Guide to Fruits and Vegetables that Grow in Shade
Looking for fruits, vegetables, and herbs that grow well in a shady garden. This article has partial-sun crop ideas for you.
By Steven Biggs
Shade-Tolerant Vegetables and Fruits for the Edible Landscape and Food Garden
Don’t have full sun? Think your garden needs full sun? Find out about shade-garden vegetables, fruit, and herbs.
Not enough sunny growing space in your yard? Lots of partial sun? Light shade? You're not alone.
When I first landscaped my place, my neighbour Bob asked, "Steve, why is your patio so far from your house?"
"It's all about the vegetables,” I replied.
I reserved as much direct sunlight for my vegetables as possible. And used the shady spot for the patio."
There are lots of things around a home garden that cast shade: There’s the house, garage, fence, shed, trees, and hedges.
Not all fruits and vegetables grow well in shade. Lots of crops need "full sun" (6-8 hours of direct sunlight every day) to grow optimally.
But there are fruits, vegetables, and herbs that do nicely in a shady garden. Keep reading if you want to learn about vegetable plants that grow in shade, growing herbs in shade, shade-tolerant fruit, and how to plan your garden for shade.
Perfectionism Meets Shade Garden
Don’t have a sunny field for growing vegetables? That’s fine, when planting a garden there are many shade-tolerant crops.
Before we get to shade-tolerant crops, let's start with the elephant in the room.
Perfectionism.
Many seed packets suggest full sun...and many yards don't have full sun. You might be contrasting your semi-shaded yard to bright, sunny fields of vegetables.
Your space doesn't compare...
So what?
So what if your plants don't look as good as what a commercial grower would grow! If you're a home gardener, you're growing edible plants for yourself, not to sell.
When I needed more growing space, I decided to reclaim the end of my driveway as a straw-bale garden. (Find out more about straw-bale gardens here.)
My driveway garden is in partial sun, nestled between two houses. You can still enjoy vegetable gardening if you have some shade.
The driveway is nestled between two houses. It gets less than six hours of sun exposure. But it’s better to have less-than-perfect tomato plants on that driveway and get a decent harvest than not to harvest any tomatoes from the driveway.
Five hours of sun isn't perfect. So what? The results are fine. It’s a successful garden. Even though I don’t have full sun.
A vegetable garden is a great cure for perfectionism. In home gardens we often have less-than-perfect conditions. So what!
A Word on Shade
Not all sun (and not all shade) is created equal. Here are things to consider as you look at the shady spots and sunny spots around a yard:
Dappled shade. Think of the shade under a locust tree, spotted with little flecks of light.
Heavy shade. This is where no light is gets through or is reflected, like next to buildings or under trees with dense canopies. (Norway maple...I'm talking about you!)
Afternoon shade. A.k.a. morning sun...and morning sun isn't as strong as afternoon sun.
Morning shade. Or afternoon sun.
Create Your Own Unique Edible Landscape
That fits for your yard, and your style!
Crops for Partial Shade
Grow Leafy Greens in Shade
Start with greens when gardening in partial shade.
The reason partial shade is fine for leafy greens is that we're not trying to grow a perfect crop: All we want is the leaves. We're not growing for flowers or fruit or seeds. We don’t care if the plant completes it’s life cycle.
(And with a bit of shade, leaves are often bigger and more tender!)
Many of the greens crops (e.g. arugula, lettuce, and spinach) have a short life cycle that's less that the length of the growing season. And that means that at some point they give up making tender leaves, and send up a flower stalk. (This is called "bolting.")
Bolting happens more quickly in hot, sunny locations. By growing leafy green crops in partial shade during intense summer heat, they'll bolt more slowly, and make tender leaves for longer time.
Here’s more about how to prevent lettuce from bolting.
Vegetable Plants that Grow in Shade
Here are a few greens that do very nicely in partial shade:
These lettuce plants will do well in this dappled light over the summer. It’s cooler than in direct sun.
Amaranth
Arugula
Beets (for the edible leaves…don’t expect as much from the roots as you would get in a sunny location)
Bok choy
Claytonia
Collards
Corn salad
Cress
Endive
Kale
Lettuce
Mizuna
Mustard greens
Spinach
Swiss chard
If you have a favourite green that's not on this list, try it. Leafy greens usually do very nicely in partial shade.
One more crop that I don't think of as a leafy vegetable (even though we eat the leaves) is green onions. With green onions, we're not trying to encourage bulb development...we're just trying to get tender leaves. So partial shade is fine.
Vine Crops as Shade-Garden Vegetables
Vine crops can grow up and into the sunlight.
If you have a partially shaded area where vining crops could grow up into a sunnier location, this can be a useful strategy.
Not only do they tolerate partial shade: You can train them up a trellis, arbour, hedge, or tree into sunnier conditions.
Cucumbers. They grow respectably well in partial shade. I've grown them in afternoon sun, up a trellis on the west side of a garage with very respectable results.
Squash. Like cucumber, they do fine in partial shade. I've grown them along a semi-shaded cedar hedge, and was delighted to find the hedge studded with squash at the end of the season.
Pole and runner beans. The year I grew runner beans up a tee-pee underneath my apple tree they grew right up into the tree above...and those scarlet flowers looked great amongst the green apples!
Vining Peas. Some pea varieties are bush-like, but if you want a vining crop to grow up into a sunnier space, look for vining peas. And with peas, you can also harvest and eat young shoot tips and tendrils.
All of these vine crops work well for vertical gardening. Find out how to make a vertical vegetable garden.
Grow a Container Vegetable Garden
And get an early harvest of crops that usually take too long!
Beyond Leafy Vegetables
I already told you about my 5-hour-a-day driveway tomatoes.
If you're experimenting with other sun-loving vegetables in partial shade, just expect them to have lanky growth and lower yield. And at a certain level of sunlight, you won't get enough to make it worth your while. Growing vegetables in shade might take some experimenting.
But if you don't try, you won't know.
Herbs that Grow in Shade
Lovage is a perennial herb that tolerates some shade.
There are many herbs that tolerate partial shade. Here are my favourites:
Chives
Cilantro
Dill
Lemon Balm
Lovage (this perennial herb lives in my semi-shaded perennial border)
Mint (see Full Shade, below)
Parsley
Fruit Crops for Partial Shade
When growing fruit in partial shade, take the same approach we do with veggies. Just adjust expectations accordingly.
Here are fruit crops that grow well in partial shade:
Choke cherry. Often found on the forest edge, where there's some shade. (Find out about 5 Types of Cherry Bushes for Edible Landscapes.)
Currants. My favourite. Here’s an article about how to grow currants.
Elderberry. Often found on the forest edge, where there's some shade.
Gooseberry. They take the same low-light conditions as currants.
Hardy Kiwi Vine.
Pawpaw. While young pawpaw trees benefit from shade, best fruit production is in full sun. But they fruit well in partial shade. No surprise as that's where you often find them in the wild.
Serviceberry. An understorey tree often found on the forest edge, where there's some shade. My favourite member of the serviceberry clan is the Saskatoon bush. Find out more about the Saskatoon bush.
Landscape with Fruit
That’s easy to grow in a home garden!
What About Heavy Shade?
This rhubarb plant is in partial shade, but I’ve seed decent rhubarb patches even in heavy shade.
If you have a space without any direct sunlight, reflected sunlight, or dappled sunlight, your crop options are more limited. This is what people call “full” shade or “deep” shade.
Here are ideas for you:
Mint and shade: Mint is an invasive plant that I normally only grow in containers. But in full shade, mint can be your friend. This is the one situation where I plant mint in the ground.
Rhubarb can do very nicely in heavy shade. My friend Chris had a lovely rhubarb plant that graced the edge of his shady pond...it looked quite tropical with the big leaves! Find out how to force rhubarb indoors over the winter.
Currants and gooseberries are a good fit underneath bigger trees. My neighbour Mr. Browne had a currant bush growing in the full shade of an apple tree...and that bush faithfully fruited year after year, albeit not as much as it would have in a sunnier spot.
FAQ Shade Tolerant Crops
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What is the best shade tolerant vegetable?
Parsley. Hands down. Because it's delicious, tolerates a wide range of conditions—and it’s very ornamental. I use it as a flower-border edging plant on the north side of the house. The curly-leaf types add great texture, and last well into the fall in cooler temperatures—until there's a hard freeze.
You might be saying, "But it's a herb." I've heard people argue it's a herb, others say it's a vegetable. In the quantities I use in my salads, I'm using it as a veg.
Can vegetables get too much sun?
Yes. Too much sun and too much heat cause many of the leafy greens to bolt quickly. They do better in shady areas in the heat of summer.
What is the difference between partial sun and partial shade?
If you read different sources, you'll come up with various definition.
To me, it's semantics. It just means less than full sun. I guess it depends whether you're the type of person who sees the glass as half full or half empty!
Parsley does very well in shady locations. And it’s a great plant for adding texture to a garden!
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Not Enough Garden Space? Try These Small Veg Garden Ideas
By Steven Biggs
Fit More Vegetable Plants in the Same Small Space
Ideas to help you harvest more from the same small space.
Want to harvest more fresh vegetables from your small-space garden? Sometimes it helps to forget what you’ve seen. And do things differently from what's done in a big garden or commercial farm.
Commercial growers often focus on uniformity, and on perfect, unblemished produce. They also need space for equipment or employees to work around the plants.
But in a small home edible garden, where there’s not a lot of growing space—and where we’re just growing our own food—our needs are different. We want a variety of crops. We want an ongoing harvest. And we want it to be simple enough to fit into our everyday routine.
If you're struggling to fit everything you want to grow in your vegetable garden, keep reading for ideas to make the most of your growing space.
Key Takeaways: Make the Most of a Small Vegetable Garden
Recommended plant or seed spacing sometimes uses more space than required in a small vegetable garden.
Vertical gardening helps to fit more plants in a small garden bed.
Companion planting is a simple way to boost the output of a small vegetable garden.
Farmers sometimes leave fields fallow, but there's no need for this in a home vegetable garden.
Many crops have more than one edible part, making crop choice a simple way to grow more of your own food in a small space.
Reconsider Plant Spacing in a Small Vegetable Garden
Do you grow vegetables with the spacing suggested on seed packets or plant labels?
I don't. I always sow carrots, lettuce, and beet seeds more densely than recommended. Then I thin them out as the plants start to grow.
And the thinning is not a waste. Because I eat the small plants that I've thinned out. Baby carrots, lettuce, and beets are a treat.
Recommended plant spacing usually gives plants a suitable amount a space to develop to their final size. But there's no reason you can't use some of the space to grow baby plants while the crop is small.
There are lots of other ways to save on spacing. I often plant a few onion sets on the sloped edges of my raised soil beds. They might not get quite the amount of space recommended...but I'm using space that might otherwise not be used.
My daughter is an avid tomato grower. Some years she's trying to fit 100 varieties into our yard. She does that by planting them close together, and then growing them up twine (see Vertical Gardening, below.)
Take Up a Smaller Footprint with Vertical Gardening
Use Vertical Space in Your Vegetable Garden
Growing vining peas up a trellis in a small garden.
When space is at a premium, don't let vining plants sprawl all over the garden bed. Grow them upwards, instead.
I’ve seen watermelons growing on A-frames, each melon supported by a sling! And there are other vining plants such as cantaloupe, indeterminate tomatoes, and cucumbers that you can grow vertically to maximize yield in a small space.
With the vining plants growing up your A-frame, you can now grow shade-tolerant vegetables such as leafy greens under the A-frame.
Here's another idea: My neighbour Joe has a 10-foot-high wall of pole beans around his vegetable garden…an edible wall! Bush beans are great, but if your growing space is at a premium, pole beans take up less of a footprint.
Choose Varieties Suited to a Small Space
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When planning your vegetable garden, variety choice can help you grow vertically to maximize your available space.
