Edible Landscaping for Beginners

Ron Berezan, owner of The Urban Farmer, an edible-landscape-design company in Edmonton, recommends planting edible flowers such as day lilies, borages and nasturtiums.

And Renee Shepherd, owner of the U.S.-based seed company Renee's Garden, says there are many attractive vegetables and herbs that can be planted alone or mixed with flowers to create decorative garden beds:

• Leaf lettuce can make a nice edging in a container or bed.
• Purple basil is both colourful and fragrant.
• Rainbow Swiss chard has colourful and delicious leaves and stems.
• Scarlet runner beans are edible and provide screening. As a bonus, they attract hummingbirds.

Ken Taylor, owner of Green Barn Nursery near Montreal, recommends the following low-maintenance trees, shrubs and vines, which he ships all over Canada:

• Seedless grapes. These hardy vines take very little space and provide privacy and delicious fruit.
• Cherry olive. This shrub bears yellow flowers in spring and red sweet-tart berries you can snack on in fall.
• Heartnut. A type of walnut tree, the heartnut is fast-growing, and has fernlike leaves and clusters of nuts.

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