I've had an idea in the back of my mind for some time about designing a garden in a somewhat naturalistic style, which includes edible plants as the primary (though not exclusive) planting materials. While surely not an original idea, this seems to be a rare design choice in modern American landscapes. Most edible landscapes do not seem to be part of an overall larger design, but rather, are typically laid out in a formal, utilitarian manner, often as a small plot within the larger garden, and with little in the way of aesthetic consideration.

My exploration of this design idea is still in its infancy, so I am looking for examples of, and inspiration for such a garden. Today I saw an online article that talks about a book entitled "Feast Your Eyes: The Unexpected Beauty Of Vegetable Gardens",which may provide some ideas for me. Also mentioned was the example of the French jardin de cure, described in general terms as an edible version of the English cottage garden. Perhaps the French have got this thing down with their potagers, as it is reported that nearly a quarter of the fruits and vegetables consumed by the French are home grown.

Any thoughts on this type of design, as well as suggested reading would be appreciated.
Thanks.

"A New World Order"??

"You vill grow potatoes aesthetically! Und like it!!!

Anyway, I tried to include only herbs, veggies, good cutting flowers, and flowers like marigolds which can assist the health of other flowers. Almost everything in the plan has some value or reason for being there (other than the purely aesthetic).

Cardoon/artichoke next to lavander next to purple oregano etc.

Rainbow chard mixed with "Bishop's children" dahlias and hot peppers (peppers probably won't ripen in this climate, but you gotta try...)

Rubarb, currants, fruiting vines like kiwi and grape, rugosa roses (grown for the hips).

My strategy was to use food plants just as I would use ornamental perennials in terms of plant spacing and color etc. The effect is a cottage garden, but I don't think most people would spot the veggies straight off.

You can get away with this pretty easily in the Pacific Northwest--same might not be true in other locales.

Last summer I spent several weeks traveling in Austria. We stayed with in-laws in a summer home in the countryside. I was unnerved in the mornings because there was virtually no bird song. I was told that "Oh, we used to have birds, but we have so many cats around here …" I was dumbfounded. I have lived here and there and know that feral cats are a problem, but this simplistic assumption didn't fit with the eerie silence. Back home … where there is just as much of a feral cat problem, the bird concert begins around 4:00a.m. and is layered and textured with many rhythms and melodies all day long. Ironically, Europeans are far ahead of us in the strictness of their environmental laws, but they may have waited too long to start.

Where have the birds gone? And, how long will we insist on inadequate explanations for the growing silence?

As for landscape designers? There might be more for them to do, rather than less. The best of them are gifted problem solvers with expertise in how to help humans live more lightly upon the earth.

Wellspring

Makes me think, once again, of the children's song:

"Pulling weeds and pickin' stones
Man is made from dreams and bones
Feel the need to grow my own
'Cause the time is close at hand

Grain for grain, sun and rain
Find my way in nature's chain
Tune my body and my brain
To the music from the land"

Patty

Our copy is quite dog-eared. ;)

melanie

Mine is not a design comment, but I'm wondering if you have heard of the 100 Mile Diet. The idea is that one eats only food that is grown, processed and packaged within 100 miles of your home. It's more difficult than it may sound, especially for those living in densely populated urban areas or other places that are not conducive to farming.

Here is a quote about the diet, followed by the internet source:

"When the average North American sits down to eat, each ingredient has typically travelled at least 1,500 miles—call it "the SUV diet." On the first day of spring, 2005, Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon chose to confront this unsettling statistic with a simple experiment. For one year, they would buy or gather their food and drink from within 100 miles of their apartment in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Since then, James and Alisa have gotten up-close-and-personal with issues ranging from the family-farm crisis to the environmental value of organic pears shipped across the globe. They've reconsidered vegetarianism and sunk their hands into community gardening. They've eaten a lot of potatoes."

http://100milediet.org/category/about/

http://thetyee.ca/Life/2005/06/28/HundredMileDiet/

It saddens me when people are unaware of the potential problems in thinking they live in an isolated micro-enviroment...an island on a suburban lot as Wellspring said. I garden, veggies and everything, completely organically. (Alright, I feed my container-ed annuals with Miracle-Gro once in awhile) But nothing that's been chemically enhanced, shall we say, touches my soil. That is not to say that there aren't any environmentally safe options; it's just that I haven't researched them enough to know and what I do is working for me.