Some plants, such as peas, beans, tomatoes, and squash, are available in both vining and bush forms. Fit more into a small space by choosing the vining varieties that you can grow vertically.
Bush beans are a great choice if you want a larger harvest all at once for a big feed or preserving...but the trade-off is that they use more space.
Small Space? Grow Vegetables on Fences and Walls
Make the most of your outdoor space by growing on walls. All you need is a trellis or twine.
An empty fence is a wasted opportunity. My neighbour and I share the squash that I grow along our fence. Great way to hide a chain-link fence!
(And don’t forget that the top of a fence can be dressed up with a window box. A fence-top container garden!)
Try Companion Planting
Companion planting just means growing different plants together for some sort of benefit.
Companion plants might attract pollinators, lure away pests, deter pests, or attract beneficial insects. Those beneficial insects can help with pollination, or they might parasitize or eat insect pests. There are lots of opportunities for companion planting in a vegetable garden.
Below are a couple of ways to use companions to fit more vegetables into your small garden.
Plant 2 Different Crops in the Same Spot—at the Same Time
Growing radish and carrots together. The radishes are ready to harvest while the carrots are still quite small.
Waste less space by planting both fast- and slow-germinating seeds in the same space, at the same time.
My favourite example of this combination is pairing carrots and radishes. They are both root vegetables. And they are well-suited to being grown together in the same space because one grows quite quickly, one slowly.
Carrot seed is slow to germinate; radish seed is fast. And radish roots are ready to pluck from your garden way before your carrot roots are even getting chubby. That means you’ll be harvesting full-grown radishes just as your carrot seedlings need more space. As you pull out the radishes, you give the carrots more space to grow.
Wondering how one plant benefits the other in this scenario? Pulling out the radishes, which have taproots, also loosens the soil for your carrot seedlings!
Pair up Sun-Lovers and Shade-Lovers
When deciding which crops to plant together, think about sunlight.
If you have staked tomato plants, there can be a lot of unused, shady ground around them. (If it’s not yet shady, it will be, once the tomato plants get bigger.) Sprinkle seed for leafy vegetables at the base of your tomato plants. Lettuce lasts much longer when growing in some shade in the heat of summer.
Or, make an a-frame for growing climbing plants, and plant leafy greens in the shade below.
Use Your Garden Space as Long as Possible
Start as early as possible in the spring with cold-hardy crops. If your garden includes containers and raised bed, remember that the soil in containers and raised beds heats up more quickly than the ground, and that heat can speed along early spring sowings.
As your crops mature, plant new crops in the same space. Farms sometimes have “fallow” fields, unplanted fields, to control weeds or to conserve moisture. That’s fine for farms—but not for a small vegetable garden. Use your space continuously. You just need to recharge your soil nutrients, and you can do that by amending your garden soil with compost.
Don’t forget to grow cold-hardy crops in the fall to overwinter in cold frames and harvest all winter long. You can also plant cool-season crops in late summer and fall to harvest in early winter and further extend your harvest window.
Grow Vegetables That Produce a Lot in a Small Space
Radish seed pods are edible! A crunchy, peppery garnish.
Grow Plants with Multiple Edible Parts in a Small Garden
Growing plants with more than one edible part is a great way to get more from your growing space. Many plants have more than one edible part.
Growing beets? Eat the leaves, too, which are like chard. Garlic makes “scapes” that are edible and sought after by gourmet chefs! Radishes? Try the crunchy, peppery seed pods. One year, my daughter made pesto from young radish leaves…who knew?
In a Small Space, Plant Vegetables That Mature Quickly
Brussels sprouts? Leave them for farmers because they take up growing space ALL season and then you only harvest them once there's a fall frost.
As you think about vegetables to grow, consider kale, which you can be harvesting spring through fall, and even into the winter. Or cauliflower, which, after you harvest it, you can follow with another crop of something else.
Extend a Small Garden with Containers
Using containers to make additional growing space beside this small garden.
Add Containers to Small-Space Gardens
Container gardening is a great way to extend a small vegetable garden, even if you don't have more in-ground growing-space.
Extend your small garden onto a patio, a deck, driveway or rooftop. Or even add window boxes.
For best results growing in containers, use a good potting mix. Here's more on potting soil.
And Finally...Forget Perfection in Your Small Garden
You probably don’t have the ideal conditions for some crops. Maybe your garden soil isn’t quite what you want…maybe you don’t have enough sun.
If you were a commercial market gardener, this could be a big deal.
But if you’re a home gardener, figure out how to make the best of what you have. For example, I grow tomatoes in a container garden on my driveway—in less than 6 hours of sunlight. I get A LOT of tomatoes from space that would otherwise go unused. Sure, it’s fewer tomatoes than if I had full sun on my driveway. But it’s more than I’d get if I didn’t grow there.
Gardening is a great cure for perfectionism. There’s real satisfaction in harvesting fresh produce from your own garden.
More on Vegetable Garden Planning
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Course: Edible Garden Makeover
Want to make an edible garden you love to be in?
If you've been thinking about growing more of your own food, but are holding back because you have information overload...
Or if you just don't know where to start.
Edible Garden Makeover gives you the ideas, knowledge, and confidence to make a unique edible landscape for your yard and your needs.
Driveway Makeover! 5 Ideas for Growing a Container Garden for Vegetables
A container vegetable garden is a good way to fit lots of vegetable crops into a small space. Find out how to get started.
by Steven Biggs
My Driveway Container Vegetable Garden
Not enough space to grow everything you want? Be creative! A container garden is a great way to fit more vegetables into your yard.
Here’s our driveway container garden. The driveway container garden is a quick, temporary space-making solution so we can grow extra tomato, pepper, potato, summer squash, and chard plants.
In this vegetable container garden, we use straw bales, fabric pots, nursery pots, bushel baskets, and vertical gardening techniques to make the most of the space.
Do you have an underused space that you can use for growing food? Many yards do. It could be a driveway, patio, or even the hard-packed space alongside a hedge. In this post, I look at how to add growing space to your yard.
Ideas for Your Vegetable Container Garden
Container gardening is part science, and part creativity. There are lots of ways to approach it. Here are five ideas we’ve used to make the most of our driveway for growing vegetables.
1. Strawbale Gardens: Grow Vegetables in Containers that are Biodegradeable
Wetting the straw bales to start the “conditioning” process.
A lot of visitors take a second look at my straw-bale garden and wonder where I put the potting soil. There is no potting soil: The straw bale is both the container and the growing medium. No potting mix required!
The decomposing straw gives plant roots needed air while retaining moisture…like a big sponge.
By the end of the season, when we pull apart a bale, the inside is dark and crumbly. It’s already partially composted and perfect to use as mulch on our gardens. Then, we start again with new bales the following year.
We plant the top of each straw bale with tomato plants and leafy greens. Then we put bush beans on the sides of the bales. (Just poke the bean seeds into the bale!)
Important: If you’re starting with new, fresh, dry bales, the first step is to get microbial activity underway by watering them and feeding them. This step is called “conditioning.”
I’m a big fan of straw-bale gardening. If you plant to do it for the first time, make sure to condition the bales properly. Find out more about straw-bale gardening and how to condition the bales.
2. Bushel Baskets: Growing Vegetables in Repurposed Containers
Container vegetable gardening with repurposed stuff! Potatoes growing in lined bushel baskets.
We often have extra bushel baskets from our fall cider-making. So we use them for growing potatoes. (We can’t grow potatoes in our back yard because our neighbour’s black walnut tree gives off a compound that kills them. Here’s more on black-walnut toxicity.)
We line the bushel baskets with plastic bags so that the potting soil stays moist longer and so the bushel baskets won’t decompose as quickly. (Important note: We poke drainage holes in the bottom of the bags!)
There are lots of repurposed items that work well as containers. Here are a few ideas:
Milk crates. I’ve used these in previous gardens. Just cover the openings on the side and bottom with newspaper or cardboard, so the soil doesn’t escape.
Old wheelbarrow. A friend uses an old wheelbarrow as a driveway planter.
Wash basins. I have neighbours who use metal wash basins as vegetable garden planters. (Make sure to drill drainage holes in the bottom.)
3. Fabric Pots: Garden in Pots that are Moveable
Fabric pots are moveable, and a great way to start container gardening.
These pots are widely available. What we like about them is that they have handles so we can move them aside if we need to move anything large along the driveway.
I’ve seen impressive rooftop container gardens created with fabric pots. While some gardeners use drip irrigation to keep the soil consistently moist, a more simple approach is to put a saucer underneath; as the potting mix begins to dry, water in the saucer wicks upwards.
4. Fence: Grow Vegetable Plants on Surrounding Features
We train tomato plants up the twine that is dangling from the top of the fence.
Sometimes it’s possible to squeeze more crops into a space by growing some of them upwards—a concept that’s often referred to as “vertical gardening.” In the case of our driveway, there’s a wonky board fence that I like to hide with a wall of tomato and squash!
We plant tomatoes next to the fence, and then train them up twine suspended along the fence. We also grow squash vines along the fence—well past where the garden is.
Idea: I’ve also grown squash along hedges and up trees. Because the vines roam around, there are lots of vertical-gardening possibilities.
Here’s more about vertical gardening.
5. Nursery Pots: Figs Growing in Containers
Next to my garage is my potted fig “orchard.” It’s a collection of potted fig plants growing in nursery pots. These fig trees spend the winter in my garage.
Nursery pots are an inexpensive way to start container gardening. Talk with garden centres and arborists—you can often get them for free or very inexpensively.
If you’re interested in growing figs in a cold climate, here’s more about how to do it.
Grow a Container Vegetable Garden
And get an early harvest of crops that usually take too long!
Plan Your Container Vegetable Garden
Choose the Location
If you’re thinking about a container vegetable garden but don’t know where to start, choose your location first.
Then, once you’ve decided on a location, you’ll know how much sunlight you’re dealing with. Remember that full-sun crops such as tomatoes can do respectably well in partial sun. (This is not something a commercial market gardener would do…but if you’re a home gardener, conditions often aren’t perfect.)
Something else to think about is access to water. Is there a tap or hose nearby?
Choosing Container Plants
When it comes to choosing container gardening crops, a good starting point is things you like to eat.
Then, think about crops that do well in containers. Most vegetables grow well if a container is big enough, but some crops are more practical than others.
For example:
Pole beans are great if they're next to something they can grow on, but, otherwise, bush beans are more practical because you don't need to make a trellis.
Parsnips and Brussels sprouts take the whole summer and fall to mature. Instead, look for crops that mature more quickly, like carrots and carrots.
Here’s a list of best vegetables to grow in pots.
If the location is shady, here’s a list of crops that grow in shade.
Need Inspiration?
Here’s our chat with a gardener who grows a whole garden full of hot peppers in containers.
Consider Containers with Reservoirs
A key to success—and common reason for failure—with container vegetable gardening is watering. When the soil in containers regularly dries out, your vegetable plants put on the brakes. Growth stalls. Or, even worse, your plants skip straight to flowering before they're big enough.
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(When you’re looking for bargain plants at a big-box store and see what looks like a bonsai cauliflower plant that’s only six inches tall, chances are that the plant got parched too often…and that stress made it flower before its time.)
If the potting soil is consistently moist, your crop will be miles ahead. It makes a big difference.
You can keep the potting mix consistently moist with what’s called “sub-irrigated” pots. This is just a fancy way of saying a container with a reservoir. As the potting mix begins to dry, water from the reservoir wicks upwards, keeping the soil continuously moist.
This sort of container is widely available—but you can easily make your own.
Find out more about sub-irrigated (a.k.a. self-watering) pots.
More Container Ideas
If space is tight, small containers might be your only option. I've made herb container gardens by dotting potted plants on a staircase.
