Sensory gardens with edible plants: berries & cherries

James Lawrence, RHS Principal Horticultural Advisor, has designed this simple, attractive, and most importantly, sustainable border design for you to try at home, with plants that are easy to grow, widely available and look good together.

James Lawrence

The main function of this planting plan is to provide plants that are edible but also good to look at, providing interest throughout the year.

The berries and cherries will attract insects and animals who, in turn, disperse their seeds. The fennel will provide a tall see-through veil to the scheme, but will also produce edible seeds, roots and leaves.

The chives will form ground cover, helping to lock in soil moisture and reduce weed growth.

Using an organic mulch, preferably homemade compost, while the plants establish can help to provide the same benefits. Mulches should be spread when the soil is already moist to help trap some of that moisture before it dries out in summer.

1 -Ribes rubrum ‘Jonkheer van Tets’ is a heavy-cropping deciduous

Deciduous refers to plants (mainly trees and shrubs) that lose their leaves seasonally, usually during autumn. This is a natural process triggered by the season's shorter days and lower temperatures and allows plants to conserve energy during the winter months. shrub, producing long strings of large redcurrants in early summer.

2 -Prunus avium ‘Stella’is a deciduous tree which bears regular, heavy crops of large black cherries from late July. Its green leaves show good autumn colour.

3 -Ribes uva-crispa ‘Invicta’ is a green culinary gooseberry that crops heavily and has good flavour. It is very vigorous with a spreading habit and thorns.

4 - Foeniculum vulgare ‘Giant Bronze’ is an aniseed-scented short-lived perennial

Perennials are plants that live for multiple years. They come in all shapes and sizes and fill our gardens with colourful flowers and ornamental foliage. Many are hardy and can survive outdoors all year round, while less hardy types need protection over winter. The term herbaceous perennial is used to describe long-lived plants without a permanent woody structure (they die back to ground level each autumn), distinguishing them from trees, shrubs and sub-shrubs. with feathery, copper-bronze foliage, made up of fine, hair-like segments. Flat heads of small yellow-green flowers are borne in summer.

5 - Allium schoenoprasumis a semi-evergreen chive with edible leaves, which produces clusters of brilliant pink-purple or white flowers in summer.

6 - Fragaria x ananassa ‘Hapil’ is an early to mid-season, heavy-cropping cultivar

Gardeners often use the word variety when referring to a specific plant, but the correct botanical term is 'cultivar'. Whichever word you use, it means a distinctive plant or plants, given a specific cultivar name and usually bred to enhance certain characteristics, such as flower or fruit size, colour, flavour or fragrance, plant size, hardiness, disease resistance, etc. Additionally, it is worth knowing that, botanically, variety has another meaning - it refers to a naturally-occurring distinct plant that only has slight differences in its looks. For example, Malva alcea var. fastigiata differs from typical plants by having an upright habit. of strawberry with large, glossy red berries that have good flavour.

Growing your own fruit and herbs is a great way to eat more healthily, and gives you total control over what goes into your produce, from the soil it grows in and water it receives to ensuring that it is organic and pesticide

A pesticide is a substance designed to kill or control the growth and behaviour of living organisms. It is also known as plant protection product and includes insecticides, fungicides, herbicides and molluscicides. The RHS doesn’t support the use of pesticides and recommends that gardeners use non-chemical control options whenever needed. -free. Planting schemes containing edible crops help to reinforce that growing your own food can improve health and overall well-being.

This simple planting plan helps create depth, interest and good coverage in the border.

Using the ethos of ‘right plant, right place’ to create a sustainable planting combination is great for the environment. It helps avoid waste and the use of products and practices needed to try and help ailing plants, such as the application of fertiliser. It also creates robust, long-lived planting that benefits soil health and garden biodiversity

The variety of living organisms (plants, animals, fungi and microorganisms) in a particular environment. Boosting the biodiversity of your garden has many benefits, including supporting wildlife, improving soil health and reducing the likelihood of pest and disease problems. . For more information about sustainable gardening, please see the RHS Sustainability Strategy.