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Green Velvet Landscape: 50 years and growing

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PORTSMOUTH — If you’ve ever walked by the back entrance of Piscataqua Savings Bank, chances are you’ve taken the time to stop and smell the fresh flowers.

The outdoor arrangement, which over the years has served as a background for many photographs and constant praise from passersby, consists of everything from rudbeckias, echinaceas, petunias, marigolds and begonias.

As the person responsible for the upkeep of the many perennials and annuals, Jim Piper said that each and every time he watches someone stop and admire the flowers, he is reminded of why he continues to operate his landscaping business, Green Velvet Landscape.

“People stop me and say the gardens are so beautiful,” Piper said. “That says it all.”

Having tended to the downtown gardens for the past 35 years, Piper said it’s not uncommon for between 15 and 20 people to stop him while he works in the flower beds throughout the week.

The admiration, mixed with a love for landscaping, is what Piper said keeps him doing what he’s doing year after year.

Piper was only 14 years old when he started working at Green Velvet Landscape, which was founded in 1963 and run by Gordon Gaskell.

After putting in his time at the landscaping company, Piper went into business with Gaskell in 1970. A decade later, Piper took over the business, and a short time later, sold a burgeoning garden center on Central Road in order to concentrate on the landscaping side of the company.

This year, Piper is celebrating the company’s 50th year in business. Now 63, Piper said he credits the company’s longevity to not only the solid foundation built by Gaskell, but also to the continued attention he pays to the detail and quality of his landscaping.

“You do it because you love to do it,” Piper said.

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Bud ‘n Bloom visits Laurie Ensign’s Dunkirk garden

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The Bud ‘n Bloom Garden Club visited a two-year-old Dunkirk garden owned by Laurie Ensign. From the street, large barrels of assorted annuals welcomed the 17 club members to the garden.

Ensign created a large, curving, asymmetrical garden of flowering perennials and annuals which extends from Central Avenue to the parking area located behind the brick home.

Ensign first cleared the heavy underbrush beneath the tall Mountain Ash and pine trees that were left to afford partial shade for the garden.

A wide variety of garden decor, hanging baskets of annuals, colorful gazing balls and huge boulders add interest, contrast and whimsey to the enchanting gardens.

White cone flowers, red monarda, purple bee balm and foot white oriental lilies were perennial stand-outs.

Purple and pink fushias, yellow and pink trailing petunias and red mandevilla plants spilled over hanging pots supported by gardening hooks of different heights.

Clematis plants crawled up trees and metal supports to add to vertical interest in the garden.

All the landscaping surrounding the residence had been replaced when the home was purchased three years prior. Ensign shared her plans to clear and plant the sloped land behind the parking area, extending her gardens to the creek below. About 20 yards of dark mulch had been wheelbarrowed in each year to provide a thick base for the flower beds to discourage weeds from growing and to retain moisture for the plants to grow quickly.

As the guests circled the home, many interesting areas were noted. One area by the patio had a tree with wide, sprawling branches hanging close to the ground. Tucked in among the hostas was a log covered with hens and chicken succulents and a beautiful ceramic young girl positioned on a bench in the shade.

Near the garden shed a fountain flowed and flower boxes held trailing lime green and purple sweet potato vines.

Ensign generously gave the club members two huge containers of Canna Lily bulbs to share. This particular canna lily variety will boast large green, veined leaves and huge, bright red, tropical-looking blooms this fall.

The tour ended just as a powerful rain storm showered the area. Instead of a picnic at Point Gratiot, the group traveled to the home of Karen and John Ryder in Fredonia.

Lime green ladies mantle, white shasta daisies, golden rudbeckia, old-fashioned roses and pink coneflowers highlighted the Ryder flower gardens. A 7-foot fence enclosed the bountiful vegetable garden at the rear of the property below steps covered with succulents and covered with a rose arbor.

Ryder’s gardening creations included: a colorful, succulent wreath decorating the patio table, a hypertufa flower pot and a leaf-shaped bird bath to create interest, a fountain spraying water in a bed of Florida sea shells near the steps leading into the Victorian home. and a petite arrangement of daisies and lady’s mantle created in an old-fashioned meat grinder attached to the side board.