Don't forget window boxes. Although they're shallow, they work well for shallow-rooted crops such as leafy greens.
Hanging baskets are a great way to fit more vegetable plants into your container garden.
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Best Juglone-Tolerant Plants for Food Gardens Near Black Walnut Trees
By Steven Biggs
Growing Food Crops Near Black Walnut Trees
I bought my current home in the late winter when there were no leaves on the trees. So I didn't notice that the massive black walnut tree next door. Yikes! It's created a lot of gardening hurdles.
Black walnuts are known for their beautiful wood. Prized in fine woodworking. But there's a sinister side too...they have the odious reputation as trees that poison nearby plants.
A commercial grower or a gardener in a rural area might react with a chainsaw. Not an option for most home gardeners. Especially in the city where trees have the same rights as taxpayers.
But I've figured out how to grow a thriving vegetable garden, edible landscape, and fruit crops all around that black walnut tree. If you want to grow food crops alongside these beautiful but challenging trees, keep reading: This post tells you what you need to know to successfully grow food plants—even if your yard is overshadowed by a black walnut tree.
Primer: Black Waltnut Toxicity
Black walnut (Juglans nigra) trees give off something called juglone, which can affect the growth of nearby plants. Not a bad thing from the walnut's perspective...because there's less competition.
Juglone is in all parts of the black walnut tree, including the roots, leaves, and the nuts.
Not all plants are affected by juglone.
As juglone builds up in the soil under and around the tree, it affects nearby susceptible plants.
If you like the technical lingo: When a plant makes something that inhibits the growth of other plants, it's called "allelopathy."
Tips for Gardening Near Black Walnut Trees
Sources of Black Walnut Toxicity
Let's take a look at how juglone gets from the tree into your soil. If there's a walnut tree, you'll have more juglone than you want. But you can do some things to reduce black walnut toxicity in your garden.
Black walnut hulls also contain juglone.
Roots. Walnut tree roots release juglone into the soil. Remember the black walnut roots if you're thinking of raised-bed gardening, because tree roots can (and do!) grow up into raised beds. You need a raised bed that the roots can't get into. (See below, Raised Beds.)
Leaves. I don't bother removing walnut leaves from my vegetable garden beds near the black walnut tree. Those beds are already loaded with juglone. But I do remove fallen walnut leaves from my raised beds, where the soil is not contaminated with juglone. I don't compost black walnut leaves with leaves from other parts of my yard. No point making killer compost. (Composting breaks down juglone, but in a home garden we don't have perfect composting conditions, so you won't know how long until your compost is juglone-free.)
Nuts. Black walnut hulls also contain juglone. Again, I removed them from the raised beds where the soil isn't full of juglone. If I'm not fast, the squirrels help with cleanup! Bothered by squirrels? Here are 50 ways to foil squirrels in your food garden.
Wood. If you're getting a load of wood chips from an arborist, make sure there isn't chipped black walnut in there!
Other trees in the same family as black walnut (the Juglandaceae family) give off juglone too. These include butternut, pecan, English walnut, heartnut, and hickory. But black walnut gives off the most, hence its reputation and the term "black walnut toxicity."
How Big is the Walnut "Kill Zone"
The bigger the tree, the bigger the zone where you’ll get black walnut toxicity. My neighbour’s tree is big…and so is the kill zone.
I remember hiking in a nearby ravine with a semi-wooded, scrubby area. The scrub was dotted with young black walnut trees. And underneath these young trees there was mostly grass. Like a doughnut under each tree. Far less competition. I call that the "kill zone."
The size of this kill zone in your yard depends on how big the tree is and how well drained the soil is. Soil drainage, soil type, and microbes are involved in breaking down juglone. That just means that determining the size of the kill zone is not an exact science.
When I first started gardening near my neighbour's big black walnut tree, I figured that if I planted beyond the "drip line" (which is what's under the tree canopy) it might be OK.
It wasn't.
The young espaliered apple trees I'd worked hard to shape? Toast. Even though they were 15 metres away. The effects of juglone can extend well beyond the drip line of big trees. For a big tree, I'd use 15 metres as a starting point. The farther the better.
Symptoms of Juglone Toxicity
Juglone can cause yellowing leaves, partial or total wilting, stunted growth, and, possibly, death of susceptible plants.
The symptoms might look like drought stress at first. That's what I saw the first time it affected our tomato crop: Wilting even when there was ample soil moisture. But by then, it's too late. Game over. No matter how much you water.
Walnut-Wise Food Gardening
3 Steps to Create a Thriving Vegetable Garden or Edible Landscape Near a Black Walnut Tree
Consider the kill zone. Once you've mapped out the likely kill zone, you can start planning where to put your juglone-sensitive plants, and where to put your juglone-tolerant plant species. Play it safe, and assume the kill zone is bigger rather than smaller.
Choose wisely. There are oodles of plants that are tolerant to juglone. Use the lists below to help you choose what to grow—and what not to grow.
Keep crops out of affected soil. Use containers and raised bed to grow juglone-sensitive plants close to a black walnut tree. But you have to do it right. (But see Raised Beds, below, so that you do it right.)
Underneath my neighbour's black walnut tree I have a small pawpaw patch (these are shade-tolerant native plants with a really tasty fruit, worthwhile working into your walnut-wise garden.) There's also small fruit such as bush cherries, chokeberry, and autumn olive closer to the edge of the dripline, where there's more sunlight. Then, further out, where there's a bit more sun, I have raised beds for juglone-sensitive plants. And finally, still within the kill zone, I have a really big veg patch, filled with crops that aren't affected by juglone.
Container Veg Gardening Course
As well as helping with your walnut problem, a container garden is a great way to harvest more from a small space. If you want to take container gardening to the next level, check out the course below on vegetable container gardening.
Raised Beds and Containers to Solve Black Walnut Toxicity
A raised bed allows you to grow juglone-sensitive crops in the kill zone. But you have to set it up properly...or it won't help for long. Tree roots grow up into raised beds.
This is a wicking bed, very close to a black walnut tree (see the tree trunk in the back corner of the photo.) A wicking bed is one way to grow juglone-sensitive plants near a black walnut tree.
Failure 1. My first attempt at growing tomatoes in the ground near the tree failed. To be expected. So I reasoned that if I made a simple wooden raised bed, lined the bottom with landscape fabric, and added uncontaminated soil, it would solve the problem. At first, it seemed to work. But by mid summer, the tomatoes wilted badly. The reason? The roll of fabric wasn't as wide as the bed. And even though I overlapped the fabric so that the "new" soil above was separated from the contaminated soil below, tomato roots could find their way into the soil below...and walnut roots could grow up into the raised bed.
Failure 2. Another year I tried strawbale gardening. I reasoned that I could grow tomato plants in bales, near the walnut tree, if I put down a layer of plastic mulch under that bale to keep the tomato roots out of the soil below. This might have worked...except I used a biodegradeable plastic mulch, and part way through the season those tomato roots made the journey to juglone hell. Game over. (But strawbale gardening is an excellent technique. Find out how to use strawbales to create awesome food gardens.)
Success! I realized that tree roots quickly grow where they're not wanted...and the same goes for tomato roots. So I needed a bed that isolated the tomato roots. The answer was something called a "wicking bed." In short, it's a bed that has a thick liner at the bottom, creating a reservoir. They're usually used in dry areas, as a way to conserve water...but they fit the bill perfectly. Here's more information about using wicking beds.
On a smaller scale than a raised bed such as a wicking bed, container gardening is another way to grow sensitive plants near a black walnut tree. I'm a big fan of sub-irrigated planters (a.k.a. SIPS), which, like wicking beds, cut back on how often you need to water. Here's more about SIPS.
Plant Lists for Walnut-Wise Food Gardens
Here are edible plant lists you can use to plan your walnut-wise garden. These are from my experience and from published sources such as extension agencies and universities. Sometimes recommendations by published sources differ, so consider this a guide—not cast in stone.
Juglone-Sensitive Plants
Sensitive Plants - Fruit Trees and Shrubs
Apple
Crabapple
Blackberry
Blueberry
Sensitive Plants - Vegetables
Peppers and other plants in the nightshade family are sensitive to juglone.
Wondering what vegetables are sensitive to juglone? Plants in the nightshade family (Solanaceae) practically wilt at the mention of juglone. This family includes lots of the must-grow veg crops such as tomatoes, peppers, potatoes—but also some less common ones such as cape gooseberry and ground cherry.
Asparagus
Cabbage and family
Eggplant
Pepper
Potato
Rhubarb
Tomato
Plants Tolerant to Juglone
Wondering what grows well near a black walnut tree? Many plants grow just fine under or near a walnut tree. So if you're wondering how far should a garden be from a black walnut tree, you can garden quite close to the tree if you choose juglone-tolerant plants and take into account the shade. Here are key edible plants to get you started.
Juglone-Tolerant Plants - Fruit Trees and Shrubs
Saskatoon is an example of a fruit bush that is not juglone-sensitive.
Wondering what fruit trees are juglone tolerant? You have a lot of choice!
Autumn Olive (loved by foragers, though disliked by some because it can be an invasive here in Southern Ontario)
Cherry, Peach, Plum, Nectarine (fruit trees and bushes in the Prunus clan, what people often call stone fruit)
Chokeberry
Elderberry
Figs
Grape
Hazelnut
Pawpaw
Black raspberry
Serviceberry (including saskatoon, a.k.a. juneberry)
Here are 5 types of bush cherries you can grow.
Find out how to grow saskatoons.
Juglone-Tolerant Vegetable Crops and Herb Crops
Wondering what vegetables and herbs will tolerate juglone? There are many vegetables that tolerate juglone, so you have quite a few options.
Here’s a corner of the veg patch I have near the black walnut tree, where I grow carrots, beets, parsley, basil, squash, and corn very close to a large black walnut tree.
Basil
Bean
Beet
Carrot
Chive
Corn
Cucumber
Dill
Edamame (which is soybeans while they're still green)
Garlic
Leek
Melon
Onion
Parsley
Parsnip
Pea
Squash
Swiss chard
Other Walnut-Tolerant Edible Plants
Bee Balm (edible petals)
Dandelion (sure some people think of this as a weed, but great for early greens in the spring!)
Daylily (edible flower buds, here's more on edible flowers)
Grains such as wheat, millet, and sorgum
Hawthorn
Hosta (edible leaf spears in the spring!)
Jerusalem artichoke
Mint
Nasturtium
Pin cherry and choke cherry
Redbud tree (edible flower buds)
Rose (edible petals, rosehips)
Staghorn sumac
Looking for edible flower ideas? Check out this list of edible flowers for home gardens.
Landscape with Fruit Course
It the above list of juglone-tolerant fruit has you thinking of planting fruit near your black walnut tree, here’s a course all about how to grow fruit in home gardens.
How to Use Black Walnuts - Yes, You Can Eat Them!
Black walnuts with husks removed.
While you're not likely to find black walnuts for sale, they are quite edible. Like other nuts, remove the hull and then air dry the nuts.
Note: The husk stain. I learned the hard way one year when my hands were a few shades darker for a week after hulling black walnuts. Someone later told me that a good way to get off the hulls is to pile the nuts until the hulls soften, and then send in kids dressed in old clothes and rubber boots to jump on the pile. I haven't tried it myself, but sounds as if it would work!
The challenge with black walnuts is cracking the shell. They're much more difficult to open than an English walnut. There is a vice-like device for cracking them open. I use a hammer. Or, I've heard of people driving over the nuts!
Key Takeaways
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Black walnut trees give off a chemical called juglone, which affects some plants. This is sometimes called black walnut toxicity.
This doesn't mean that you can't garden hear a black walnut tree—but that you need to choose tolerant plants and use raised beds or containers.
The size of the affected area around a tree depends on its age, the soil type, and soil moisture.
