There are a lot of edible plants that also produce beautiful flowers. Artichokes are gorgeous, and okra produces some really lovely purple flowers. You can also add flowers like Nasturtiums, the leaves and flowers of which are also edible. Amaranth, quinoa, and sunflowers grow very large and provide food for both people and chickens and can be really visually beautiful. My chickens LOVED all the amaranth, and the deep red variety I planted was the size of small shrubs and provided them with plenty of forage. Golden Purslane, typically considered a weed but actually a very tasty and nutritious plant, is super easy to grow, tends to remain lower to the ground and produces lovely little yellow flowers that bloom in the morning and close up in the heat of the day. Sacred Datura grows wild on my property, is super easy to start growing, and produces GORGEOUS white trumpet flowers, but the entire plant is toxic so you don't want to eat it...just use it to attract pollinators.
This year I'm even trying my hand at sweet potatoes planted from slips I removed from one that "went to seed". I'm really happy with the lush foliage of the plant and the ease of maintenance. This year I planted it in a large eco-pot, but I'm trying to figure out how to use it as a seasonal landscape plant next time.
I try to only grow edibles in my yard, which is slowly evolving into my own little garden paradise. (Emphasis on SLOWLY, LOL!) I grow Rosemary and Basil as landscape shrubs and hope to add Bay Laurel (as in Bay Leaves) this fall or next spring. The herbs have the extra advantage of keeping many of the nasty insects like mosquitoes away. I planted one lone Moringa tree in the front yard that I grew from seed, and plan to start Mulberry trees and Jujube trees in pots in the next few months. Once they're large enough to transplant on my property I hope to use them to create more shade and start working towards a complete permaculture environment to more efficiently utilize rainwater harvesting and create a better natural environment for us and the chickens.
It's funny because I have a neighbor who's exceptionally wealthy and has a lovely, professionally landscaped yard (her guest house is roughly the same size as the house I live in), and yet she's always complimenting me on my "natural" and edible yard and coming over to see what's in bloom, what I'm planting now, etc. She and her husband have even set up their own little compost and garden area now and are veering away from water-hungry ornamental plants in favor of consumable ones.
