As the good folks at Monrovia reminded us in their April newsletter, you don't have to choose between an edible and an ornamental garden. Most fruit trees and shrubs – and aromatic herbs – are quite beautiful.
Monrovia calls this blending of styles “Farmer Chic,” and offers a few stellar examples to which you can point your customers this month as they hop aboard the edible garden bandwagon that, by now, is actually a caravan.
For example, dwarf citrus trees have rich glossy foliage, fragrant flowers and work well in a container or in an allée (which, apparently, is Farmer Chic for a walkway lined with trees and shrubs).
Meanwhile, grape vines are very easy to grow, climbing on an arbor or trellis to provide shade and an abundance of sweet grapes in late summer and fall. Blueberries are very popular and for good reason: pretty white flowers in the spring, tasty berries all summer and stunning fall foliage. Plant them close together for a delicious hedge.
Your customers can plant Canby Red Raspberry (Rubus idaeus 'Canby Red') near a fence or wall to provide support for its fruit-laden, thornless canes. And there’s always Roman Beauty Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis 'Roman Beauty'), a compact, dwarf variety with intense flavor in its small needle-like foliage.
There you have it: Plants that are good, good for you and good to look at. Or, as we Farmer Chic like to say, “good cubed.”
-- Yale
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