FAQ
Can I just cut down my black walnut tree to solve the problem?
Sorry...that would still leave lots of roots all through the soil, and, therefore, lots of juglone. Because it can take a few years for all the roots to decay, it's not a quick fix. In short, juglone can persist for a few years after a black walnut tree is removed.
How far should a garden be from a black walnut tree?
For a mature tree, the kill zone extends beyond the tree canopy and can be more than 15 metres from the trunk.
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Edible Native Plants...and My Quest for a Rare Toronto Persimmon Tree
Native North American Fruits and Nuts (including persimmon and pawpaw!)
By Steven Biggs
Ontario Native Edible Fruits and Nuts
Pointing to two trees, Tom Atkinson explains that we have the makings of a golf club.
“There you have the shaft of the club; here you have the head,” he says, pointing from one tree to the other:
The shagbark hickory, with a bit of give in the wood, is ideal for the shaft.
The American persimmon, as part of the ebony family, has extremely hard wood that is suitable for whacking the ball.
Both are native North American species; and both have edible parts.
Hunting Pawpaw and Persimmon in Toronto
Our tree trek today is the result of my interest in another North American native, the pawpaw tree.
Because of my fascination with pawpaw, I tracked down Atkinson, a Toronto resident and native-plant expert, whose backyard is packed with pawpaw trees.
After I visited his yard and soaked up some pawpaw wisdom, he mentioned a fine specimen of American persimmon growing here, in Toronto.
I took the bait.
Under a Toronto Persimmon Tree
Now, in the shadow of that persimmon tree, I’m learning far more from Atkinson than persimmon trivia:
The nut of the shagbark hickory, a large native forest tree, is quite sweet.
He points to a pin oak, explaining that the leaves are often yellowish here in Toronto, where such oaks have trouble satisfying their craving for iron.
Waving toward a couple of conifers, Atkinson explains that fir cones point upwards, while Norway spruce cones point down.
There’s stickiness on the bud of American horse chestnuts, but not on their Asian counterparts.
And while the buckeye nut is normally left for squirrels, he’s heard that native North Americans prepared it for human consumption using hot rocks.
Landscape with Fruit
That’s easy to grow in a home garden!
A Backyard Native Fruit Food Forest
In his own garden, Atkinson’s focus is on native trees and shrubs. Many of them are considered Carolinian and are, here in Toronto, at the northern limits of their range.
My own interest in native trees and shrubs has gustatory motivations, but Atkinson’s came about because of his woodworking hobby. “I thought, if I was using wood, I should be putting it back,” he explains. While no longer woodworking, he still has a garden full of native trees and shrubs.
The edible native North American fruit and nut trees in his backyard food forest include sweet crabapple, black walnut, bitternut hickory, red mulberry and beaked hazelnut. “It is really for the creatures of the area, all this bounty,” he adds. I’m taken aback by his generous attitude towards harvest-purloining wildlife, but it’s consistent with his approach of putting something back.
Find out about elderberry, a native fruit bush.
American Persimmon
In the shadow of an American persimmon in Toronto. Grow persimmon in the warmer parts of Ontario.
Sitting under the American persimmon tree and looking up, I’m dismayed to find that the fruits are still green. Atkinson cautions that the fruit are astringent and bitter when unripe, so I satisfy myself with snapping pictures.
He explains that although this is a native North American species, it doesn’t usually grow wild this far north. But it grows well under cultivation.
(I found ripe, orange American persimmons a week later at Grimo Nut Nursery in Niagara, where the more temperate climate aids in ripening fruit earlier than in Toronto. They are sweet and velvety on the tongue; I’m delighted that the young persimmon tree I’ve been nurturing in my garden will have been worth the effort when it starts to fruit. And the fruit-laden trees are beautiful.)
Pawpaw
Atkinson's Toronto backyard, where he grows pawpaw trees and other native fruit trees.
Pointing to clusters of mango-like fruit, Atkinson says, “The fragrance of the pawpaw when ripe is aromatic.” He finds that the texture is like custard.
Each fruit usually contains four to eight seeds. “Like a watermelon, spit out the seeds,” Atkinson adds.
Don’t wait too long to pick it. “If it’s starting to turn brown, give it to the squirrels or raccoons,” he advises.
Pawpaws can be found growing wild on the north shore of Lake Erie into the Niagara region. Like the American persimmon, you’re not likely to find wild ones here in Toronto, but they do grow well here when planted. The large, lush leaves add a tropical feel to the garden.
Serviceberry
Serviceberry is a native edible plant well suited to growing in the city.
When it comes to native edible plants, Atkinson believes that one of the best to grow in the city is the serviceberry.
“There’s a whole bunch of them,” he explains, listing the related members of the serviceberry (Amelanchier) clan. They all have in common an edible fruit similar in size to a blueberry.
Palatability varies by species and variety. The saskatoon berry, which is also grown commercially, has consistently good fruit quality, according to Atkinson.
Serviceberry is widely planted in Toronto parks and is common in the nursery trade. They can be grown as a small tree or a bush.
In my own garden, I end up sharing my serviceberry harvest with robins if I don’t pick them quickly enough. Atkinson says that cedar waxwings like them, too.
Aside from the fruit, the serviceberry leaves turn a vibrant orange-red in the fall and the bark, smooth and grey, is showy, too.
Here’s a member of the serviceberry family that’s grown as a commercial crop: Guide to Growing Saskatoon Berries: Planting, Pruning, Care
American Hazelnut
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American hazelnut is a native nut bush. It’s related to the European hazelnuts sold in grocery stores, but the nuts are smaller.
Hazelnuts send out attractive catkins in late winter, before any leaves are out.
Crabapple
“They’re a delight to look at,” agrees Atkinson as we change gears and talk about the sweet crab, a wild crabapple. “It puts on a really good show of flowers,” he says as he describes a blush of pink on white flowers in the spring, adding, “It’s as good as a flowering dogwood but in a different sort of way.” The fruit is very waxy, and very attractive, having a greenish yellow colour.
“Squirrels don’t touch it,” he exclaims. He likes the fall leaf colours, which range from yellow to burnt orange.
On the culinary side, he says the sweet crab fruit is sour, but a perfect accompaniment when roasted with a rich meat such as pork, where the tartness of the fruit cuts the richness of the meat.
Black Walnut
Atkinson speaks warmly of towering black walnut trees and of the beautiful dark wood they yield. He notes how common they are in the Niagara peninsula: “They’re almost like weeds.”
I agree with the weedy bit: My neighbour’s black walnut stops me from growing anything in the tomato family at the back of my yard. Despite its hostile actions towards my tomatoes, I have grown fond of sitting under that tree, never really considering why. “The shade under a walnut is really quite lovely,” he says, describing dappled light that results from the long leaf stalks adorned with small leaflets.
He discourages me from promoting the black walnut for edible uses because the nut meat is very difficult to extract: the shells are rock hard, requiring a hammer to crack. And the meat doesn’t come out easily like an English walnut, but has to be picked out. But by this point I’ve already decided to write about edible native plants because of their ornamental appeal.
Read about wicking beds, a way to deal with black walnut toxicity, a.k.a. juglone.
Find out how to garden successfully when there’s a black walnut tree nearby.
Growing Native Fruit in Urban Areas
I thank Atkinson for the tour and email correspondence. A couple of weeks later, Atkinson emails me a photo of a broken pawpaw branch. He writes: “Steve, here is what befalls a pawpaw when in an urban setting, and there are hungry raccoons about. I do not begrudge my masked friends at all for doing what inevitably they will do when after pawpaws.”
FAQ American Persimmon
Can persimmon grow in Ontario? Can you grow persimmons in Canada?
American persimmon is reported to be hardy into Canadian hardiness zone 4, though a long growing season with summer heat is needed for fruit ripening. Best in zones zones 5b-8.
Remember: Zones are only a guideline. Sometimes you can cheat if you have a warm microclimate.
Can I grow a persimmon tree from seed?
If you grow American persimmon from seed, the main thing to remember is that they are “dioecious.” This just means that a plant can be male or female. If you grow a seed and get a male plant, you won’t get fruit from it.
Many commercial varieties produce fruit without a male.
Interested in Forest Gardens?
Here are interviews with forest garden experts.
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More Information on Growing Fruit
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Move Over Bedding Plants...and Try These Edible Garden Plants Instead
Replace some of your bedding plants with edible plants! Find out how to choose suitable crops to use as bedding plants.
by Steven Biggs
A Few Plants for Edible Landscaping
Attractive? Check.
Low maintenance? Check.
Edible? Check.
The peppers were the finishing touch in my front-yard edible landscape. Right by the sidewalk. A nice pop of colour.
What had been my front lawn three months before was an edible front yard—edible plants including salad greens, herbs, vegetables, fruit bushes, and edible flowers.
I was enjoying the mix of colour, height, and texture as I popped one of those peppers into my mouth.
Sound the fire alarm. My face lit up scarlet. I grabbed a basket and, between hiccups, plucked all those hot peppers…worried about hot-pepper misadventures with the school kids that go by twice a day.
So the hot peppers were not a home run.
But with those little scorchers harvested, I left the pepper plants. They had dark green leaves and compact form. Nice bedding plants nonetheless. Just not next to the sidewalk.
If you’re interested in edible plants for edible landscaping, keep reading. This post gives you design ideas and top crops for using as edible bedding plants.
What’s a Bedding Plant?
Bedding plants are display plants for seasonal plantings. Here’s a good example, at Butchart Gardens in BC.
Bedding plants are display plants for seasonal plantings. Garden bling. So choices usually combine fast-growing, colour, and resilience.
Some, like coleus, have fabulous foliage. Many have showy flowers. Commonly they’re flowering annuals—though not always. Others, like fuchsia, are tender perennials.
But what they have in common is that they’re typically transplanted into a garden to give an immediate show. Then they’re yanked out at the end of the season.
Lots of common vegetable-garden and herb-garden plants can fit the bill as bedding plants in an edible landscape.
What Makes a Good Bedding Plant?
A good bedding plant is low maintenance. It doesn’t need pruning or staking. You don’t need to hold its hand.
For summertime plantings, a good bedding plant also performs well through the heat of the summer.
Why Use Edible Plants as Bedding Plants?
Using edible plants to make ornamental plantings—instead of traditional bedding plants.
I have nothing against flowers. I go overboard planting flowers every year.
But like many home gardeners, I never have enough space to grow all of the plants I want to grow.
So if I can kill two birds with one stone—edibles for both eating and appearance—count me in. Give me space in the flower garden for some veggies…I'll make it into an edible landscape.
Bedding Plants Through the Seasons
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Most ornamental bedding plants are planted after the last spring frost, but there are exceptions. The most common is pansies—which shine on despite a frost.
(If you didn’t know, pansy flowers are edible!)
You might see plantings of ornamental kale and cabbage in the fall. They soldier on through fall frosts while most bedding plant snivel.
(You can eat ornamental cabbage and kale—though they’re bred for looks, not as gustatory delight.)
Just as plant choice can keep the curtains open longer for a flower garden, choosing the right edible bedding plants keeps an edible landscape looking tip-top into the fall.
Designing Edible Landscapes with Edible Bedding Plants
Swiss chard hanging out with some ornamental bedding plants.
The way you use bedding plants depends on the situation and your taste (sorry about the pun.)
My advice? Be wildly creative and do something that your neighbours aren’t doing. Gardening can be more than practical; it can be creative, too.
(It should be creative, that’s the fun part!)
To get your creative juices going, here are three broad ways of using bedding plants in your edible landscape:
Formal. Think of public display gardens with formal flower beds and symmetrical patterns. (If you’re a detail person, this might be up your alley.)
Informal. This is where you’re getting playful with colour and texture and not constrained by having one big formal flower bed. Like icing on a cake, you “ice” the garden bed…a smear of bedding plants here and there.
