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HOW TO TURN YOUR YARD OR PATIO INTO A BEAUTIFUL AND DELICIOUS EDIBLE LANDSCAPE
Version
(c) 2009 Linda Buzzell and Larry Saltzman
Co-Founders,
Graduates of Permaculture Design Course 2006 (Larry Santoyo).
Ripping out lawns and immediately replacing these “ornamental deserts” with vegetables, herbs, edible flowers and fruit trees is tremendously exciting and worthwhile. But it’s easy to make mistakes with an ill-thought-out “blitz.” Here are a few things to consider before you (or the property owner or renter you’re advising) pick up a pencil or a shovel:
1. START BY OBSERVING.
Before you change anything on your property, take time to observe what’s already there. Do what permaculture designers call a “sector analysis,” where you think about the wild energies from outside that influence this property – the elements of sun (winter and summer sun and shade angles), wind, rain (including floods), wildfire and piped-in water. Where are the hot and cold spots on your land? Notice what plants already exist (including bulbs that just pop up in certain seasons and then disappear), and what animals (including soil critters, raccoons, birds, butterflies, bees, rabbits, gophers, moles and rats) already live on the property. You may be disturbing their habitat.
2. BEWARE OF SLOPES!
Imagine your property in profile. Where will rain strike first and where will it flow? Sometimes you’ll want to use swales, terracing or wells around plants to capture rain, but if your property has a sharp slope, you may need to hire a consulting engineer before doing anything, to be sure that you aren’t creating the conditions for a landslide. In fact, if you’re in any doubt about how to make any of the changes on this list, hire a professional permaculture designer (not just someone who’s taken the initial permaculture design course, but a person who has advanced training and substantial experience) or a professional landscape architect or designer with a sustainability/edible landscape /permaculture track record) to help with your project.
3. FIND OUT WHAT KIND OF SOIL AND WATER YOU HAVE.
Our coastal
4. IF YOUR SOIL IS REALLY BAD, START BY PLANTING IN RAISED BEDS OR CONTAINERS.
Sometimes the prospect of remediating really problematic soil is too daunting and the best thing to do is start planting in sheet-mulched raised beds, bales of straw or containers like wine barrels.
5. PLANT IN ZONES.
Permaculture
wisely advises us to put vegetables, edible flowers and herbs close to your
kitchen door and the water faucet – in “Zone 1.” This is the zone you’ll visit most
frequently, to water, pamper and harvest.
As
6. USE A HOSE TO LAY OUT THE DESIGN OF YOUR BEDS.
You can use a hose (or dribbled flour) to design the shape of your planting beds. Then stand back and see if you like the shape, before reaching for the shovel. Lay out the paths (they should be 3-4 feet across) and beds by picturing yourself reaching across the beds to tend the plants. Measure the length of your arm and don’t create a free-standing bed (reachable from either side) more than double that size unless you’re willing to use stepping stones. The goal is to design the beds so you can reach every part of them from these paths or stepping stones without straining. Permaculture designers often do a keyhole-shaped bed where you can reach every part of that bed from a central “hole.”
7. GETTING RID OF GRASS
If your grass
isn’t
If you have Bermuda grass, take the time to remove it with a shovel (or sometimes you need a pick), rolling it up like a carpet. It’s usually not deep-rooted but any little piece you leave behind will root and come up again. Some people compost the removed grass on a piece of plastic (so it can’t re-root) and other less-optimistic souls just get it off the property altogether in the greenwaste. And even then, for a while you’ll have to watch like a hawk for re-rooting from any tiny pieces you missed. It’s a lengthy process, but worth it. Don’t be tempted to use toxic Round-Up to speed things up.
Once you’re
sure you’ve removed the
8. RESIST THE URGE TO DOUBLE DIG.
The “no-till” idea is becoming accepted as preferable to disturbing the soil. Double digging may give quick results but you have to keep it up each year and you’re destroying a whole underground ecosystem each time you attack the soil with your tools. It’s preferable in our opinion to build UP your soil rather than opening it up and turning it over with a shovel (except when planting a tree or shrub, of course, or doing very specific deep keyline plowing that doesn’t turn over the soil). The earthworms will come up from below your new raised beds and perform their magic.
