Growing your own food: Once considered an outdated pastime, it's now coming back into style for both new and experienced gardeners. Ingredients for a salad don't get much fresher than when they are pulled directly from the yard. You can guarantee your produce is organic, and, it just tastes better. Most fruits and vegetables are never sweeter than when they first come out of the garden.

Today's edible garden isn't your grandmother's labor-intensive vegetable plot located off by itself in a corner of the backyard. Instead, you're more apt to find vegetables mixed in with ornamentals in a garden border, or grouped together in a raised bed that is not only a decorative garden element but also easier to take care of than a soil-level plot.

Techniques like overplanting and French intensive gardening allow you to grow a maximum number of vegetables in a small space, including container gardens. Many fruit trees are also available in dwarf and semi-dwarf varieties, which are faster to set fruit, easier to prune and harvest from, and ideal for smaller gardens.

Edibles also offer gardening variety. Many of these plants are decorative in their own right, whether it's the distinctive leaves of artichokes, onions, and rhubarb or the range of colors, like the purple of cabbage, the bright yellow of squash, and the deep red of tomatoes. Some, such as apples, melons, and citrus, also contribute fragrance to the garden. While most edibles are spring and summer growers, cold-weather lovers like cabbage, kale, and spinach keep the garden alive in late fall and early winter.