Q: I'd like to combine ornamental and edible plants in my garden beds. Do you have any suggestions?

A: Almost all food plants do best with quite a lot of sun, but many will tolerate some shade if you are OK with a smaller crop. Plant some genetic dwarf or semi-dwarf fruit trees and keep them pruned to about 8 ft tall so they are easy to harvest, and plant under and around them. Check out our April, 2019 newsletter for suggestions about vegetables that will do OK with some shade. For those that need full sun, like tomatoes and beans, you can grow them on structures like teepees or trellises in the midst of a sunny bed. Rainbow chard, red sorrel, variegated sages and thymes, artichokes, fennel, nasturtiams and many other plants are both good to eat and decorative. The key is too make sure that the plants in any particular area have similar light, watering, and fertilizer requirements.