Best Edible Perennial Hedging?

Well, Hugo, for what it's worth, my topinambours failed miserably this year too. They were in raised beds without much competition [garlic] but they really didn't live up to expectations!. Many small stems, few and miserable looking tubers.
Funny that your last name is the same as the Parc Du Morvan. Dans le massif du Morvan, le soil est plutot granitique, non? Vous avez assez de sol arable la-bas pour faire des topinambours?
[I'm not sure what kind of soil you have there]. Here, it is extremely sandy but I add Fall leaves every year, so those sunchokes should have done well..
They are even considered invasive in a garden, but not this year.
To use them as a hedge, that's doable: They can  make stems as big as my wrist, and they can stay close together, enough to make a hedge. You will deprive yourself of the crop if you want to use the stems as a hedge though.

I have planted a mix of edible hedge plants along the road. The sheep keep it trimmed on the other side
Rosa rugosa have lovely large hips, I'm hoping that the japanese quince plants will grow nicely there too.

There's a lovely hedge of globe artichokes separating my plots from my neighbour at the community garden.

There are several types of globe artichokes growing in the hedge, a green symmetrical round that looks beautiful but develops a strong choke very early, well before the leaves start spreading.

However, it is the easiest to stuff and the heart is very large.

The tall thin non symmetrical green tinged with purple is smaller but the inner leaves remain tender for longer and are better for preserving  - can easily be stripped of the tough outer leaves, topped and split in half.

There is a green variety with similar qualities but with symmetrical tall shape.

They all have vicious thorns on the tip of each leaf so they need to be cut off.

Jo-Ann Bell wrote:I have planted a mix of edible hedge plants along the road. The sheep keep it trimmed on the other side
Rosa rugosa have lovely large hips, I'm hoping that the japanese quince plants will grow nicely there too.

Both Rosa rugosa and Chaenomeles japonica grow very well here and make stunning hedge. The rose hips are edible and much easier to process and eat than our native dog rose. There is a restaurant in the town I live in that has a beautiful, large-flowered Japanese quince that I have seen more than one passerby stop and photograph; it has wound around an old iron fence.

Most of the mixed native hedges in the UK you could argue are 'edible perennial hedging'. Hawthorn is wonderful when processed into sauces or ketchups and is much appreciated by the birds and rodents too. Hazel grows readily in a hedge and, if you can beat the squirrels, the nuts are worth harvesting (although there wont be as many, nor as large, from a hedge plant). Dog rose, as I mentioned above for the rugosa, is edible and delicious - and an excellent source of vitamin C. Blackthorn, bullace, wild plum and even wild cherry could also be included, as could crab apple. Finally, sea buckthorn makes a great security hedge and the berries are a delight.

Luke Mitchell wrote:

Jo-Ann Bell wrote:I have planted a mix of edible hedge plants along the road. The sheep keep it trimmed on the other side
Rosa rugosa have lovely large hips, I'm hoping that the japanese quince plants will grow nicely there too.

Both Rosa rugosa and Chaenomeles japonica grow very well here and make stunning hedge. The rose hips are edible and much easier to process and eat than our native dog rose. There is a restaurant in the town I live in that has a beautiful, large-flowered Japanese quince that I have seen more than one passerby stop and photograph; it has wound around an old iron fence.

Most of the mixed native hedges in the UK you could argue are 'edible perennial hedging'. Hawthorn is wonderful when processed into sauces or ketchups and is much appreciated by the birds and rodents too. Hazel grows readily in a hedge and, if you can beat the squirrels, the nuts are worth harvesting (although there wont be as many, nor as large, from a hedge plant). Dog rose, as I mentioned above for the rugosa, is edible and delicious - and an excellent source of vitamin C. Blackthorn, bullace, wild plum and even wild cherry could also be included, as could crab apple. Finally, sea buckthorn makes a great security hedge and the berries are a delight.

I love charts, and some day, it would be nice to have all of this wonderful information in such a form with categories such as height ranges, zone tolerances, soil and light preference, time when in bloom and fruit, thorns or not, mature size, evergreen/deciduous, years to bear, wildlife friendly and so on!  I made one for my food forest and refer to it often.

I know people love roses; I have some myself.  I got a few climbers to grow over my arbor as an entrance into my food forest as a welcoming, pretty, fragrant addition that adds street appeal.  I got a variety that is considered thornless and I will keep it pruned and maintained.  My neighbor planted a rugosa on the property line, and those things are invasive here.  I hate things with thorns, although I do have gooseberries.  I've had to dig out and dispose of numerous rugosas because of the one she planted.  I feel like I have to put on armor to do the task.  I would just offer people to do their research before being tempted at the local nursery.  This neighbor knows nothing about plants. I live in zone 4/5 and she got a Camillia for zone 7/9 and a butterfly bush which is invasive.   She decided to get a mint plant and plant it right on the border between properties.  I asked them to reconsider the placement, but of course, they did not.  Grrr!   If you choose to plant something that tends to be "vigorous" or invasive, consider how it will affect your neighbors if you are planning on using it as a boundary.

leila hamaya wrote:

Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:
Another great possibility is roses. There are many different varieties. I'm looking for some that I can use for rosehips or for the confection called lokum, AKA Turkish delights, for which you use the fragrant petals. They do have thorns that can keep critters in or out if you keep them tight enough. But they will eat a lot of real estate and still need a fair amount of special care.