9. PLANT ONLY WHAT LIKES TO GROW IN YOUR AREA.
Check with neighbors, local garden clubs, farmers (the Farmers Market) and seed savers to determine the best cultivars for your soil and climate. Don’t trust commercial nurseries or big box stores to carry what’s best for you – they often don’t know. And don’t buy from national chains or catalogs unless you’re sure that the varieties they offer like your climate, no matter how tempting the bargain. However, this doesn’t mean you need to limit yourself to native plants, as admirable as that might seem. The best thing you can do for our environment is to grow more food at home and also participate in protecting local wild places where native plants are free to be themselves.
10. PLANT WHAT YOU LIKE TO EAT.
It’s tempting to immediately put in exotic and beautiful edibles that look good in your garden but never make it to your table, but we recommend that you start by planting foods you actually know you and your family enjoy and will use – and that you know how to prepare. If you don’t like zucchini, don’t plant zucchini!
11. LEARN HOW TO COOK WHAT YOU GROW.
Radishes are a perfect first plant to grow, for both kids and adults. They’re quick and easy, and of course we all enjoy those cherry red roots in our salads. But we’ve recently learned that radish tops are delicious when chopped and sautéed with garlic, onions and oil. Like many other greens such as kale, beet tops, nasturtium leaves or chard, radish leaves can become the “greens” for your meals or they can top some delicious pasta. Finding creative new ways of using what you grow is part of the fun of an edible landscape (but of course check carefully before eating unfamiliar plant parts). Harvest rose petals for your salads (snip off the white part near the center of the bloom). Learn to stew up various fruits (including quinces and blemished fruits) into sauces that you freeze to use over winter pancakes. Discover how to use baby veggie leaves and thinnings in your soups and salads. Delight in topping your salads and stir-fries with edible flowers (again, check carefully that they’re actually edible). Chop up baby fennel fronds for a delicious Greek ricotta-fennel pie.
Cooking is the other half of edible landscaping and neighborhood exchanges, so trading recipes is as important as trading food! Also, we highly recommend the “Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers” cookbook for inspiration.
12. THEN PLANT A FEW LESS FAMILIAR EDIBLES AND LEARN TO COOK AND EAT THEM TOO.
After you’ve mastered the usual tomatoes, chard, plums, beans and zucchini, try a few veggies or fruits you’re not as familiar with and learn new ways of enjoying them. Amaranth is beautiful and has edible leaves and seeds. Passionfruit vines produce exquisite flowers and juice-filled “eggs.” Spicy hot peppers look like little Christmas trees and put zip into your meals. Quince trees are gorgeous in the spring and offer fragrant yellow globes in the fall to be cooked into sauces. “Bountiful Gardens” (www.bountifulgardens.org) offers a great seed catalog and lots of inspiration. Relaxing on a rainy day sipping a warm cup of tea and reading organic seed catalogs is irresistibly decadent. The gardener’s mind wanders… maybe this year I should plant some gorgeous Red Giant Mustard (Brassica juncea) which offers “Sweet zesty lime-green leaves beautifully overlaid with bright purple. Good in salads and also makes a good cooked green, sweet and mild, full of vitamins and minerals”? How can you resist?
13. FOCUS ON PLANTS THAT GIVE MULTIPLE YIELDS.
Permaculturists call this “stacking functions.” Most of the plants in our conventional gardens (aka “ornamental deserts”) offer only one or two yields at the most. Usually they deliver some form of beauty and not a lot more. It makes more sense to use precious garden space and scarce water for plants that offer multiple yields in return for the moisture and fertilizer we provide them with, providing food, shelter, sensual and aesthetic pleasure, water thrift, nitrogen, timber, wildlife habitat, etc. For example, the radish or beet greens mentioned above offer delights above and below ground. Another example is lavender, which not only offers drought-resistant beauty, but fragrant blossoms that are also edible and leaves that can not only scent your linens in sachets but also repel certain insects. Lavender can be used as a kitchen herb and is an important component of herbes province. Lavender oil can also become a sellable product, as can lavender wands, soaps etc.
