While keen on having fresh ingredients for the next meal right outside your door, you might not want to turn every inch of your front and backyard into a produce garden.

One of the books I received recently offers a less radical solution.

In Eat Your Yard! (Gibbs Smith), Nan K. Chase reminds us that there are sensible ways to make your garden put food on the table from apple and pear trees to edible flowers, fresh herbs, berry bushes and the like.

Think of it as a different take on landscaping, besides the flavors they will deliver on your plates, what you plant will bring an array of colors and scents changing with the seasons.

Not to forget the preserves you will enjoy during the winter months.

Nan K. Chase lives in asheville, North Carolina and has 30 years of practice on the subject she documents in Eat Your Yard!

"Proving that you can have a beautifully landscaped property and eat it too, Eat Your Yard! has information on 35 plants that offer the best of both landscape and culinary uses. Edible plants provide spring blossoms, colorful fruit and flowers, lush greenery, fall foliage, and beautiful structure, but they also offer fruits, nuts, and seeds that you can eat, cook, and preserve. Eat Your Yard! includes ideas for creating the landscape as well as an overview and tips on canning, pickling, dehydrating, freezing, juicing, and fermenting."

Not all experiments were succesful. You find out by trial and error and learn along the way.

In the backyard for Green Day # 141

Previously: Foliage as Chair Material, Harvest by Asif Khan