Carpet. I once worked at a company where we made the company logo from bedding plants. That’s carpet bedding. We’re talking about a tightly planted, intricate pattern. Like painting with plants.
5 Edible Bedding Plants to Start With
Here are five edible bedding plants you can start with. There are lots more (including the pansies and kale I mentioned above.) But these five edible plants are all work horses, easy to find, and give a good mix of colour and texture.
Swiss Chard. Such an underrated plant. While so many of its leafy-green brethren make haste to flower and die, Swiss chard just grows leaves all summer. And along with green varieties, there are red, orange, yellow—even striped red-and-white varieties. Find out why Swiss chard is also a great choice in the fall garden.
Swiss chard. This underused leafy green makes an excellent bedding plant.
Parsley. The world needs more parsley. Seriously. Beyond garnishing a cheese tray or bulking out your bruschetta mix, parsley is a performer in the edible landscape. Great for edging borders. Planted in larger blocks, curly-leaf parsley is a brush-stroke of texture. And it lasts nicely even as fall frosts fell heat-loving crops.
Parsley. A top-notch bedding plant.
Cardoon. How many edible plants can you describe as elegant? This one has a touch of class. I was riveted when I saw cardoon punctuating the landscape of the historic Spadina House mansion in Toronto. What a bold beauty this plant it! Find out more about cardoon.
Cardoon. An elegant bedding plant!
Basil. From compact, little-leaf varieties to more gangly family members, you can choose from quite a range of plant and leaf sizes. And for leaf colour, remember there’s red and purple, as well as green. The compact basils are great for carpet-style designs. Keep in mind that basil, after a spell of cold fall weather, will quickly pack it in for winter.
Basil. So many choices…here’s a shot from a trial garden.
Eggplant. Compact plant. Attractive flowers. Beautiful fruit. Eggplant can be front and centre in an edible landscape. I love the small-fruited varieties with interesting colours, such as red-fruited eggplant or the skinny striped ones. Eggplant as a bedding plant? I bet your neighbours aren’t doing this!
Eggplant. Even if you don’t love eggplant, you have to admit it’s beautiful!
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Courses
Here’s a course that guides you through creating an edible garden you love. It’s my ode to edible gardening. You’ll find out how to think outside the box and create a special space. Get the information you need about a wide range of edible plants.
Edible Flowers: Flowers You Can Eat (AND how to use them)
Edible flowers: Find out which flowers are edible—and how to use them to spice up your cooking and culinary creations.
Edible Flowers for Your Garden
Bee balm (bergamot) is an edible flower that’s a good fit for a perennial border.
When I taught at a college with a farm-to-table horticulture and culinary program, the chef asked us to harvest small zucchinis with the flower still attached at the end. A pedestrian ingredient elevated to gourmet.
Yet they often fly under the radar. You can fit edible flowers into a vegetable garden, herb garden, edible landscape, and beyond. You might have some growing there already.
Once they’re on your radar, you’ll see them everywhere.
If you’re wondering what flowers you can eat, keep reading. This post explains where you can grow them, lists easy-to-grow edible flowers, and has ideas for creative ways of using them.
How to Grow Edible Flowers
Use bachelor’s buttons petals to decorate a cake, or dried in a tea.
Because edible flowers grow on a very wide range of plants, there’s no one-size-fits-all growing advice. Many are sun loving. Some tolerate some shade. While many are annuals, there are shrubs and trees too.
Success growing edible flowers is a matter of selecting the right plant for the right growing conditions.
Some of my favourite edible flowers are the ones that self-seed in my garden, meaning they come back year after year without me having to plant them. I like gardening that way.
NOTE: Not all flowers are edible. So don’t eat it if you’re not certain it’s edible. Start with small amounts if it’s the first time you’re eating a flower. As with any food, some people can have sensitivities.
Calendula (pot marigold) self-seeds in my garden. I let a “hedge” of calendula frame one of my potager beds.
Where to Grow Edible Flowers
Edible Flowers in the Vegetable Garden
There are lots of edible flowers to be found in a vegetable garden.
Here are some of my favourites.
Arugula flowers are edible and have a peppery taste similar to the leaves.
Arugula. Like the leaves, these small flowers are peppery. They’re nice atop a salad or a savoury soup.
Broccoli. We grow broccoli to harvest before the flowers open…but if your broccoli beats you to the punch and the flowers open, you’ll have cheery yellow flowers to toss into a salad or use as a garnish.
Fennel. Clusters of small, bright yellow flowers have a delicate anise flavour. I’ve seen a chef tap fennel flowers over a white plate to decorate it with the brightly coloured pollen. Along with Florence fennel, there’s bronze fennel, a short-lived perennial in my garden zone (and an invasive in others…). Find out more about bronze fennel and other edible perennials.
Pea. Flowers taste like…peas. As well as the flowers, you can also eat young shoots and tendrils. Caution: Flowers of peas we grow as a vegetable (Pisum sativum) are edible; flowers of sweet pea (Lathyrus odoratus), grown as a cut flower, are poisonous.
This squash flower is calling out for a wedge of cheese, some batter, and a bath in the deep fryer!
Runner bean. Along with edible flowers, runner bean flowers have long enough stems to make excellent cut flowers. In my garden, they’re a magnet for hummingbirds too! Runner beans are also a top crop for vertical gardening: Find out more about vertical gardening.
Squash. Slightly sweet taste. Stuff whole flowers with a wedge of cheese and batter and deep fry. Or, slice and serve atop a bowl of soup for a dash of bright yellow or throw into a stir fry just before serving.
All of these veggies can thrive in container gardens. I teach people how to grow great container vegetable gardens in my this masterclass.
Edible Flowers in a Potager or Kitchen Garden
I like to think of potager gardens as grazing gardens: Instead of large quantities of each crop for preserving, we’re growing smaller quantities to pick and eat fresh on an ongoing basis. I like a grazing garden with lots of annual flowers in it for cutting…and eating.
Bachelor’s Buttons. Flowers come in blue, pink, and white. Eat fresh, or dry to add colour to your home-made tea blends. Or sprinkle some petals over the bowl of whipping cream you’re putting out for dessert.
Calendula petals are a homegrown saffron substitute, great for colouring rice.
Calendula. Great for colour, though not a lot of flavour. Pluck off the petals to add to salads or dress up a plate. Use dried petals to add colour to rice dishes—a homegrown saffron substitute.
Rose. Pluck some rose petals to chop and add to a fruit salad. The lower, white portion of the petal can be bitter, so before using them, do a taste test—and remove the white portion if needed. Edible flower expert Denise Schreiber recommends rose-petal ice cream.
Sunflower. Use these brightly coloured and mildly bitter petals as a cheerful garnish.
Edible Flowers for Containers and Container Gardens
You can eat the whole nasturtium flower. It has a peppery taste, like the leaves.
Many well-known edible flowers are grown as annuals, and many are well suited to growing in containers.
Here are a couple of my favourites.
Begonia. Tuberous begonia petals have a citrusy taste and a firm texture.
Nasturtium. Unlike some flowers, where you must first remove petals from a corky core, you can pop a whole nasturtium flower into your mouth. Like the leaves, the flowers have a peppery flavour. (See below…rinsing before eating can be a good idea!)
Edible Flowers for an Edible Landscape
Here are ideas for perennials, shrubs, and trees with flowers you can eat for an edible landscape.
Apple blossoms have a floral flavour.
Apple. These blossoms have a floral flavour.
Bee Balm. A.k.a. monarda, pluck these slightly spicy petals to dry for tea or use fresh tossed into a fruit salad.
Daylily. Use the flower bud in stir fries instead of snap peas. Dice the flowers to throw into frittatas and pancakes. Or…what about an open flower to hold a scoop of ice cream—instead of an ice cream cone!
Elderberry. Use these sweet-smelling flowers fresh in fritters. Dry them for tea. Or to make cordial or elderflower champagne. Don’t graze on raw elderflower—this is a flower that should first be processed.
Redbud flowers taste sweet.
Lilac. Sweet, with a little drop of nectar in the throat. When I was a kid we’d pluck these from my parents’ hedge and suck on them to extract the sweet nectar.
Linden. Dried linden flowers make a lovely tea. My Aunt Anna had me pick them for her from the lindens that lined the front of her apartment building.
Eastern Redbud. Sweet little pink flowers that are out early in the season.
Create Your Own Unique Edible Landscape
That fits for your yard, and your style!
Edible Flowers in a Herb Garden
Basil. The flowers taste like the leaves. I pluck off these wee flowers to sprinkle over a salad or a bowl of tomato soup.
Borage flowers taste a bit like cucumber.
Borage. The sky-blue colour of borage flowers is a visual delight in the garden. Float these cucumber-flavoured flowers in a pitcher of water. This is a plant that reliably self-seeds in my garden.
Chive. Pull apart the flower heads and then sprinkle these onion-flavoured flowers over a curry!
Cilantro. This herb always flowers more quickly than I want…and as it flowers, it stops growing new leaves. But all is not lost, because the flowers, too, are edible.
Dill. Like fennel, these heads of small, yellow flowers are edible. I use a whole dill stem with leaves and flowers when I make a crock of dill pickles.
Garlic Chive. Use in the same way you do chive flowers. They look nice when you float them in a bowl of water.
Lavender. Float lavender flowers in a summery drink. One of the most unusual—and delightful—ice creams I ever had was a lavender-flower ice cream.
Lemon flowers have a very sweet smell and taste.
Lemon. I wasn’t sure where to put lemon in this post, so I’ve included it with herbs, since the leaves are used much like bay leaves. The flowers have a sweet smell and taste. Dot them on the thick whipped cream you spread over a summery fruit flan. Find out how to cook with lemon leaves.
Here’s a course about how to grow lemons in a cold climate.
Lemon Balm. The flowers have the same lemony taste and smell as the leaves. Eat as many flowers as you can, because this is one plant that’s quite naughty when it comes to self-seeding everywhere.
Mint. Shunned by many gardeners for its aggressive ways, mint flowers are a nice touch with something sweet…I’m thinking blueberry compote. (If you’re worried about mint taking over your garden, just grow it in a pot. That’s what we did when my daughter came home with 19 types of mint.)
Oregano. I love oregano with anything tomato. Or, how about a herb butter dotted with oregano flowers.
Rosemary. Like the leaves, the beautiful blue flowers have a resinous, unmistakable taste.
Edible Flowers…in the Lawn!
Chamomile. Apple-like smell. Use dried for tea, or fresh to adorn a plate. This herb is quite tolerant of being shorn like a sheep, making a chamomile lawn an unusual option.
Dandelion. I don’t know many gardeners who set out to grow dandelions, but they usually invite themselves to your lawn anyway. I harvest dandelion leaves and flowers from my lawn every spring. Pick when young, as they become more bitter when older. Pluck the petals from the centre of the flower before using.
Thyme. Like chamomile, here’s another herb that’s useful to create a lawn. When choosing a thyme variety for your edible-flower lawn, keep in mind that some types of thyme are low and creeping, while others are more upright and woody, making them less suited to using for a lawn.
Sweet Woodruff. The small, white flowers combine sweetness and vanilla. I also love the glossy, dark green leaves.
How to Harvest Edible Flowers
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When to Pick Edible Flowers
Pick flowers as close to when you’ll use them as possible for the best colour and flavour.
Storing Edible Flowers
Store wrapped in damp paper towel, in a sealed plastic bag in the fridge. The damp paper towel keeps the humidity high, without the flowers actually sitting in water.
Cleaning Edible Flowers
When flowers have an open structure, you can quickly spot any uninvited guests.
But if a flower has hiding spots, do give it a good rinse—or even a soak.
(I say this because once made a salad with fresh nasturtium flowers. As soon as I dressed the salad, an army of aphids marched out of those flowers. I think I ate the salad anyway…having bragged about it to my colleagues. A bit of protein...)