Other edible plants that offer multiple yields include beets that provide baby leaves for salads, mature leaves for cooking and sweet roots for cooking, canning and storage…nitrogen-fixing fava beans with lovely flowers that attract beneficial insects plus offer meaty, tasty beans… beneficial-insect attracting carrot fronds… beautiful grey-green artichokes whose deep roots break up sub soil and are nutrient accumulators… gorgeous and tasty rainbow chard… and deciduous fruit trees that offer beauty and bounty in one package. In fact, we wonder why anyone would want to plant a merely ornamental fruit tree when they could enjoy not only the spring blooms but also the pretty and delicious summer harvest?
14. BE AWARE OF THE WATER NEEDS OF YOUR PLANTS.
Most annual veggies need regular water – daily at first -- which is why they’re put in Zone 1 where they won’t be forgotten. Many fruit trees, perennials and food-bearing shrubs need regular water only when young, in adulthood are very water-thrifty, with deep roots.
15. START WITH A SMALL AREA, THEN EXPAND
It is much more effective to work on a small area first and then expand to further areas if you find you can manage them in the time you have available for gardening. Usually it’s best to start with Zone 1 and work outwards. But sometimes folks just plant one or two fruit trees in Zone 2 of their existing garden and expand from there.
16. SHOP FOR BARE-ROOT BARGAINS IN JANUARY
The most
inexpensive way to get fruit trees, deciduous shrubs and even artichokes and
strawberries is to purchase them “bare root” in January. If you live in a warm climate, don’t
forget to focus on plants that are “low-chill” and don’t mind our mild
climate. There is a good list of
low-chill varieties at the Bay Laurel Nursery
(
17. JOIN OR START A NEIGHBORHOOD EXCHANGE AND GROW SOME PLANTS THAT YOUR NEIGHBORS DON’T GROW
Visit www.sbfoodnotlawns.org for more info on the rapidly-multiplying local Neighborhood Exchanges, where people share food, seeds, baked goodies and extra stuff as well as good company. And put in some plants that you can bring to your neighborhood exchange – things that everyone else doesn’t grow. For example, most local neighborhoods on the Central Coast of California don’t need more citrus or avocado trees, but could really benefit from other fruits (for example, plumcots, apricots, pluots) and protein-rich nuts as well as fresh veggies other than zucchini. Part of the fun is discovering new things to grow to exchange with your neighbors.
18. PUT IN SOME FOOD FOR THE NEEDY (PEOPLE AND ANIMALS)
Some gardeners like to plant “a row” to give to the Food Bank. Others designate an area of their garden as wildlife food or butterfly habitat. One of the Permaculture Ethical Principles is “Share the Surplus.” (The other principles: Care for the Earth and Care for the People).
19. PLANT SHRUBS AND FRUIT TREES IN WELLS
Create a well or doughnut shape around your new food-bearing shrubs or fruit trees, to hold in water. Not only does this keep young trees moist, but it also creates a nice planting area for moisture-loving plants (especially annuals) that can become part of the fruit tree “guild.” Some of these can be nitrogen-fixing plants like beans, peas or other legumes that will feed the soil and the tree. Beneficial-insect-attracting, flowering plants are a pretty touch, and some people like to put in onions and garlic. A circle of daffodils is said to repel gophers. As the tree grows up, this area will of course be more shaded, but in the early years you can provide a moist, sunny location for herbs and veggies.
20. GO FOR “FOSSIL-FREE” LANDSCAPING
Fossil-free landscaping has been promoted by local landscape architect Owen Dell, author of the excellent “Sustainable Landscaping for Dummies” book. Modern gardening has become mechanized with obnoxiously noisy, oil-dependent machines like blowers, gasoline-driven lawn mowers, weed whackers, etc. Imagine how quiet and peaceful our neighborhoods would be without these annoying sounds. Yes, you may occasionally need an electric saw to remove huge limbs and occasionally even permaculturists use earth-moving equipment to create ponds or swales, but mostly on a home property you can do just fine with hand tools like rakes, shovels, trowels and secateurs (clippers).
