Boost the flavor and beauty of your landscape by adding a few ornamental edible plants to your garden beds and containers. Look for opportunities to substitute ornamental vegetables, fruit, herbs and edible flowers for ornamental but nonedible plants. A hanging basket of semi-determinate tomatoes like Lizzano and Torenzo or Pot-a-Peno peppers can dress up a deck or porch and keep the harvest within reach.
Peppers like Quickfire and Cayenetta hot peppers, and sweet ones like Pretty N Sweet, along with Patio Choice yellow cherry tomato, are suitable for containers and small gardens. Use asparagus as a backdrop in gardens. Look for disease-resistant cultivars like the recently introduced Millennium that is long-lived, cold-hardy, high-yielding, and adaptable to a variety of soils.
After the harvest, the ferny greens create a nice backdrop and add a welcome texture to any flower garden. Rhubarb makes a nice temporary shrub in sunny locations. The large leaves add bold texture and the colorful stems of Crimson Red and Canada Red varieties provide a bit of color to the garden bed.
Just cut back the plants at the end of the season and watch for their return in spring. Use strawberries as a groundcover. The white flowers, tasty red fruit, and fall color brighten the ground level of any full-to-part sun location in your landscape.
Choose day-neutral or everbearing varieties to enjoy several harvests throughout the summer. Include colorful tomato and pepper varieties in mixed borders a.