Heartland Harvest Garden + Neighborhood Fruit

Bee on chives by hddod

If you find yourself in or near Kansas City, make sure to visit the Powell Gardens in Kingsville, Missouri. Not only do the gardens offer beautiful landscaping and architecture, they also contain the marvelous 12-acre Heartland Harvest Garden consisting entirely of edible plants. It doesn't get much more eco-friendly than growing your own food, especially if you grow the food organically as Powell is attempting to do. You'll be sure to discover or rediscover beautiful and delicious plants to grow in your garden, balcony or other outdoor space. (Did you realize, for instance, that chives get beautiful - and edible - purple flowers?)

I was excited to recently discover a website called Neighborhood Fruit that helps you locate public fruit trees. Apparently some cities have recently started planting fruit trees so that their landscaping provides not just shade and beauty, but also food. Did you know that you can find public juneberry, mulberry, hawthorn and peach trees in New York City? (Yes, apparently hawthorn trees have edible berries.)

The site also tries to match people who have excess fruit on their private fruit trees with people who would like access to the fruit. The site does require registration, but it seems free to use. Make sure to read the FAQ to familiarize yourself with how it all works. Seems like a brilliant idea! (Not many private fruit tree owners seem to have registered their trees, however. The closest free neighborhood fruit I could find to Nashville, TN was in California!!)

If you'd like to grow your own edible shrubs, here's a great resource from Plants For a Future!