Cool Design Tips for an Elegant Edible Summer

In nature, we find that logs fall, vines grow over them and create more shady spots where often mushrooms or other tender plants will grow. To do the same in your own landscape, we like to use some things to help shade the west ends with curtains and vines.

If you can create dead shade, like a trellis, or a live shade where the vine is growing up a trellis for that evaporative effect. We like to grow Armenian cucumbers, cantaloupes, and other melons up an angled trellis with some chicken wire on it. The plant will grow up the wire, and we will poke the flower through the hole and the fruit forms hanging down through the shaded area. It will also help to keep the bugs and birds away from the fruits and vegetables and a cleaner growth. Below the angled trellis is an E microclimate where we can grow a lot of lettuce greens.

Another elegant design is using sweet potatoes as a ground cover. These will grow even if you are living in an area that has high temperatures, even up to 120 degrees, like in Arizona. If you don’t want to grow in your garden, this will help to suppress weeds, keep the ground moist, and help grow some soil. At the end of the day, if you keep the plants 3 to 4 feet apart, you will get a good number of tubers you can eat.

Sweet potato vines, even the ornamental ones, are actually edible. The leaves can be used like spinach. Many African dishes use sweet potato greens as the main green in the dish. You can eat them raw, but we like to sauté them to make them easier to digest.

Join us in the Agriscaping Mastery Program as we dive deeper into design along with 36 other skills to help you to create your ideal elegant edible landscape year round.

Photo: https://pixabay.com/photos/climbers-vines-plant-trellis-50996/