Ryder served a dinner of assorted pocket sandwiches, cheeses, fruits and homemade peach and red raspberry pie, with fresh-squeezed lemonade and tea and coffee.

The dining tables were covered with linen table cloths and decorated with a line of clear bud vases filled with sprigs of babies’ breath.

President Susan Drag conducted a brief meeting. Drag and Kathy Litz assisted the Ryders.

The next meeting will be a visit to Nass’s Daylily Nursery in Westfield on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. Penny Deakin will be the hostess.

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Associated Garden Clubs keeps city beautiful

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If you go

What: Associated Garden Clubs annual tour

When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday

Tickets: $10, children 11 and younger are free; available at Judy’s Enchanted Garden, 2628 W. Northwest Blvd. and Northwest Seed Pet, 2422 E. Sprague Ave., or at any of the featured gardens during the tour.

Gardens: Gloria and Jim Waggoner/Paulsen House garden and Myrtle White Paulsen Meditation Garden, 245 E. 13th Ave.; Jane and Sam Joseph, 1910 S. Upper Terrace Road; Breck and Elaine Breckenridge, 31 W. 37th Ave.; Barbara and Will Murray, 1004 W. 23rd Ave.; and Norma Norton, 729 E. 23rd Ave.

Call: (509) 448-3037

One thing I’ve always enjoyed about Spokane is the community spirit that is driven by the many social organizations and clubs.

One of the clubs that has been an integral part of Spokane development is the Associated Garden Clubs. The group has its roots with the formation of the Spokane Floral Association in 1896; the first garden club in the state of Washington. This was during City Beautiful era in America when garden clubs and other civic groups promoted beautification through the development of gardens in blighted areas. Spokane was part of this movement and between 1900 and the early 1930s, the city’s many neighborhood garden clubs helped develop green spaces throughout the city.

In 1933, the Associated Garden Clubs, the Spokane Floral Association and six other garden and community clubs came together to have Spokane declared the Lilac City after Portland was designated the Rose City. The City Beautiful efforts did have their competitive side.

In 1938, inspired by the new Portland Rose Festival, the groups held the first Lilac Festival Flower Show that featured displays of French, Persian and Chinese lilacs. On the side there was a small parade. The Davenport Hotel’s lobby was filled with bouquets of lilacs for the occasion. The first Lilac queen and court were selected in 1940, and the parade evolved into our current Armed Forces Torchlight Parade. Today the parade is managed by the independent Lilac Festival Association.

After the Lilac Festival was spun off, the Associated Garden Clubs’ neighborhood-based groups continued their work beautifying the city and creating green spaces and small pocket parks. Many of the small odd triangles of land created by the intersection of streets on Spokane’s South Hill were planted and cared for by various AGC neighborhood garden clubs. Being a member of your neighborhood garden club was an important way for women in the 1940s and ’50s to become involved in the community. Today it is still an important way to engage with like-minded neighbors. Many of the original clubs are still active including Lincoln Heights, Manito, Rockwood and Spokane.

In 1986 the Associated Garden Clubs created their now famous April Plant Sale and held the city’s first garden tour as a way of showing off some of the city’s great private gardens. The sale and tour also helped raise funds to support beautification projects all over the city and scholarships for the Lilac Festival Court.

Some of the places that have benefited from these events include Manito Park, gardens and landscaping around schools, the downtown YWCA, Spokane Civic Theatre, Riverfront Park, Hospice of Spokane, the Turner-Moore Heritage Gardens and Polly Judd Park.

Pat Munts has gardened in Spokane Valley for more than 35 years. She can be reached at pat@inland nwgardening.com.

