I’ve been reading and learning about edible landscaping lately. My goal is to grow as much of our own food as I can in our small urban yard. But my husband and I also want the front to look nice, and I have many favorite flowers I’ll want mixed in with the edibles.
One of the books I just finished is Edible Wild Plants of the Prairie by Kelly Kindscher. The author and a friend spent eighty days walking across the prairie, from Kansas City to the Rocky Mountains near Denver to immerse themselves in the prairie landscape. Her book lists over 50 native plants which have been consumed for thousands of years by native american tribes and some by pioneers as well. The book has native american cultural and historical information as well as everything you need to identify, grow and prepare these nutritious wild edibles.
Since I live in the western prairie bioregion, these are the edibles I mean to focus on. There are many other great books on edible landscaping and wild edibles to be found at the library or Amazon.com. It’s amazing how many of our popular landscaping plants are edible, such as Beebalm, Hollyhock and Yarrow, to name a few. By the way, if you are going to delve into eating wild plants, make sure you do your research. Several plants have poisonous parts and have to be prepared a special way before consuming, and others have poisonous twins which can make identifying confusing.