21. CONSIDER HAND WATERING.
If you really want to be super fossil-free, also try hand-watering to avoid putting toxic PVC “black snakes” all over your property.
We’re a time-starved, technology-loving culture and many of us had hoped that drip irrigation and a computerized irrigation system would solve all of our problems, making gardening a “hands-off” business. The truth is that unless you have a very large property, you may well be better off and more water-wise if you spend a few minutes hand-watering as you observe and tend your plants. That way you water only when plants really need it. If you plant in wells this is especially effective. We find the time spent watering is a kind of meditation and even ecotherapy. When you’re really relaxed you may find yourself observing your plants and garden with new eyes. Also, your taste buds will appreciate the difference between fruit produced by trees that only receive water when they need it. The bloated, watery fruit in supermarkets is often the result of computerized, water-wasteful irrigation.
22. COVER THE GROUND WITH GREEN OR BROWN.
Nature abhors a vacuum. Try not to leave uncovered ground between your larger food-bearing plants. First, consider edible or otherwise useful low-growing plants. And you may want to consider water-wise native or Mediterranean plants or even ground covers like succulents that hold in water plus shade and protect the soil. Another option is a heavy layer of mulch (except around the trunks of trees). The goal is to avoid exposed bare ground which calls in the pioneer plants we sometimes call “weeds.”
23. WATCH FOR UNWANTED CRITTERS
By removing their predators we have “created the conditions for pests to happen.” Talk with others in your area about least-toxic and most-humane ways of controlling our area’s overpopulation of rats and gophers.
25. GET FREE GARDENING HELP FROM WORKING BIRDS
Creating welcoming habitat for songbirds and other birds not only provides the joy of their music but also calls in handy helpers who will happily eat those pesky bugs that want to share your harvest. Put out water and plant a few things “for the birds” and they will respond. We also leave the top layer of our fig tree for the birds, with plenty left over for ourselves.
26. BEAUTY IS AN IMPORTANT YIELD!
Especially if you’re putting edible landscaping in a front yard, be conscious of creating a beautiful garden. Add beneficial-attracting or edible flowers, and keep up the garden “housekeeping.” “Obtain a Yield” is an important Permaculture principle, and beauty is a valuable “yield.” And as we mentioned above, permaculturists also encourage us to obtain multiple yields from one plant. So a beautiful plant that also yields a tasty flower, leaf or fruit is a win-win. Flowers can also be a sellable crop. We’ve been told that flowers sell as well as veggies at the Farmers Market.
27. PAY ATTENTION TO INVISIBLE SYSTEMS.
If you’re a renter or are helping a renter get started with a garden, it’s wise not to forget that it can be a big mistake to make any substantial changes on a property without the permission of the actual legal owner. Considering social, economic and legal systems is part of any successful permaculture or edible landscaping design.
28. DON’T FORGET TO SMELL THE ROSES
Gardening is almost a spiritual meditation practice for those who love it. In addition to tending your garden, try to find time to just “be” in your beautiful, edible landscape. Put in some seating where you can smell the wafting herbal and floral smells, listen to the birds and enjoy your lemonade or wine in the cool of the early evening. Delight in the delicious sensual pleasure that now surrounds you… as the bees follow their age-old ritual of dipping into the hearts of fragrant flowers… the scrub jays squawk for peanuts…the hummingbirds dip their bills into brightly-colored trumpets or chase the spray from your hose… the colors of the swelling pumpkins call out to your eye… the flocks of baby bushtits discover your birdbath and indulge in an orgy of splashing… the native wasps perch on the fennel or carrot umbels, catching the last rays of the waning sunlight… and the fragrance of fresh earth, fragrant blooms and tangy herbs reminds you of the eternal truth that, as religious teachers have always told us, paradise is a garden.
Happy gardening!