Landscape Plants and Trees: Beauty with Practical Benefits

Trees and shrubs offer more than curb appeal—they provide food, medicine, materials, and ecological services. Why not cultivate plants that are both beautiful and useful?

Natural Mosquito Repellent

The powdery bark of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) contains compounds that block mosquitoes' sensory receptors, making you "invisible" to them—similar to how DEET works. Simply rub the powder on exposed skin.

Edible and Medicinal Wild Plants

Teas and Tonics: Quaking aspen leaves contain salicylic acid (aspirin's active ingredient) and make a headache-relieving tea. Silver birch bark tea is a traditional tonic. Arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis) bark and leaves yield vitamin C-rich tea that historically prevented scurvy.

Edible Parts: Dogwood berries (only the fruit), cottonwood inner bark, cattail cores (taste like mild cucumber), watercress (spicy, like radish), poplar bark, anise, dandelion (leaves for salad, roasted roots for coffee substitute, flowers for wine), mint (harvest often to control spread), wild rose hips (high vitamin C), thistle (remove spines, eat leaves or blossom interior), and many berries—blueberries, serviceberries, elderberries (purple only; red are toxic), cranberries, gooseberries, currants, chokecherries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries.

Caution: Avoid sumac berries (poisonous). Prickly pear cactus (peel, boil), clover (including four-leaf for folic acid), and apples (said to wake you better than coffee) are also edible.

Responsible Foraging

Never harvest protected species. Take only what you need, leaving enough for wildlife and regeneration. If unsure, stick to easily identifiable berries.

Explore more at seedlingsrus.com and zone5trees.com.