Edible Permascapes and Mixed Food Gardens

Do you dream of walking through your gardens with a steaming cup of coffee in the morning, stopping to harvest fresh fruit and vegetables along the way? 

We love designing gardens incorporating edible fruit, berries, trees and perennial vegetables into beautiful landscapes. We have defined and carved out unique green areas in our own gardens where beautiful, eye catching fruit bearing shrubs, vines and vegetable patches live in harmony nestled between strategically placed flowers, herbs and annual vegetables.

Our tiny backyard’s pergola homes 3 types of edible grapes and hops vines that provide shade and shelter from the rain, where large bunches of grapes hang from its slated roof and happily coexist and intermingle with beautiful clematis flowers, climbing peas and hop vines. The growth of these vines over the past 3 years has surprised me (in a good way), though I’m certain the enriched soil and optimal light conditions greatly contributed to this.

And here is what our grape harvest looked like this fall (in year 3)

Differing from traditional vegetable gardens typically tucked away in defined backyard areas, edible permascape gardens are an esthetically pleasing mix of perennial edible plants, shrubs and trees seamlessly integrated with beneficial companion plants that help enrich soil, attract pollinators and repel crop damaging insects through strategic design.

We also enjoy incorporating annual vegetables into larger landscapes, creating unique borders combining fresh herbs, beautiful foliage and texture among pollinator magnet flowers, and erecting simple and unique looking trellises for vined plants to grow vertically on and thrive in unexpected places.  The ones below were experiments created this year using a bunch of bamboo poles and garden wire I had lying around. Our 4 year old adopted the cucumber trellis as her own tipi fort, and claimed ownership of the cucumbers growing from it, taking care to check and harvest them daily all summer long (and we’re still picking cucumbers in October!)