Who has experience with edible landscaping - either through profession or previous experience? We love to encourage self-sustaining habits, first through backyard chicken keeping, but also composting, and urban gardening. Sometimes, however, municiple laws or HOA regulations disallow raised beds and urban gardens in the yard where it's visible from the street. Tomatoes, squash, and corn might be out, but there are still lots of great plants that have longevity, beauty, reasonable water requirements, and can be direct sown into the ground!

Here are some of the fun plants we've found can be integrated into the garden to provide organic food while still maintaining a landscaped look and feel?

Grape Vines

Table grapes or wine grapes create a beautiful and cozy European feel trellised up a fence or over a pergola.

Fruit Trees

Apples, Nectarines and Peaches are popular fruits to harvest and blossom with beautiful flowers in the early spring. Citrus trees like lemon or orange are popular because they don't lose their leaves and still provide fruit, making for a resourceful and gorgeous focal point in the yard.

Herbs

Lots of herbs require little water and maintenance and still grow beautifully, providing delicious flavors for your home-cooked meals. Mint can be somewhat invasive, but grown in a contained area, it creates an excellent aroma and also is great at keeping rodents at bay, or for making mojitos! Rosemary, sage, and thyme require little care, and can be used as a border, or a plant under the window by the kitchen to be harvested for an authentic Italian red sauce. Lavendar, chamomile, and calendula are beautiful flowering plants that can be used to make dried herbs for teas and aromatherapy.

Leafy Greens

Colorful purple, green, and red leafy greens look gorgeous in the yard, almost like small flowering plants or frilly miniature trees. Try different lettuces, cabbages, or kales for amazing home grown salads. Instead of harvesting the entire plant at once, try harvesting just the lowest or outermost leaves, allowing the plant to continue to grow and provide more food.

What kind of edible landscaping have you used successfully in an urban area?