Here's a great idea... what about growing your very own edible garden! It makes a lot of sense with the prices of fresh vegetables and fruits skyrocketing. Most vegetables have very decorative properties in either their foliage or flowers as well as being edible, so it's no wonder a lot of people are creating more natural gardens.

You'll find you can have a spectacular looking edible garden that will ease the pain on your budget and give you fresh vegtables, herbs and fruits year after year. If you're short on space you can grow them in containers or even on a window ledge.

Most people who create edible landscapes use perennial vegetables, because they come back year after year, without the need to replant them each year. The double bonus is that you'll have a spectacular garden that also feeds your family!

A little watering and feeding is all most of them need, aside from the occasional weeding, pruning, or insect control. And because you've selected the types that regrow every season, you'll enjoy your harvest year after year.

These perennials will die down during the colder months, but come springtime they'll shoot again and produce another great crop. So by being selective with your planting you'll ensure that you get fresh produce every year.

You're not restricted to ornamental vegetables either, there's a large variety of perennial hrerbs that make a good replacement for some of your shrubs or the low growing types make good ground cover. There's plenty of edible plants that can replace your traditional garden. Why not change some of your standard trees with fruit trees? Even try the latest varieties of dwarf fruit trees if your area is small. Use the really decorative herbs and flowering vegetables as accent plants or borders around your garden.

You can also mix edible plants with other plants to form beautiful combinations. Some edible plants, especially herbs, make great additions to flower gardens. You can mix all kinds of plants together for different looks.

For something different, try planting a herb such as curly parsley amongst your lobelia, pansies, strawberries or dianthus. Also for really pretty low growing shrubs, sage, rosemary and oregano look sensational.

Leaf lettuces look lovely planted in beds as accent areas. You can plant a bed of different colors and varieties of leaf lettuce, and then edge it with a border grass. There are several types of plants that have edible flowers.

With all this talk about vegetables, don't forget there are many plants with edible flowers or other edible parts, let's look at some. Sugar snap peas have striking purple, white, or pink flowers as well as the delicious peas they produce. They can look sensational when they're in full bloom.

Fava beans produce white and red flowers. Chives have amazing purple globe-shaped flowers. Dill has lovely yellowish blossoms. Nasturtium blossoms are edible, and some in red, yellow, and orange. Sage has blue and purple blossoms. And salvia also has blue and purple blooms.

Perennial herbs and vegetables are superb for planting in edible landscapes, because they require so little maintenance. You can try perennial broccoli, dandelions, sweet potatoes, rhubarb, sorrel, artichokes and Jerusalem artichokes, chives, fennel, garlic chives, ginger, and asparagus.