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Edible landscapes
Combine aesthetics with functionality when planting
This time of year, people become artists, looking at their lawns like empty canvases.
A corner of a front lawn — home to piles of brown, dead leaves in the fall and snowbanks in the winter — may look like the perfect place for a bush or colorful bed of flowers.
While landscaping possibilities as limitless as the imagination, experts recommend thinking outside of the box and incorporating edibles into lawn decor.
“Even fruit trees are ornaments,” Luke Martin, owner of Martin’s Garden Center in Tyrone, said. “What’s better than an apple tree in full bloom? The sweet smell of an apple blossom can’t be beat.”
Martin suggests people get some advice from experts who can offer insight.
As Blair County master gardeners, Bill and Rusty Baumgartel of Duncansville could be considered experts. Not only does the couple know about planting trees and plants, but they are also fans of the tasks themselves.
For the past 40 years, the Baumgartels have planted everything from blueberries to herbs on their nearly 20-acre property. Most of the property is woods while a couple acres have blueberries and an assortment of other delectable delights, including Asian pears, blue honeysuckle and herbs.
“It’s no harder than growing annual flowers,” Bill Baumgartel said. “Get good catalogs and study them. There are a lot of nurseries that keep importing stuff not readily available.”
For those looking to mix things up a bit, landscaping could include an area mixed with flowers and even lettuce or kale, he said.
The layout of a property could depend on planting schedules. Some fruit trees could be planted this month while most vegetables are planted in the spring after the last frost, which usually is in May, he said.
Controlling how a plant or tree is grown, including not using chemicals, could result in safer produce than that found in stores. He said it is often unknown what methods were used to grow fruits and vegetables found in stores.
Do you have an old wheelbarrow or metal bucket lying around? Rusty Baumgartel said instead or throwing the old items away, incorporate them into the landscaping plans, filling the items with soil and planting edible plants inside.
“You can use container plants like cherry tomatoes and use a big barrel,” she said. “Some people say they don’t have enough sun, but you can move it if it’s in anything on wheels.”
Herbs also easily fit into an edible landscape. Ann Marie Wishard, owner of Sweet Annie Herbs Inc. in Huntingdon, said there are numerous varieties of herbs that can be planted. Rosemary, for example, can be used in salads or garnishes on cakes while varieties of thyme can be planted in rocky areas. Sage, like other herbs, is loaded with vitamins A and C.
She said people really aren’t limited with the types of herbs that can be grown.
“There are hundreds of herbs to grow,” she said.
By Jennifer Babulsky, jbabulsky@altoonamirror.comhttp://www.altoonamirror.com/articles.asp?articleID=928
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