Edible Landscaping in Northern Virginia: 5 Plants You Can Eat

Here in Northern Virginia, you don’t have to look far to find some beautiful trees and shrubs you can add to your landscaping that will serve more than one purpose. In addition to rounding out a well-designed landscape, these can provide you with food to eat! Our own Northern Virginia native plant species are hardy for our climate, use less water and promote a healthy ecosystem. Consider adding some of these species to your landscaping, and you can impress your friends at your next dinner party with organic, locally-sourced comestibles from your own yard!

1. American Plum

This is a small tree that can grow in thickets. It tolerates all kinds of soils and is very hardy. Compared with European plums, it has great disease resistance and often grows wild. It produces sprays of white blossoms in the spring that turn into fruits in late summer, with colors from orange to red to purple. The fruit is tart, so it’s great for attention-getting jams, jellies, compotes and syrups.

2. American Persimmon

The scientific name literally contains Virginia: Diospyros virginiana. It has dark green foliage, dark brown bark and produces large white flowers in the spring to early summer. To get the fruit in late fall, you need to have both male and female trees present. It takes 3-5 years to get fruit, and you’ll need to keep the trees well pruned for production. The fruit is sweet if picked when ripe, usually after the first frost. Before that, it can be bitter. You can eat the fruit fresh, or you can use it in breads, cookies, cakes, syrups and jams.

3. Red Mulberries

These hardy, drought-tolerant, medium-sized trees have a broad crown with big green leaves and produce a small fruit that looks like little blackberries and tastes sweet and rich. The berries need to be eaten or prepared shortly after picking, and you can expect some competition from deer and birds for the berries. If you want to plant these in your yard, also know that you’re helping preserve a native species against the invasive, non-native white mulberry!

4. Highbush Blueberry

This shrub that grows well in loamy, sandy, well-drained soil is also a Virginia native that produces delicious blueberries you can eat right off the plant. There are several varieties of this fruiting shrub, and they produce beautiful fall colors too. Ask us about which one might do well in your yard as a productive border shrub.

5 Pawpaw

This small, easy-growing, pest-resistant, native is a fabulous choice. It sports brownish-burgundy blossoms in the spring and dark green foliage through the summer. In the fall, the leaves turn a nice yellow, and you’ll then get to enjoy the fruit! Although it looks like a small, green potato, people describe the taste as banana-mango-vanilla-custard-pineapple with hints of citrus. They do have a short shelf life, so eat them fresh or prepare them in pies, smoothies or over ice cream soon after picking!

These are only 5 of the native Northern Virginia shrubs and trees you can eat from—there are many more that produce other fruits and nuts to enjoy. Contact AllGreen Landscape Co for a personal landscaping consultation today: (703) 992-8787