Botanica Atlanta | Landscape Design, Construction & Maintenance

It seems more people are becoming interested in growing their own food and I try to promote that interest whenever possible. However, most property owners still think that they must choose between a beautiful landscape and a productive one. That is certainly not the case as many fruiting plants, medicinal plants, and culinary herbs have aesthetic characteristics that make them desirable for ornamental landscaping. 

For example, the perennial plant purple sage (Salvia officinalis 'Purpurascens') is a flavorful culinary herb with medicinal properties which also happens to have beautiful gray-green and purple foliage. Pineapple guava (Feijoa sellowiana) is an evergreen shrub that not only bears a delectable small fruit which tastes something like a mix between a pineapple and a guava (hence, the name) but also displays flowers with fleshy pink or white petals and showy scarlet stamens that are themselves edible. The native pawpaw tree (Asimina triloba) bears a fruit that tastes like a banana flavored custard and has large glossy obovate leaves giving it a handsome tropical look. And there are many, many more plants that are both useful as food or medicine and have an attractive appearance in the home landscape.

Below are two examples of designs I have done recently which incorporate edible plants into a typical residential landscape design. Play "spot the food" and see how many edible plants you can find in each! C'mon, it'll be fun!

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