But I get aggravated when I see neighbors bringing in the Chem-Lawn trucks and spraying all nature of things around their yards. We are on wells where I live and share the water table. I wonder what's getting in there. I also wonder about people resurfacing their driveways all the time. That stuff is incredibly toxic! Unneccesary as well.

But people believe what they want to believe about what is safe and what is healthy and what is "right". It has been my experience that gentle education and example is the best way to change people's minds. It would help if our leaders were more interested in "living lightly" as well.

I guess what we can do is to spread some compost and put our veggies in the front yard.

Patty

Don't know about Austria but deforestation in humid tropics is reducing migratory songbird prescence in other northern areas. Many of the summer birds spend much of the year in tropical forests. No forests, no birds.

Long time members of MOFGA, we also participate in "plant a row for the hungry". Sometimes it's a pain to harvest and cart it down the food pantry... but it's generally the first stuff taken.

:)

I'm glad that you mentioned Plant A Row, too. We used to do that when we had a community garden and before kids when we could grow more. Now, I have a small garden that, except for zucchini, gets eaten entirely by my family. The zucchini gets pawned off on anyone who wants it. However, you have me thinking and next year I will definitely make room in my garden to "Plant A Row for the Hungry". Thanks.

Patty (p.s. Chelone: I'll be there tomorrow! I'll be there tomorrow!)

chelone, just yesterday I read an article about a local farmers' program now having a delivery point near to us. I got all the info and it looks great.

Seriously, though, if your state has an Organic Farming/Agriculture association you will be able to find wonderful resources for the plan you're hatching. Maine has been a leader for many years now, a trip to the Common Ground Fair is a blast and fascinating!

Here are a few more; if you can't find them at Amazon, you might try Alibris, they specialize in out of print books:

"Gaia, an Atlas of Planet Management", general editor Dr. Norman Myers, c.1984, Anchor Press. Actually very general, but does a good job of presenting interconnectedness and how lil' ol' you and I fit into the big picture. Good bathroom book.

Or this little gem from the 1940s!:

"The 'Have More' Plan", by Ed. and Carolyn Robinson. Our copy is in paperback, a 16th. printing from April 1981, GardenWay publishing. I paid about $1 for it on a close out wagon in front of little bookstore. (This the original "back to the land" handbook, and it's full of very practical information, even some pretty funny references to DDT. :) )

Think about enclosing your garden space with turkey wire strung on strong cedar poles. On the outside of the fence espalier dwarf fruit trees. Attractive, a fun project which should yield excellent fruit crops. You will, of course, read the Ruth Stout books. Her method of gardening encourages the growth of mycorrhizal fungus which is the secret to good plant growth in tight spaces. If you are not familiar with that term, do a search. All sorts of information available.

It is important to remember that some veggies such as tomatoes and peppers must be alternated each growing season. This aids in preventing disease problems. So, planning as to what crop will grow where in the garden each year is important. ie., plant tomatoes next year where you grew marigolds this year.

As with all things related to design/gardening, much of it is common sense. Study, experiment, learn. Part of design is healthy, well placed plants and each year you will adjust your plantings so they compliment each other. It is a growing/learning experience and each spring will find you making changes, trying new combinations.

"The Postage Stamp Garden Book" by Duane Newcomb c.1975, J.P. Tarcher, Inc. (Houghton Mifflin)

This is an excellent book for small spaces; so is the "Have More" plan. So is, "Blue Corn & Square Tomatoes" by Rebecca Rupp, c. 1987, Garden Way Publishing

I'll stop now... really.

Well,around here, they haven't. My woods and yard are as noisy as ever. It's all I can do to keep the feeders full (and it's not just the squirrels). I've got a pair of scarlet tanagers nesting close by--I've seen the male and heard both. (Not that I'll ever see them at the feeders!)

Regular visitors to my feeders include gold finches, house finches, titmice, chickadees, carolina wrens, common house sparrows, blue jays, nuthatches, cardinals (there's a pair raising their second clutch in my Buff Beauty rose), I could go on for a long while. I regularly see a blue heron fishing in the creek behind the house--there's a pair of Barred owls nesting somewhere close (we hear them)--and the hawks aree having a good time this season. All of this IN Chapel Hill, NC. (I live near the public library.) I love my birds...and do what I can to keep my yard "bird friendly." There's a snag that ought to come down for design reasons that I leave in place--the woodpeckers seem to like it. (I keep hoping one of the three varietites will nest there...no luck so far!)

