Ornamental Edible Plants in Urban Horticulture

The possibility to identify a plant choice objective criteria for the edible landscaping is interesting in relation to the wide number of usable plants. The edible landscaping in fact combines fruit and nut trees, berry bushes, vegetables, herbs, edible flowers and ornamental plants into aesthetical designs. In this frame the aim of the trial was to spot a method for quick evaluation used by many cultivars. In particular 40 cultivars of 5 different vegetables (tomato, eggplant, basil, mangold, beefsteakplant) and 10 edible flowers were analysed. For each cultivar some functional parameters, evaluated with a 1-5 grading scale (1= poor; 5= good), were determined. In this way it was possible to holistically determine, an objective grading of the suitability of specific use.