garden news-foodscaping

GARDEN NEWS-FOODSCAPING

when we first moved to the country n i started planting a lot of trees on our 10 acres
i even ordered native trees from the forest service
it was cedar and flame sumac that took the best


over time as my native hackberries died which they all do i replaced them with burr oak or mexican white oak or cedar elm or cypress which are mostly native to that part of the country
eventually i had planted enough of these native trees

i also planted a lot of native and xeric perennials like salvia greggi copper canyon daisy lantana jerusalem sage ladybanks rose xemenia etc

so
i decided that no longer would i plant anything like a tree or a shrub on the property unless we could eat it

that is what foodscaping is 
plant things in your landscape that you can eat

i planted peaches pecans blackberries apples plums grapes lots of herbs like oregano rosemary thyme sage
in fact the flower bed that extended along our large living room was all oregano
we always had oregano
the bees loved the flowers on them when they bloomed
the bees especially loved the rosemary flowrs

thats foodscaping

we added a fig tree near the entry to our back door
you could take a step out the door and pluck a fig for a snack
it also provided shade for our kitchen door

thats foodscaping

on our 50 ft arbor i planted the native grape since it was tough and disease free
mainly the birds ate the grapes but we could have made grape jelly out of it
we mainly let the birds enjoy them
we could have added a better grape but i was satisfied with the tougher native grapes

thats foodscaping


just beyond the arbor i added this keyhole garden using an old 8 ft in diameter water trough

it was kept planted with veggies all year
while we lived there we grew potatoes tomatoes squash onions garlic egg plant lettuce cabbage kale 
you name it we planted that vegetable in it

thats foodscaping


later we added citrus trees in pots 
where we lived you couldnt grow them in the ground since they would freeze
i moved my potted citrus plants into my small greenhouse for the winter
we planted the limes in the picture at the top of this blog
we also grew meyer lemons
these cara cara oranges were grown in our community garden
but 
if you lived in the right environment you could plant a citrus tree in your landscape
its always green
and
you get to eat its fruit

thats foodscaping
 
at the country n i didnt really put veggies out in landscape since i used the keyhole bed above
but
you could put in your landscape beds things like kale or the colorful swiss chard or a pepper plant or two or even a good ole tomato or celery or cilantro or onions or leeks or garlic or broccoli or cabbage or cauliflower
you just tuck them in somewhere 

thats foodscaping

you just want to make sure your landscape is organic and you arent adding poisons to your foodscaping veggies
especially things like weed and feed which wont let your veggies grow and will poison your kids and pets

heck if you dont have a yard you could even do foodscaping in pots on your patio or deck

look around 
i bet you can find a spot for them
enjoy how nice they look and how well they taste

heck you probably are already fertilizing and watering the areas anyway 

you should try foodscaping your yard

the organicgreen doctor