My sister lives in the NE- (Boston area) and she says speculation is that West Nile has been responsible for the recent dramatic loss of birdlife in their area. (As opposed to the gradual loss from habitat loss in the wintering grounds.)

Catkim--I'm with you on the 'maters. Actually--I buy all my fruit and veg as locally as I can. What little sun I have is for flowers!

melanie

I'm also lucky enough to be able to buy pastured poultry, and local lamb, pork and beef. I get free range eggs from a neighbor up the road.

I'm also a garden consultant, so I talk to people about gardens, and I've been involved in raising pastured poultry as well. All of you interested in our individual relationship to the sources of our food should read Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma. This is not a heavy read--in fact, it's quite entertaining, but Pollan makes clear a lot of relationships that I've never seen before in anything but farm (non-traditional)magazines like The Stockman Grass Farmer.

Like Pollan, I believe that agriculture should be re-regionalized, so most of our food is grown locally. Better for consumers, better for the quality of plants and animals, better for the farmer, better for the environment. Pollan shows that organic is still industrialized production, and when you read his book you'll understand why calling a broiler free-range is nothing but a marketing ploy and what pastured poultry is and why it's the only real alternative. And wait till you read his discussion of corn.

I find this intriguing however: I am also in Washington State, and have a "natural" woodland style garden - the kind almost EVERYONE seems to have. You know the type - conifers, about a dozen Rhododendrons, Kinnikinnick, and lots of Juniper. These gardens are nice -- but ubiquitous when you've lived here twenty years.

Given that, we want to move AWAY from that style to something more formal and Colonial - sheared yews and boxwood, a manicured lawn area, with more emphasis on form than color but ample amounts of both. It celebrates a simpler time, before the Industrial Revolution, when man was closer to the core principles that gave us our Constitution and therefore the freedom to even own property in the first place.

As far as the chicken-little aspect goes with regard to fuel, the free market will take care of everything - provided the Government does not step in on behalf of special interest groups (Oil on the Right, and "traditional" alternative energy on the Left) to squash innovation.

I read that before the white man came, America was one solid forest from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River.

Before we start pointing fingers at Tropical forest losses we should also re-examine the loss of temperate forests here at home too.

-Ron-

By what I've read, if you want to use gray water (washing machine, sinks) for the landscape, you'd best not ask for government permission- the regulations will kill the project!

Here's to us chickens!

Wellspring

Westy1941

Regarding birds, many people underestimate there importance, birds are invaluable to us because they are resposible for spreading the forests. They spread seeds from mullberries and cherries andapples and pears and all sorts of fruit trees providing a source of food for us to use if we really need to, and they also spread nonfruiting seeds as well, and those grow into trees and bushes too, soaking carbon dioxide up from the air and providing a fuel source should we need it. anyways back to the main topic.

Rhubarb makes agreat foundation planting, the heat off the house can lead to a very early harvest and it can be a great source of food to restore dwindleing winter stocks fast. Strawberries can be laid out in curving rows below bushes to form attractive plantings. Cherry trees are often fantastically ornamental in spring, and blueberries provide a bit of winter interest. Scarlet runner beans produce well as a green screen covering the south sides of houses in spring and fall. Grapes hardy Kiwi and Hops (I know, its more of a spice, but beer is important too dagummit) can also provide great shade in the summer, even shade for two storry houses roofs. in the hot summer months peas can be grown in shade in many locations. Man flowers are themselves edible; Nasturtiums are completely edible, leaves and all; roses not only produce edible hips but the petals are edible aswell, if you are careful you can harvest the petals first and the hips later; Violas and Pansies are edibe; Marigolds are edible aswell and offer a significant degree of protection from nematodes in the soil that attack tom's and pots. Garlic, Chives, Leeks, and Onions are also easy to grow and provide a degree of protection, and these can be easily fit into corners of a garden.

