Blending Beauty and Function in the Landscape- Add Something Delicious!

Blueberries, Paw Paws and Dogwoods, oh my!

There is often no doubt that we want our landscapes to be beautiful. What is fun and unique about what we do is we make a landscape beautiful AND functional. In our region of the Southeast, there are plenty of plants that we can incorporate into our landscapes that feed people, pollinators and wildlife. For many, dogwoods are a favorite early blooming native plant. Did you know that there is also an edible dogwood, the Kousa dogwood?  And what about our shade loving, native plant the Paw Paw? (This plant will get it's own post soon, it is just that good...and delicious!). Recently I found a swallowtail caterpillar munching on my dill. I'll admit, I was excited to eat this dill.  But, luckily I planted more than one plant and I might be even more excited to see this beautiful butterfly in the not too distant future. This plant also has beautiful flowers that attracts beneficial insects, to boot! In our acidic soils, blueberries are wonderful addition to the garden, and we might as well add some tasty alpine strawberries as a ground cover treat. And the list goes on! Stay tuned for a list of more of these useful and beautiful plants to incorporate into your landscape.This recent landscape design incorporates many of these plants in addition to native laurel's, rhododendrons, late blooming sweet cherries, and, of course, a LOT of flowers! This is the final landscape design for our clients in east Asheville. It blends edible plants with native and flowering plants.

This is the final landscape design for our client in east Asheville. It blends edible plants with native and flowering plants.

Found these swallowtail caterpillar friends munching on some dill.