Hot Property: Designers uproot tradition

Everything you grow in your yard can be eaten.

Edible landscaping not to be confused with traditional vegetable or herb gardens is one of the growing trends in residential yard design according to local landscape designers. Edible plants, bushes and trees can be picked for food or be added to drinks.

Plantings have to be aesthetic and gorgeous, but they can also be productive, said landscape architect Kate Kennen, owner of Charlestown-based Offshoots. You could be growing something that you could use.

Kennen says she is creating a lot of edible landscapes with plantings such as juneberry trees that provide sweet berries, an attractive option to traditional fruit trees that attract a lot of bugs. Another favorite are basswood trees, also known as salad trees, whose leaves, buds and flowers can be eaten.

We did a mint and mojito garden for a Jamaica Plain apartment project to appeal to younger people who love craft cocktails, said Kennen, who says cocktail gardens include mints, oregano, lavender, chives and sage.

Shes created tea plant gardens as well as an edible garden geared to children with tags on a ring binder to help them identify when edible plants can be eaten.

Another growing residential landscaping trend is low-mow or no-mow lawns, said Andrea Nilsen of Bostons Nilsen Landscape Design.

Traditional lawns are intensely needy water, fertilizing, chemicals, mowing, Nilsen said.

Nilsen uses clumping grasses that look like lawn but dont grow and groundcover plantings in lieu of grass. In one Belmont project, Nilsen used huge beds of creeping thyme and barren strawberry as a lawn substitute.

Kennen added that custom-blended seed can provide an attractive lawn that only has to be mowed every 4 to 6 weeks.

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Hot Property: Designers uproot tradition