Tip: Edible Flowers That I Wouldn’t Eat
I don’t eat cut flowers from the store. Who knows what’s been used on them. Same with plants from the garden centre. Come to think of it, flowers from the roadside too.
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Planning a Kitchen Garden that Awes (in Purple!)
Make a kitchen garden with a mix of your favourite crops.
By Steven Biggs
Grazing the Kitchen Garden
How to make a kitchen garden you love.
My family doesn’t think it’s unusual to hear the back door open and close as I cook supper.
They see me come in with a fistful of herbs. Or a colander with vegetables, fresh fruit, and edible flowers.
I think of it as grazing: Picking what’s ready from my kitchen garden: Small portions of a wide variety of ingredients for our meal.
What’s ready in the garden inspires what I make for supper.
Along with a varied, continuous harvest, there’s something else I think about when planning a kitchen garden: Creativity. A great kitchen garden touches the senses. Taste is obvious, smell too. But there’s also touch, sound, and sight.
If you’re looking for great kitchen gardening ideas, keep reading. I have ideas for you about how to make a kitchen garden you love.
Planning a Kitchen Garden – and Having Fun Doing it
The planning stage of gardening can be intimidating. There’s crop spacing, crop timing, succession crops, crop rotation, and more…
So before I throw out ideas for you, here’s my top advice: Have fun. The compost pile takes care of things that don’t go as planned.
Next suggestion: Be playful with style and design because it’s a personal thing. A kitchen garden plan is a personal creation. (And the fun part is that every year you can create something new!)
What is a Kitchen Garden?
How is a kitchen garden different from a vegetable garden? It depends who you ask.
When I think of a kitchen garden I think of a mix of edible plants including herbs, vegetables, fruit, edible flowers, and flowers for cutting. That sets it apart from a traditional vegetable garden geared towards large harvests for canning, freezing, and storing.
Create Your Own Unique Edible Landscape
That fits for your yard, and your style!
Creative Kitchen Gardens
More than a Vegetable Garden
It was late fall and this kitchen garden was getting tired, but the playful design and colour theme still shone through.
However you define a kitchen garden, don’t just make it functional. Make it something that gives you a jolt of delight when you see it.
For example, this fall I took a trip to the William Dam Seeds trial garden. It was late in the season and things were past their prime. But I was still riveted by what remained of their playful purple-themed garden. It was a mix of flowers, veg, and herbs.
Purple kale, purple basil, purple cauliflower, purple beans…and more.
There were lots of edibles. There was also a hefty dose of flowers. And the garden gave a wallop of colour. It had height. It was fragrant. And it was a playful pinwheel design.
My daughter Emma and I were intrigued by the use of patterns and shapes in the Food Garden at the Montreal Botanical Gardens.
I’m not suggesting a purple-themed garden for everyone. I mention the purple-themed garden to help you think about making your kitchen garden special for you.
So think about:
Colourful crops
Texture
Shapes and patterns
Plant-themes (e.g. lots of lettuces!)
Here’s a fun idea…a dragon-themed garden for kids (seriously! See below.)
Creativity is what makes kitchen gardens shine.
Don’t be afraid to play with texture in the kitchen garden! Here’s an X of celery between cabbage plants at the Food Garden at the Montreal Botanical Gardens.
Purple-Themed Fun
The purple trial garden reminded me of the purple-themed kids garden my daughter Emma included in her book Gardening with Emma.
From the book Gardening with Emma.
The gardener, Oliver, was 7 years old. He told his parents he wanted a purple-themed garden.
When Emma got in touch with him for the book, Oliver was growing these purple crops:
Eggplant
Kale
Basil
Broccoli
Peppers
Chives
Tomatoes
Beans
More Colourful Edibles
I was thinking about Oliver’s purple kitchen garden, and jotted down purple crops in my garden that we can add to his list of purple crops:
Lavender
Purple peas
Purple mustard
Purple bok choy
Bronze fennel (OK, looks purple to me!)
Purple-leafed elderberry
Purple asparagus
Purple might or might not be your jam. If it’s not, think about what delights you.
Where to Put a Kitchen Garden
Every yard is different. Every gardener is different. So there’s no one-size-fits-all answer when it comes to the best location for a kitchen garden.
But my top advice is to think about how you use your yard. Here are questions to think about:
Can it be somewhere close to the house if you want to dart outside for ingredients?
Do you want to see the kitchen garden from the house?
Where do you have growing space available?
Where in your yard are the growing conditions suited to a garden?
Kitchen Garden Plants
My own kitchen garden has annual vegetables, perennial vegetables, herbs, edible flowers, cut flowers, and fruit trees.
I’m a big believer in weaving flowers into a garden. They looks nice. They attracts pollinators. And they attract beneficial insects (small parasites and predators that help to keep pest populations in check.)
A summer succession crop of lettuce between established cabbage and artichoke crops.
Some crops (e.g. lettuce) don’t last the whole season. As you choose crops, take these short-lived crops into account and plan for succession crops to follow them. (Here’s a guide to succession crops.)
Most importantly, grow things you like to eat. Then add in a few new crops to broaden your palate.
Interested in edible perennials? Check out these edible perennials.
Growing vegetable crops in containers? Here are my favourite container vegetable crops.
Kitchen Garden Layout
How to Start a Kitchen Garden
Layout is a personal thing. I geek out at the mention of traditional French potager gardens.
My kitchen garden doesn’t look quite like a potager—but I took inspiration from that style as I added brick walkways, terracotta pots, and a mix of edibles and flowers for cutting.
Your kitchen garden layout might include raised beds, a cold frame, and large containers. It's up to you.
What is a Potager Garden?
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Think of it as a traditional French kitchen garden. Potager gardens blend colourful flowers, salad greens, fresh fruits, and herbs. There's often symmetry. There's often a focal point.
Oklahoma garden designer Linda Vater loves to create elegant edible gardens. Her work is inspired by the tradition of the potager garden. Get Linda’s tips for making an elegant edible garden.
I love this: Landscape architect Jennifer Bartley says, “The potager is more than a kitchen garden; it is a philosophy of living that is dependent on the seasons and the immediacy of the garden.” Get Jennifer’s tips for designing a kitchen garden.
Spacing in a Kitchen Garden
Experiment with Spacing
Recommendations on seed packets are often geared towards field-scale production, and towards fully mature crops. If you’re planning to harvest baby lettuce, it needs less space than a large, mature head of lettuce.
Another way to look at spacing is through the lens of rows versus blocks. I talk about rows and blocks in this article with 7 garden layout ideas.
Top Kitchen Garden Tip
Be wildly creative.
More Fun Theme Gardens
Fun Kitchen Garden Ideas for Kids (and Adults too!)
In Gardening with Emma, my daughter has a rainbow spread of veggies. Perhaps a rainbow planting in your kitchen garden?
From the book Gardening with Emma.
How About a Dragon-Themed Garden?
Emma and I gave a talk about kids gardening once and the next day a parent emailed to say that her son came home inspired to grow a dragon-themed garden!
Any kids you want to inspire to garden? Get ideas for dragon-themed plants.
Find This Helpful?
Enjoy not being bombarded by annoying ads?
Appreciate the absence of junky affiliate links for products you don’t need?
It’s because we’re reader supported.
If we’ve helped in your food-gardening journey, we’re glad of support. You can high-five us below. Any amount welcome!
More Kitchen Gardening Ideas
Articles and Interviews
For more posts about how to grow vegetables and kitchen garden design, head over to the vegetable gardening home page.
Courses: Edible Gardening
Want more ideas to make a great kitchen garden? We have great online classes that you can work through at your own pace.
Kitchen Garden Consultation
Book a virtual consultation so we can talk about your situation, your challenges, and your opportunities and come up with ideas for your kitchen garden.
We can dig into techniques, suitable plants, and how to pick projects that fit your available time.
Harvest from Your Hedge! Get These Edible Hedge Ideas
By Steven Biggs
Edible Hedge to Food-Forest Hedge
Find out how to grow an edible hedge.
Need more space in your garden? I’m always looking for ways to squeeze more food plants into my edible landscape. My “foodscape.”
I recently dotted my rows of currant and gooseberry bushes with plum trees. At the base of the rows are strawberry plants and mint. My edible hedge of currant and gooseberry bushes is becoming a “food forest hedge.”
The currants tolerate shade—so as the plum trees get bigger and shade them, the two can co-exist. The strawberry plants need some sun, and along the south-facing edge they get it. And the rapacious mint (which I never normally plant in the ground because it’s so aggressive) fills in shadier nooks.
If your challenge is space—if you have a list of fruit trees and bushes you want to grow, but can’t see how they’ll fit into your yard—an edible hedge might be the answer.
Keep reading because this article will give you ideas for creating an edible hedge suited to your space.
My Edible Hedge Inspiration was a Hedgerow
Wild plums growing in a hedgerow at my friend’s farm got me excited about the idea of an edible hedge and food-forest hedges.
When I was walking the edge of a field at my friend Anton’s farm one day, I came to a spot where the hedgerow was painted red by a heavy crop of fruit. Wild plums. I stood there grazing plums—and when I was full I went back to the farmhouse to get Anton.
We picked a bushel of plums and barely scratched the surface. They made excellent plum pie and plum jam.
I remember thinking that if fruit grows so prolifically on its own, the manicured approach of an orchard might not always be the best approach for a busy home gardener.
That experience also made me think of when I lived in the UK, in a rural area where small fields were separated by hedgerows. From those wild hedgerows I picked plums, blackberries, and raspberries.
(And come to think of it, my neighbour gave me a pheasant that he hunted from the hedgerows too! I made roast pheasant with a mulberry-Cointreau sauce.)
What is an Edible Hedge?
Cooking wild plums from the hedgerow.
Whenever I see a perfectly clipped cedar hedge boxing in a yard, I wonder what it would look like to instead have a perimeter of edible plants. An edible hedge.
An edible hedge is just a row of food-producing trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants:
It can be a row of a single type of plant, like my former currant hedge – or it can be a mixed and layered planting, sometimes called a “food-forest hedge”
It can be manicured – or it can look more natural, like that plum-laden hedgerow
The plants in your edible hedge can have different edible parts:
Fruit (e.g. plum, blueberry, elderberry)
Nuts (e.g. hazelnut)
Flowers (e.g. rose, elderberry, redbud)
Leaves (e.g. grape leaves)
What is a Food-Forest Hedge?
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With a food-forest hedge, we take the idea of an edible hedge and weave in ideas used in permaculture, giving a dense, mulit-layered planting.
Whichever approach you prefer, with a diverse planting you can get a staggered harvest. In a home garden we’re focusing on a hedge for year-long grazing. We’re not trying to replicate the way a commercial grower maximizes yield over a short period.
One other thing: The more diverse the mix of plants in your edible hedge, the better your “garden insurance.” If one plant flounders, another takes over.
Using Edible Hedges in an Edible Landscape
There are different ways you can weave an edible hedge into an edible landscape.
Backbone. Use the hedge as the backbone of your garden, the feature that leads you into your space. I’ve often seen deep yards with long perennial beds that serve this goal…why not an edible hedge?
Backdrop. Your edible hedge is at the perimeter of your space. It defines the space, gives you privacy—and gives you food.
Windbreak. In open areas where wind is a challenge, use your edible hedge as a windbreak.
Garden room. Use your edible hedge to separate part of your yard and create a separate garden room.
Create Your Own Unique Edible Landscape
That fits for your yard, and your style!
Remember the Rules…and Maybe Break Them
If what I’ve said so far sounds like blasphemy to you—if you’re picturing a tangled mess—here’s a bit more to think about:
Small-space gardens don’t have to follow the rules that orchardist follow or that textbooks prescribe. You can plant multiple fruit trees in one hole! Check out these ideas from Dave Wilson Nursery.
