Lovely homegrown menus: Substituting beautiful edibles for ornamentals in residential landscapes

Bonnie Janeen Haight

Aesthetics appears to be one of the highest priorities of residential landscape design. Edible plants are typically excluded from residential design palettes even though edible plants produce flowers and fruit and come in an array of shapes and colors. By asserting that edible plants can replace ornamental plants in residential designs, specifically in the Palouse, this thesis used three methods to explore edible landscaping as a residential design solution and general perceptions about edible plant use: 1) a literature review including the history of edible use, evidences of awareness of edible plant potential in landscaping, knowledge needed to better understand edible plant potential and social influence like local foods movement; 2) a survey conducted at nurseries in the Palouse area (a geographic region in SE Washington State) and at Washington State University's Cooperative Extension Office in Spokane, Washington; and 3) a case study replacing ornamental plants with edible plants in a typically designed residential landscape in Pullman, Washington. The literature review showed little evidence of historical or current aesthetic edible plant use. The survey results showed a general lack of knowledge among participants about which plants are edible. The significant factors in participants' willingness to grow edible plants outside a rectilinear vegetable, herb or fruit garden: already growing edible plants, frequency and enjoyment of gardening, and personal design needs. As part of the case study ((3) above), this thesis contains a matrix of 190 edible plants which can be grown in cold hardiness zones and residential landscapes similar to those of the Palouse area and used with or without typical ornamental plants. The original design was divided into seven areas and plants were coded according to architectural, engineering and aesthetic plant uses. The case study re-design substituted 28 edible plant species from the matrix (two examples: Vaccinium angustifolia 'St. Cloud' and Amelanchier alnifolia) for 22 original design ornamental plant species (parallel examples: Azalea 'Northern Lights' hybrid and Rhus typhina). Increasing edible plant use in residential design palettes requires the positive interactions between landscape professionals, publication writers and clients to raise awareness, provide instruction and express the possibilities as a design solution.

Lovely homegrown menus: Substituting beautiful edibles for ornamentals in residential landscapes

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