesthetics. Read about an example of jurisdictional policy and regulations for community gardens available at City of Victoria Community Gardens Policy[PDF][New Tab].
Food production in residential landscapes is commonly associated with vegetable plots in backyards. Annual species grown for produce are usually arranged in agricultural patterns of straight lines in designated areas. Soil is often amended with compost, heavily irrigated, and seasonally tilled over for new planting. In contrast, edible landscapes, sometimes called foodscapes, incorporate plants for food as well as ornamental value within existing and new residential and public landscape designs. In general, plants for edible landscapes are herbaceous and woody perennial species that:
- are adapted for the climate and naturally resistant to pest and disease,
- require less intensive or similar levels of maintenance and inputs as the rest of the planting area, and
- provide multiple benefits such as food, aesthetics, shading, and water management.
Plants selected for preferred foods and the attributes of form, texture, and colour are integrated with other ornamental plants to achieve a desired garden style and aesthetic appearance. For example, the fruit producing tree, Morus alba ‘Pendula’ (weeping mulberry) serves as a specimen plant with distinctive form. Shrubs with berries and vibrant autumn foliage colour like Vaccinium corymbo