Permaculture orchardist Stefan Sobkowiak joined me on The Food Garden Life Show to talk about his orchard system of “trios” that mixes up different fruit tree species with nitrogen-fixing trees. You can tailor the same sort of “polyculture” to your yard. Tune in here to hear about his system.
Gardening is a great cure for perfectionism.
Edible Hedge Plants Ideas
Here are plant ideas for your edible hedge, edible food-forest, or hedgerow.
Barberry bush in the winter. The berries are edible.
Barberry
I love barberry for the red berries that last right into the winter. Beautiful—and edible. (Try dried barberry with rice.)
Blackberry and Raspberry
Raspberry canes sucker a lot, so be prepared for them to spread. My thornless blackberries are well behaved and don’t sucker. (But they do “tip layer.” Here’s more on tip layering.)
Some raspberry varieties fruit only in summer. Some also fruit in the fall. Take your pick.
Blueberry
Not something I grow here because my soil isn’t ideal, but a staple for edible hedges where it grows well.
Bush Cherries
There are a few different members of the cherry family that have a bush-like growth habit and can be a good fit for an edible hedge, edible landscape, food forest, or hedgerow.
Nanking Cherry
Dwarf Sour Cherry
Evan’s Cherry
There are also a couple of native cherries that grow as small trees or bushes—and you can prune them so that they have a bush form.
Pin cherry, a native cherry that works well in an edible hedge.
Chokecherry
Pin Cherry
Find out more about different cherries for your edible hedge.
Take a deep-dive into Nanking cherry.
Cherry Plum
The cherry plum (Prunus cerasifera) isn’t too common in the landscape trade—and that’s a pity. It’s extremely cold tolerant, had attractive spring bloom, edible fruit, and nice fall colour.
Chokeberry
The chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) is a native North American shrub that is often overlooked. It’s also simply called “aronia” sometimes. The fruit has pucker power, but mixed with other fruit in smoothies, or made into a syrup, it’s great.
Hear more about aronia in this chat with agronomist Laurie Brown.
Crabapple
Dolgo crabapples.
There’s crabapple…and then there’s crabapple! Some are small and horrid, so sour and astringent that you’ll regret tasting them.
But there are others that are so tasty you’ll go back for more. My favourite crabapple is ‘Dolgo,’ a variety known for its excellent culinary properties. (We make it into a beautiful red sauce—and into crabapple ice cream.)
Currants
I have a lot of good things to say about currants (Ribes sp.) for home gardeners in cold climates. They’re great for edible landscapes, edible hedges, food forests, and more! In a nutshell, they tolerate shade and poor soil, and still fruit well even when not pruned to perfection.
Find out how to grow a great crop of currants.
Hazel
The American hazelnut (Corylus americana) is a fast-growing shrub that’s very cold hardy. If it weren’t for the army of squirrels that marches on my garden as soon as anything emerges, I’d have lots of hazel.
Like currants, it does fine in poor soil.
(And one more idea for you: If you’ve ever thought of coppicing as a way to produce your own garden poles and stakes, hazel is a good candidate.)
Hardy Kiwi
Here’s an easy-to-grow, hardy fruit vine that can be a nice addition to an edible hedge.
Hear about hardy kiwi as we chat with agronomist Laurie Brown.
Rose
Rose petals are edible, and rose hips (the fruit) are good for teas, jellies, and liqueurs.
Whatever you do, don’t put a hybrid tea rose or a fussy floribunda rose in your edible hedge. Get a disease-resistant shrub rose.
Elderberry
Flowers on elderberry are edible too!
Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis) has both edible fruit and flowers. We make elderflower champagne and elderberry syrup.
Elderberry tolerates partial shade and moist conditions. My first elderberry patch was from a wild plant I dug at a friend’s farm. But there are also improved varieties for larger fruit size and increaded yield.
Hear our chat about elderberry with agronomist Laurie Brown.
Grape
Probably not for those who want a more manicured look…but a grape vine can wend its way through a hedge until if finds space and light.
Remember, along with the fruit, young grape leaves are great for making dolmades (stuffed grape leaves.)
Looking for grape variety ideas but not sure where to start? Hear about “Canada’s Grape.”
Haskap
Haskap (Lonicera caerulea) is a very cold-hardy bush with fruit that looks like elongated blueberries.
They’re a great fit in a mixed planting such as an edible hedge because they’re the first fruit of the summer, usually ready at the same time as strawberries.
Hear our chat with Haskap breeder Bob Bors.
Highbush Cranberry
Highbush cranberry fruit.
Highbush cranberry (Viburnum trilobum) is a native North American plant that’s very cold-tolerant. It looks very nice too. There are flowers mid-summer, bright red berries for winter appeal, and you don’t harvest until after there’s been frost.
Like elderberry, it’s a good candidate for areas with more soil moisture.
(Highbush cranberry is not related to commercially produced cranberries.)
Hear foraging expert Robin Henderson talk about foraging highbush cranberry.
Plum
You have lots of choice when it comes to plums. There are wild plums, European plums, Japanese plums—and plum relatives such as damsons.
I planted damsons because I can’t find the fruit for sale anywhere…and I remember the damson-jam tarts my Nana made for me when I was a kid.
Quince
There’s the quince tree (Cydonia oblonga), and also the unrelated Japanese quince bush (Chaenomeles sp.). Both give fruit that’s too hard and acrid to eat when picked—but which can be cooked into marvellous delights.
Find out more about how to grow quince.
Sea Buckthorn
Sea buckthorn adds nice contrast to an edible hedge.
Sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) is a super tough, wind, heat, and drought-resistant plant that grows in poor soil.
The silvery leaves and orange berries make it a beautiful addition to an edible hedge (although I can’t say I’m in love with the taste…)
Hear agronomist Laurie Brown talk about sea buckthorn.
Serviceberry
With serviceberry, we’re talking about a family of related fruiting bushes and small trees. Also called Juneberry in the USA. Saskatoon berry is a member of this clan that’s grown commercially, and has many improved varieties.
Find out how to grow the Saskatoon berry (a.k.a. Juneberry).
You Don’t Have to Rule Out Tree Fruits
If you’re not worried about a manicured hedge clipped to a low height, remember that you can add in fruit trees too.
And you don’t even have to grow them as trees…as Dr. Ieuan Evans tells us, many of what we think of as tree fruits can grow as bushes too. Find out more about growing fruit trees as bushes.
Remember You Can Add Herbaceous Plants
Permaculture design encourages multiple layers, something you can incorporate into an edible hedge.
Read about perennial edible plants for edible landscapes.
Looking for More Ideas?
Looking for more food-hedge ideas? Hedgerows might give you inspiration.
How About an Alcoholic Hedge?
Hops as a hedgerow plant.
UK garden designer Matt Rees-Warren talks about hedgerows with food plants such as blackberry, sloe berry, hops, raspberry, and hazelnuts.
Wondering about sloe berries? They’re in the same family as plums—and are often used to make sloe gin. That’s why Rees-Warren says sometimes these hedgerows are called, “alcoholic hedges.”
Edible Hedges in Permaculture
Permaculture farmer Tim Southwell in Montana grows what he calls a “food hedge” (or “fedge”) on his permaculture farm. It provides privacy, blocks wind, attracts birds, and keeps livestock where they are supposed to be.
Find out more about Tim’s food hedge.
Edible Hedges Have Much in Common with Forest Gardens
Dani Baker is a forest-garden expert. A forest garden, like a food-forest hedge, is set up with layers of edible plants, designed to be a self-sustaining system once established.
Many of her ideas can be applied to an edible hedge. Hear about how to grow a home-scale forest garden.
Edible Hedge Hints and Tips
Pick plants for your garden hardiness zone.
Think of sunlight…but don’t be a perfectionist, because a hedge isn’t a perfect setting for a crop.
Mulch so that weeds don’t get the upper hand.
FAQ
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How do I prune an edible hedge?
If you a growing an edible hedge with a number of different plants in it, forget having a manicured, uniform hedge.
Prune each of the different plants within the hedge to optimize fruit production. For example, elderberry fruits best on second-year branches—so when you get to your elderberry bushes, prune away many of the old branches to encourage new growth.
I said above to forget the notion of a manicured hedge, but that doesn’t mean you can’t pick a maximum height. You might want to cap the height so you can harvest without a ladder. (That’s what I do with my pawpaw trees, keeping them short enough to pick from the ground.)
But what about birds?
Depending on where you are, you might find that some of your edible crops are very attractive to birds. I know that my haskaps are ripe when I see robins darting into the bush!
My approach to birds is to pick fruit that they favour in good time. The longer it’s on the bush, the more they get. This doesn’t mean picking the fruit before it’s ripe—but not waiting long once it’s ripe. I don’t get as much as I would if I netted the bushes…but netting takes time.
What about plant spacing for edible hedges?
Spacing recommendations are often for commercial production. A hedge is different; we’re creating a dense, layered mix of plants. Don’t be afraid to play around with spacing.
What if my garden is shady?
If your garden is shady, you can’t grow everything I mentioned above. But you DO have options. Find out more about plants for shade.
Find This Helpful?
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Appreciate the absence of junky affiliate links for products you don’t need?
It’s because we’re reader supported.
If we’ve helped in your food-gardening journey, we’re glad of support. You can high-five us below. Any amount welcome!
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Want a Bold Vegetable? Grow This Promethean Plant (the Cardoon)
Grow Cardoon, a bold, beautiful vegetable that has great ornamental appeal.
By Steven Biggs
A cardoon plant is beautiful, enormous, and edible.
Cardoon Plant is Beautiful, Enormous, and Edible
“I MUST KNOW THE NAME OF THE PROMETHEAN PLANTS IN YOUR FRONT YARD,” exclaimed the caller, describing bold, arching, grey leaves.
I was delighted by the call, mainly because I love talking about plants—but also because I learned a new word.
I Knew which Plant the Caller Meant
I knew right away the plant in question was cardoon (Cynara cardunculus). The caller was captivated by the four-foot (1.2-m) tall, silver-grey, spiny-leaved plants arching over the edge of my driveway.
Cardoon resembles its cousin, the globe artichoke, but has bigger leaves.
Cardoon plants had prime front-garden real estate because they fit the edible theme I have for the space. Cardoon leaf stalks and flower buds are edible. (And you can do something else with it too…keep reading.)
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An Annual Around Here
Is cardoon perennial?
A perennial in warmer climates, cardoon grows as an annual in many parts of Canada.
Many years mine die over the winter here in Toronto, Canada.
But sometimes, with the right combination of mild temperatures and an insulating blanket of snow, they survive.
When they survive the winter and grow for a second season, they flower.
Cardoon Flowers
Cardoon flowers are smaller than globe artichoke flowers, but look very similar.
They are purple and thistle-like, arriving mid-late summer.
When you grow cardoon as an annual, starting with new seedlings every year, there’s a good chance it won’t flower. It flowers in its second year.
If you’re growing cardoon as an annual and do want flowers, here’s a trick:
Give the plants a chill treatment, which tricks the plant into blooming in its first year.
Chill Treatment for Cardoon Seedlings
Chill young plants before planting out in the spring to induce flowering. (Cold-climate artichoke growers do the same thing.)
Put the seedlings somewhere cold—but not freezing—for about 10 days.
A fridge works well; or put them outdoors on cool days, and move them somewhere protected overnight so they don’t freeze.
Can You Eat Cardoon Flowers?
I was told by a Palestinian chef that while the leaf stalks are what is eaten in Southern Europe, in parts of Palestine it’s the flower heads that are eaten. I have not yet tried cooking the heads—but it’s on my to-try list.
Grow cardoon, an edible and attractive relative of the artichoke. Pictured is ‘Rouge d’Alger’ cardoon.
