What could be more pleasant than picking luscious fruits from a plant that you also admire for its beauty? Meet some of the best trees, shrubs, and vines for this purpose, plants that require little maintenance yet provide stunning flowers in spring, color in autumn, and neat form in winter.

For landscaping, the ideal is a plant that also is low maintenance, being pest-resistant and requiring little or no pruning. Luscious landscaping is the way to beautify your grounds and to put (very) local, healthful, flavorful food on the table.

Lee Reich, PhD is an avid farmdener (more than a gardener, less than a farmer) with graduate degrees in soil science and horticulture.
His books include  A Northeast Gardener's Year, The Pruning Book, Weedless Gardening, Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden, Landscaping With Fruit, and Grow Fruit Naturally. He writes regularly for a number of gardening magazines and his syndicated gardening column for Associated Press appears biweekly from coast to coast.