Patty Laughlin Integrates Edibles into Every Landscape

Out & About with AOLCPs

Patty Laughlin Integrates Edibles into Every Landscape

 By Kathy Litchfield

EPPING, N.H. – Every landscape Patty Laughlin plants has at least one low-bush blueberry. She considers the blueberry a “gateway fruit” as it is low maintenance, easy to grow and delicious, and seems to quickly lead to a client’s discovery of other wonderful edible plants. 
 
Even if clients don’t ask for edible landscaping, she finds a way to integrate something low maintenance that will provide food for wildlife as well as the humans inhabiting the land.
 
“I’ve always focused on edible gardening. My dad was a master gardener when I was growing up and we always had a big vegetable garden and lots of fruit trees and berry bushes. I didn’t know how spoiled I was until I went to college,” she laughed. “Blueberries are native, so easy to grow, and edibles are so engaging for people in a landscape. The level of interaction you create between the humans and animals and landscape itself gets amplified when you bring edibles into the picture.”