Some years, gardening around North Texas can be pretty rough.
Drought, extreme heat or cold, pest and disease can all hinder our best efforts at cultivating fruits and vegetables here in North Texas. In addition to traditional tips on how to overcome these challenges, you've branched out to expand your edible palette. What is "eating the yard" all about?
As a horticulturist, I'm fascinated by finding solutions to all challenges of gardening. But there's one solution which I've found works really well. I know, It may seem little bizarre for some, at first but "eating the yard" just takes advantage of the edible value of common landscape plants.
For most of us, if we look in our landscapes, we'll find plants that have been eaten for thousands of years (and many still are.) Nature was once mankind's grocery store, offering a variety of foods. Some of those plants also happened to look pretty. The nursery industry took those plants, improved their ornamental value and sold them for their aesthetics alone.
Now most of our culture has forgotten about the edible value of these plants.
But as my wife, family, and friends can attest, quite a few of the common landscape plants that grow in and around our subdivisions are pretty delicious in addition to looking good and growing with little care.
And we have some of your favorites here?
Pecans - Just as edible as the ones in the grocery store.
Wax Myrtle - Seasoning like bay leaves.
Yaupon Holly - caffeinated tea like Yerba Mate.
American Beautyberry - Berries for jelly or syrups.
Pansies - hor d'oeuvres or deserts.
And for more about landscape plants that you can eat, and to sign up for an urban foraging class here.
