Review: Edible Landsaping

Wow.  Just wow.  I think Rosalind Creasy might just be my idol in the way that Taylor Swift is to 12-year olds.

By my estimation, Edible Landscaping might just be the perfect vegetable garden book.  Not only does it go into the basic mechanics of edible gardens-- light, soil, nutrients, required growing conditions for plants, etc.-- but it also goes into the complex (and fun!) world of garden design.  With case studies on how real home owners planned their gardens (one is from Arlington, too!), descriptions of basic design principles to keep in mind and lots of gorgeous pictures for inspiration, this book really takes you from A-to-Z. 

Now, you maybe thinking: "Um, I have a vegetable garden, not an edible landscape."  And, to that I say: "Why do vegetable gardens have to be ugly?" Incorporating flowers to attract pollinators and beneficial insects is not only pretty, but practical.  And, putting a little extra thought into the arrangement of your planting (like, maybe instead of rows of lettuce,  maybe a checkerboard pattern), you can get some lovely results.

Furthermore, why does food have to be limited to the *vegetable* garden?  In Arlington with our tiny lots, sometimes your front yard is what is blessed with sun.  I have been working to make my front yard more productive already, but Edible Landscapes has given that new energy.  I had been thinking about maybe a Wisteria frutescens to grow by my door, but now I'm leaning towards a grape vine.  How amazing would that be?!  We'd have grapes (either eating ones or ones to make juice/jam) and grape leaves!  In the winter, the gnarled bark of the grape vines is striking too and perfectly front yard appropriate.  I'm also going to tuck in some anise hyssop (an herb) into my cottage-garden style front plantings.  She's also got some lovely ideas on how to use groups of pots to grow food which I think I'm going to try to incorporate in our vegetable garden area (which is being finished today!). 


She's also written books specifically on edible flower gardening and edible herb gardening that go into more detail on those topics.  I can't wait to get my grubby little hands on those.

Review: Great New Book Out with Container Gardening Emphasis

I'm a big fan of Gayla Trail, author of You Grow Girl and now Grow Great Grub. My reasons for adoration are simple: She advocates paying lots of attention to soil health & fertility, she makes gardening both young & hip, and she truly believes anyone can garden anywhere.

Ahhhhh....music to my ears. Especially the "anyone can garden anywhere" part. There are many things that work in shade, scorching hot, drought, windy, wet and other conditions. Gardening, especially edible gardening, used to be such a part of our daily life. And now it's a past time often left for retired grannies or crazy cat ladies with piles of newspaper. Thankfully, I feel like this stereotype is slowly changing; I've noticed many Gen-X & Gen-Yers are showing a "budding" interest in how things grow. I mean, frankly, if I can grow plants, anyone can. I'm pretty lazy.

Her latest book really focuses on edible gardening and includes easy-to-understand sections on soil (how to have good soil, what to use in containers, how to increase fertility, etc.), profiles of edible plants (growing requirements), garden-related crafts and recipes. All of this is put into one beautiful, interesting and fun package. Love it.

So, I bought myself a copy. Most of the information isn't new to me, although she does have several recipes, crafts and general gardening ideas I am dying to try out. I would highly recommend this book for anyone just starting out with gardening in general (would be a great housewarming gift for new homeowners that have expressed an interested in edible or container gardening, for example) or maybe someone that has "gotten their feet wet" with a few vegetable crops and wants to expand their horizons.

This book has definitely rekindled my desire to work more edibles into my ornamental landscaping. If anything good has come from the series of Snowpocalypses that we had this year, it's that some seriously ugly bushes in my front yard got damaged beyond repair. I'm going to wait to see how the light is there over the next few months (I never bothered to notice before since the bushes were mature), and perhaps replace them with blueberries and raspberries.

A line of blueberry bushes would make a lovely hedge, don't you think? Would just need to net them somehow otherwise my over-zealous robins would eat them all out of spite for me!

My First Year Garden: Lessons Learned

Technically, this wasn't my first year gardening. I'd grown veggies in pots last year. However, this year was my first concerted effort at actually producing instead of experimenting with which spots got the best light & such in the yard. And, geez, I've learned a lot this year. From an indoor aphid infestation to first strawberries to fall vegetables left for dead, there was good, bad & ugly!

Here are my lessons learned:

1. Start peppers indoors earlier than the other vegetables. They take longer to germinate.
2. Get another grow light or start fewer things from seeds. My seedlings were far too crowded which resulted, I think, in leggy purple basil.
3. When I plant outside, lay out a soaker hose. This will make irrigation easier in the summer when the rains stop. (Wrangling a hose through and around tomato plants heavy with baby tomatoes is not fun. Some precious darlings get knocked off!). Or, figure out some drip irrigation scheme.
   
4. Plant tomatoes at the end of the bed or in the back so they don't shade the peppers.
5. Plant selection: Sungolds are keepers, Wonder Lights are blah.
6. In January or February, mark the planting dates for the entire year on my Outlook calendar. And set reminders!
7. Net my ground cherries. I only got 5 last year from my garden & the rest went to the blasted robins.

And, 2010 will be the year of me tracking garden expenses and weighing garden yields. My garden is certainly my hobby and not a money-saving venture, but I am interested in its impact on our budget.