one of the best types for growing for the hips is the wild ish Rosa Rugosa. they make very large hips, have a beautiful fragrance and grow in a deep pink as the common type but also theres some beautiful white "alba" varieties. although maybe not as prized for the beauty, as they have simple flowers, not the gorgeous double and triple petalled like a "regular" rose....but i do find them beautiful and they definitely make up for it in scent. they are also extra thorny, they have solid thorns all throughout the canes, and are resistant to many diseases, very much a no fuss easy rose, being a wild type.

there are some that make great hips, not as big but with a lot of "meat" on them.... i also like the wild type -- eglatine rose... "sweet briar" rose is the common name, and in general love wild roses, so if you find some locally those can be great for these purposes, as well as hips. the wild ones are so much easier and most are extremely resilient and resistant to many common rose funks and diseases, the beautiful modern hybrids and such are much more susceptable to funks and diseases, they are just a lot fussier.

both of those to me are excellent for eating and making food from the petals, although again - they have simple flowers, single petal wild roses.

Barbara Simoes wrote:I know people love roses; I have some myself.  If you choose to plant something that tends to be "vigorous" or invasive, consider how it will affect your neighbors if you are planning on using it as a boundary.

leila hamaya wrote:

Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:
Another great possibility is roses. There are many different varieties. I'm looking for some that I can use for rosehips or for the confection called lokum, AKA Turkish delights, for which you use the fragrant petals. They do have thorns that can keep critters in or out if you keep them tight enough. But they will eat a lot of real estate and still need a fair amount of special care.

one of the best types for growing for the hips is the wild ish Rosa Rugosa. they make very large hips, have a beautiful fragrance and grow in a deep pink as the common type but also theres some beautiful white "alba" varieties. although maybe not as prized for the beauty, as they have simple flowers, not the gorgeous double and triple petalled like a "regular" rose....but i do find them beautiful and they definitely make up for it in scent. they are also extra thorny, they have solid thorns all throughout the canes, and are resistant to many diseases, very much a no fuss easy rose, being a wild type.

there are some that make great hips, not as big but with a lot of "meat" on them.... i also like the wild type -- eglatine rose... "sweet briar" rose is the common name, and in general love wild roses, so if you find some locally those can be great for these purposes, as well as hips. the wild ones are so much easier and most are extremely resilient and resistant to many common rose funks and diseases, the beautiful modern hybrids and such are much more susceptable to funks and diseases, they are just a lot fussier.

both of those to me are excellent for eating and making food from the petals, although again - they have simple flowers, single petal wild roses.

That's a good point: Of course, if you want to keep being good neighbors, you will think about how your crops downwind will affect them. Some plants are invasive in one location but can barely hold their own elsewhere too.

The charts are very useful!  While collecting & propagating into seedbank & nursery for our eventual wildlife habitat natives-into-Subsistence Hedge domesticates plantings, I had in hand the Permaculture Poultry Forage Matrix by Tim Murphy from an old copy of Permaculture Drylands Journal.  

It wasn't quite orientated toward our higher/ drier/ colder/ shorter growing season, but had enough information with genus, character, zones, human edibility, other uses, to extrapolate & substitute across gaps.  Then I just integrated with all my other lines of pursuit & acquisition.  

Three decades later I regularly fill gaps that open up in well-established hedges for various reasons, but even transposed to coastal sub-tropical it's still a valuable approach.  

Hi! This is Mike, one of the authors of Growing FREE, being featured this week. I also have some books on gardening, and they feature this edible hedge design I’ve now replicated on several sites. There are detailed instructions on this multi-species guild in both my gardening books. You can get the idea from the image. The pictures show versions in “the real world.” I think it’s nice to have tried and tested guilds to work off of.

Mike Hoag wrote: I think it’s nice to have tried and tested guilds to work off of.

Hi Mike - those hedges look lovely. How to you adapt your species selection to different climate and soil areas?

For those considerung implementing rosa rugosa into a hedge, please be aware that it is considered an invasive outside of its natural habitat in Eastern Asia.
In Northern Europe the problem concerns mostly the coastlines (Germany, Denmark), for those who are interested:
invasive rosa rugosa

Morfydd St. Clair wrote:  I’ve been thinking about replacing a non edible hedge that came with the house we’re in between us and the busy street. I’m in western Washington, zone 8b, was thinking about using a mix of the following.

- silverberry,  eleagnus x ebbingei, and even a couple of those.  

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Yes, I second the Elaeagnus.  It's tough as nails, is evergreen but drops enough leaves to create really great mulch.  There's a bit of dust that forms on the Silverberry that can get loose in the air at late summer pruning times, a mask helps if that causes issues.   2-year-old or more growth has thorns, but spring/summer growth that gets trimmed does not have thorns.  It's excellent for chop and drop as well.  Gophers haven't touched it, at least for me.  I've had a Silverberry hedge for 30 years and haven't had a single issue.


Elaeagnus Goumiberry multiflora has small red berries and has survived frost well in my mild-winter climate (the ground doesn't freeze, frost is gone by 9 AM)  The berries are kind of seedy, but no worse than blackberries.