Grow Cardoon From Seed
Cardoon transplants are a rare find at garden centres. Luckily, it’s easy to grow cardoon from seed.
(If you don’t find cardoon seeds in the vegetable section of seed catalogues, check under annuals.)
Start cardoon seeds indoors, about 10 weeks before the last spring frost. Transplant outdoors after the risk of frost is over.
Another advantage to growing cardoon from seed is that you can grow a showy variety such as ‘Rouge d’Alger,’ which has red-tinted stalks.
Cardoon In the Garden
How to Blanch Cardoon Stalks
If you grow cardoon, wrap it with cardboard, newspaper, or burlap (pictured here) to get a milder flavour.
To get cardoon stalks that are whiter, more tender, and less bitter, blanch them.
Blanching simply means excluding sunlight.
To blanch cardoon stalks, wrap the bottom 12 inches (30 cm) of the plant in cardboard or newspaper two to four weeks before harvesting
Harvest inner stalks, not outer the more stringy outer ones
I’ve also seen cardoon stalks wrapped with burlap or fabric.
Find out how to blanch vegetables in the garden.
Grow Cardoons in Containers
If you’re gardening in a small space, you can still grow cardoon, either as an edible or an ornamental plant. Cardoon grows very well in containers.
Cardoon in Edible Landscapes
While cardoon is a sun-loving plant, it grows respectably well in partial sun, making it very versatile for use in an edible landscape.
Cardoon for Fall and Winter Interest
Cardoon plants soldier on when cold fall weather arrives. When brushed with frost, they droop a bit, and then spring back as the sun burns off the frost.
As very cold weather with hard freezes arrives, the cardoon plants will be done for the year.
Cardoon as a Cut Flower
No need to say too much here. These bold, dramatic flowers are a great addition to flower arrangements.
Cardoon in the Kitchen
How to Eat Cardoon
I’ve sent home many visitors with leaf stalks from that dashing row of cardoon plants in my front yard.
But take care if you’ve never cooked it!
“Wow, that was disgusting!” my wife and I stammered to each other after our first attempt at eating steamed cardoon.
But I’ve heard from people who love cardoon, and a festive seasonal cardoon soup served in parts of Italy.
Preparing Cardoon Stalks
Use a knife or vegetable peeler to remove the stringy, outer part of the stalk.
Inner stalks on plants that have been blanched are less stringy.
Best Way to Cook Cardoon
I have found that the best way to cook cardoon is to cut stalks into inch-long (2.5-cm) pieces, then bread and deep-fry them, giving crunchy morsels that are a perfect vehicle for a dip.
Minimize Bitterness
Cook cardoon to minimize bitterness, using these pointers from a chef who heard about my reaction the first time I cooked it:
Deep frying helps counter bitterness
Add salt to the water if boiling cardoon (and it’s best to change the water at least once during cooking)
Or roast and lightly char stalks to counter bitterness
Other Ways to Use Cardoon
Cardoon as Rennet Substitute
Extracts from the cardoon flower are used to make a vegetarian substitute for rennet—which is used to make cheese.
Shopping for Cardoon Stalks
Cardone Vegetable
If you want to buy cardoon stalks, they might not be labelled “cardoon.”
At a local grocery store, cardoon stalks are labelled as “cardone.”
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More Vegetable Gardening Ideas
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Guide to Growing an Olive Tree in a Pot
Intro to Growing Figs in Cold Climates
How to Grow Artichoke in Northern Climates
Guide: How to Grow Lemon Trees Indoors That Actually Produce Lemons
Courses to Help You Grow Mediterranean Crops
Books to Help You Grow Mediterranean Crops
These Edible Perennials and Perennial Vegetables Make a Delicious Edible Landscape
Edible perennials are perfect for an edible landscape! Find out which ornamental perennials are edible, and get ideas for perennial herbs and vegetables.
By Steven Biggs
Grow a Grazing Garden with Edible Perennials and Perennial Vegetables
When I was a child my dad showed me how to take a leaf of stonecrop sedum, methodically press the whole surface of the leaf between my thumb and forefinger to soften it, and then gently push sideways to loosen the skin on the front and back.
Once the skin was loose, we’d blow into the sedum leaf to inflate it – like a little balloon!
It’s a fun trick for a kids. And I still have fun showing it to kids who visit my garden.
Multi-Purpose Plants
In a small-space garden, I like to include multipurpose plants, plants that are more than just ornamental. Edible perennials and perennial vegetables are great for small-space gardens.
Stonecrop Sedum flowers late in the summer. And it’s edible!
Stonecrop sedum is very ornamental. It’s a reliable, easy-to-grow perennial that flowers in the late summer when most other perennials are done flowering.
It also adds winter interest to the garden. I leave the dry stalks and flower heads in the garden all winter. They add texture and catch the snow.
Beyond it’s ornamental appeal, chalk up two other things for stonecrop sedum (or, as Dad always calls it, frog’s belly.)
The balloon-like leaves are amusing for kids (and adults too!)
It’s edible. You can eat the leaves. They’re mild, slightly lemony.
Keep reading for some of my favourite edible perennials, including herbs, ornamental perennials, and vegetables.
Use Edible Perennials in the Landscape
Traditional vegetable gardening involves a lot of annual crops and annual preparation of the ground. It includes starting transplants indoors, sowing seeds directly into the garden, and preparing the garden soil to make a nice bed.
Even no-dig vegetable gardening systems usually include some sort of soil preparation, whether it’s solarizing the ground (by covering with tarps), scuffing the soil surface to kill small weed seedlings, or mulching.
With this traditional approach to food gardening, there’s often a focus on growing enough to preserve by canning, freezing, or drying.
Perennials for an Edible Landscape
What if you just want to be able to go out into your garden and pick something for the meal you’re about to cook? To see what looks good in the garden – and see what inspires you to be creative in the kitchen?
An attractive edible perennial: Airy yellow flowers and a bronze coloured leaf make bronze fennel a beautiful addition to a perennial garden. And leaves and flowers are edible too!
I call this “grazing.” It’s picking just enough for the meal at hand, and letting what you find in the garden inspire what you create in the kitchen.
If you’re a fan of the potager-style garden, which mixes up veggies with herbs, edible flowers, flowers for cutting, and fruit, you’ll get the idea. We’re talking about a grazing garden.
So let’s take this idea of a grazing garden and use it in our perennial flower beds, dotted the landscape with perennial plants that are edible and look nice. This approach to gardening is a great way to grow some of your own ingredients even if you don’t have the space or the time to undertake a more traditional vegetable garden.
Here are some of my favourite edible perennials for a grazing garden:
Perennial Vegetables and Herbs
Lovage deserves a space in any ornamental perennial bed. The celery-like leaves are great in soups and salads.
Asparagus: After you’ve finished harvesting asparagus spears in the spring, this perennial grows into a tall, ferny plant that adds great texture and movement to a garden. Because it’s tall, put it at the back of the garden. Support it to prevent it flopping onto its neighbours.
Bronze Fennel: The feathery, bronze leaves are edible, as are the flowers. The pollen can be used to decorate a plate: Tap the flowers over a white plate to adorn it with the brightly coloured yellow pollen. I like to use the seeds when I make sausage.
Chives: Both leaves and flowers are edible. A tidy, well-behaved plant that looks great when used to edge a garden.
Horseradish: The root is grated to make the well-known condiment. Leaf pieces are sometimes added to pickles. This is a bomb-proof plant with a deep root system that’s hard to remove once established, so put some thought into where you would like it to be in the long term.
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Jerusalem Artichoke: This one is in the Weed Guide of Ontario…so beware. But it’s a versatile plant, taking full sun to part shade. The tubers are plentiful.
Lemon Balm: Use young leaves in salads, and dry leaves for tea. This is not a timid plant; it spreads. But I love if for the fragrant foliage. Plant it somewhere where you’ll brush against it while in the garden and you’ll be glad you have it.
Lovage: My neighbour Dave says that this is the secret ingredient for an award-winning tomato soup. Or you might use it in a bouquet garni. It’s a super celery substitute. (Try mature stems as straws when serving Caesars!) This imposing perennial deserves a space in any ornamental perennial bed.
Mint: My daughter got 19 types of mint one year: chocolate mint, spearmint, pineapple mint… There are so many types. It’s excellent for teas, and we enjoy making mint ice cream. Mint can be invasive. So grow it in containers if you don’t want it to overrun your garden. But if you have a shady corner where not much grows, this might be a suitable place to plant your mint in the ground.
Oregano: A well-known herb that is hardy and an excellent ground cover too. When it’s in bloom watch to see what a bee magnet it is.
Rhubarb: My neighbour Chris planted it next to his pond because the big leaves are so beautiful. Easy to grow and productive. Recommended for sun, tolerates part sun very well. Find out how to force rhubarb indoors in the winter.
Sage: Along with the common grey-green leafed sage, there are varietgated and tri-colour varieties. If, like me, you’ve over-saged the thanksgiving turkey stuffing one too many times and don’t care if you ever cook with it again, some of these tricolour sages still make a beautiful addition to a herb garden.
Sorrel: My favourite. Easy to grow, rarely for sale at the supermarket. I use these tangy leaves mixed in with salad greens, to make soups, and when braising fish and poultry. Think of sorrel as a lemon substitute for northern gardeners. There’s wild sorrel, as well as large-leaved cultivated varieties.
Edible Ornamental Perennials
Daylily flowers and buds are edible.
Bergamot: Great for attracting pollinators, very ornamental – and edible. The leaves can be used to make tea. And the edible flowers are nice when tossed into a fruit salad.
Daylily: A perennial that has naturalized in some rural areas here in southern Ontario, it’s grown as a vegetable in other parts of the world. Unopened flower buds are a great addition to a stir-fry. And the flowers are an excellent garnish. Idea: How about a daylily flower instead of an ice cream cone? Daylily thrives near black walnut trees. Are you dealing with black-walnut toxicity? Here’s an article about juglone-tolerant plants that you can grow near black walnut trees.
Hosta: This ornamental perennial is a very widely used perennial. It does well in shade, makes a good ground cover – and the unfurled leaves in spring are nice steamed and buttered.
Stonecrop: Like hosta, a perennial garden workhorse, with flowers late in the summer when many other plants in the perennial garden are done blooming. But the leaves are edible and can be used in salads. And…there’s the fun of blowing up the leaves!
Stonecrop sedum is an edible perennial, and it's also lots of fun to grow in a kids garden because the leaves are like mini balloons!
Wondering about Shade?
Wondering what vegetable plants and fruit crops grow in the shade? Find out what fruit and vegetables grow well in the shade.
Find This Helpful?
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Appreciate the absence of junky affiliate links for products you don’t need?
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More Edible-Landscape Ideas
Plant ideas, techniques, and creative ideas to transform yards into fantastic edible landscapes.
Edible Landscaping: See My Ornamental Edible Garden
Check out this video of my garden to see how I mix together lots of edible plants in a garden full of colours, textures, and eye-catching form.
Ornamental Food Garden
Want to harvest more food from your home garden?
(And make a garden that looks really beautiful?)
Forget the farm-style garden, with row after row of crops. (They’re practical for large spaces…but not ideal for a small home garden.)
Check out this video of my garden to see how I plant a mix of edible plants to create a garden full of colours, textures, and eye-catching form.
Grazing Garden
Home gardens are often small. Rather than focus on a whopping big harvest for storage, I like to focus on a wide variety of crops for harvest on an ongoing basis.
Think of it as a grazing garden. Pick something for each meal, whether it’s pea tendrils as a garnish, edible flowers, or herbs.
In a home-garden setting, where there are competing needs for a small amount of space, we can make food gardens that:
Look beautiful
Are compact
See how I combine edible and ornamental in my garden.
Thanks to my friend Steve Benjamins for making this video for his Good Harvest YouTube channel.