there are also medicinals to be grown, given the right kind of wood/grain medium mushrooms can be grown anywere, even in your root cellar. You can grow your own digitalis if you use it, untill not too long ago digitalis was issued from pharmacies in leaf form (fox glove) although some effort would need to be put into regulating the doseage.
Asparagus is another early season producer, goes well planted along fence rows. and there are a miriad of great trees to choose for an orchard, some plants will even atract deer and squirels, which are edible aswell.
Animals also fit into this story, guinea fowl and muscovy ducks provide eggs and pest controll. Sheep are an excilent way to keep a lawn trimmed (especially cosidering that the entire reason that lawns were developed was to mimic the look of sheep pastures.) if you have an acre or two of pasture land you can consider alpacas for wool rather than sheep, or if food is more interesting to you dexter miniature cattle produce more milk for there wieght than any other cow, a very high cream content aswell. I tend to dislike goats because billies will spoil the milk and they will strip the bark off of your trees.

There are just so many things to talk about, I wish I could cram them all in. oh, rooftop gardening is a great place to go too, No deer or rabits to eat your hard work, Wyat Erp (sp?) grew veggies on his roof top when he lived here in AK to keep them out of the mooses stomach. and it really does keep your house warmer in winter and cooler in summer.

My garden has plants for beauty and, if needed, for function -- the daylilies are entirely edible, from flower buds to roots (I shocked a client by popping a daylily bud in my mouth after she told me she hated daylilies and wanted them ripped out of her garden); violets, roses, mints and the usual garden herbs such as chives, parsley, sage and thyme grow "wild" in the gravel and beds, providing food for me and for butterflies; the stands of yarrow could provide a poultice if I need one to stanch a bleeding wound. I can chew willow bark to ease a headache.

Milkweed and pokeweed shoots that thrive along the driveway with the tansy and strawberries can offer a fresh spring salad. A tumble of grapevines laden with this year's harvest scrambles over a chainlink fence, obscuring its ugliness entirely. There are female and male kiwi vines; akebia (two types for cross-fertilization); native mayapple; lots of hosta -- the shoots make a good lettuce substitute -- and fiddleheads from the ferns.

The garden pool has arrowhead, the tubers of which are edible. Sweetflag and houttaynia ("dokudame" to the Japanese and "chamaeleon plant in North America) offer flavoring. In a trough of native andromeda, I planted wintergreen for its mouth-freshening berries and the fragrance of its leaves. Blueberry bushes are gradually replacing the burning bush euonymus that came with the house. In back, there bamboo grows -- the culled canes are free garden stakes, and the shoots are edible if you steam them tender.

This year I added serviceberry - my favorite for its blueberry-like fruit.

That is a partial list. I'm always adding new stuff or finding "volunteers" in the garden such as chokeberry seedlings. The real prize is the wildlife that inhabit my tiny area, from monarch butterflies laying their eggs on the milkweed, to resident green frogs, butterflies, dragonflies and hoverflies, and birds aplenty.

Boy, would I love to do a roof garden! Sempervivums and sedums would be perfect for the rubber roof over the sunroom...

As for the birds (and bees) they're still around, but as gardeners we can do a lot to keep them coming back. I can't control what happens in the tropics (not directly) but I can plant flowers and plants that bring birds into the yard and give bumblebees food throughout the growing season. With the decline in honeybees in our area, bumblebees are even more important for fruit and some vegetable pollination.

While this thread is a little "gloom and doom" at times, I think it's good to remember, you may not change the world, but you can make a difference in your own space :)

I consider it something of a fad, simply because most people are mediocre gardeners with absolutely no idea of how much work farming really is. The guy who authored the "$150 tomato" book was a hysterical commentary on how far off course we can get.

Still, bee hives and chickens are popping up on many blocks in urban neighborhoods, including ours. The folks over on the Cottage Gardening forum occasionally discuss growing veggies with their flowers, as that was a tradition with the original English cottage gardens that serve as our inspiration.

they deal in permaculture, which is a design to maximize the proper organic use of your property to provide as much as you can to get you off the grid.

also the www.homesteadingtoday.com forums are really good but the site is down right now for repairs..check it next week.

Sammie, I grew eggplants successfully in Seattle. Grow the little Asian ones that get only 3-4 inches long. They ripen faster, have thinner skins, and a more delicate taste. Eggplants are very pretty and my friends were amazed that those "pretty plants" were producing food! Just be sure they get all the sun they possibly can. Do not shade them.

Rain2Fall