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Trowel & Glove: Marin gardening calendar for the week of Aug. 10, 2013

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Marin

• The Marin Open Garden Project encourages residents to bring their excess backyard-grown fruit and vegetables to the following locations for a free exchange with other gardeners on Saturdays: Mill Valley from 10 to 11 a.m. on the Greenwood School front porch at 17 Buena Vista Ave.; San Anselmo from 9 to 10 a.m. at the San Anselmo Town Hall Lawn; San Rafael from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. in Sun Valley Park at K and Solano streets; San Rafael from 9 to 10 a.m. at Pueblo Park on Hacienda Way in Santa Venetia; San Rafael from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. at the Terra Linda Community Garden at 850 Nova Albion Way; and Novato at the corner of Ferris Drive and Nova Lane from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Go to www.opengardenproject.org or email contact@opengarden project.org.

• West Marin Commons offers a weekly harvest exchange at 1:30 p.m. Saturdays at the Livery Stable gardens on the commons in Point Reyes Station. Go to www.westmarin commons.org.

• The Marin County Outdoor Antique Market, with antiques, collectibles, books, jewelry, art, rugs and vintage furniture, is from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Aug. 11 in the parking lot of the Marin County Veterans Memorial Auditorium at 10 Avenue of the Flags in San Rafael. Free. Call 383-2552 or go to www.golden gateshows.com.

• The Novato Independent Elders Program seeks volunteers to help Novato seniors with their overgrown yards on Tuesday mornings or Thursday afternoons. Call 899-8296.

• Volunteers are sought to help in Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy nurseries from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays at Tennessee Valley, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesdays at Muir Woods or 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays or 9 a.m. to noon Saturdays in the Marin Headlands. Call 561-3077 or go to www.parksconservancy.org/volunteer.

• Tony Mekisich speaks about “Rose Garden Irrigation” at a Marin Rose Society program at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 13 at the San Rafael Corporate Center at 750 Lindaro St. in San Rafael. $5. Call 457-6045.

• The Marin Organic Glean Team is seeking volunteers to harvest extras from the fields for the organic school lunch and gleaning program from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesdays at various farms. A community potluck picnic follows. Call 663-9667 or go to www.marinorganic.org.

• Jenny Stroebel speaks about “Best Combination of Plants” at a Peacock Garden Club meeting at 11 a.m. Aug. 14 at the Falkirk Cultural Center at 1408 Mission Ave. in San Rafael. Call 453-2816.

• Katherine Randolph of Marin Master Gardeners speaks about “Fire Safe Landscaping” at noon Aug. 16 in the Board of Supervisors Chambers in Room 330 at 3501 Civic Center Drive in San Rafael. Free. Call 473-6058 or 472-4204 or go www.marinlibrary.org or www.marinmg.org.

• The SPAWN (Salmon Protection and Watershed Network) native plant nursery days are from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Fridays and weekends. Call 663-8590, ext. 114, or email jonathan@tirn.net to register and for directions.

• Marin Open Garden Project (MOGP) volunteers are available to help Marin residents glean excess fruit from their trees for donations to local organizations serving people in need and to build raised beds to start vegetable gardens through the MicroGardens program. MGOP also offers a garden tool lending library. Go to www.opengarden project.org or email contact@opengardenproject.org.

• Marin Master Gardeners and the Marin Municipal Water District offer free residential Bay-Friendly Garden Walks to MMWD customers. The year-round service helps homeowners identify water-saving opportunities and soil conservation techniques for their landscaping. Call 473-4204 to request a visit to your garden.

San Francisco

• The Conservatory of Flowers, at 100 John F. Kennedy Drive in Golden Gate Park, displays permanent galleries of tropical plant species as well as changing special exhibits from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays. $2 to $7. Call 831-2090 or go to www. conservatoryofflowers.org.

• The San Francisco Botanical Garden Society, at Ninth Avenue and Lincoln Way in Golden Gate Park, offers several ongoing events. $7; free to San Francisco residents, members and school groups. Call 661-1316 or go to www.sf botanicalgarden.org. Free docent tours leave from the Strybing Bookstore near the main gate at 1:30 p.m. weekdays, 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. weekends; and from the north entrance at 2 p.m. Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Groups of 10 or more can call ahead for special-focus tours.

Around the Bay

• Cornerstone Gardens is a permanent, gallery-style garden featuring walk-through installations by international landscape designers on nine acres at 23570 Highway 121 in Sonoma. Free. Call 707-933-3010 or go to www.corner stonegardens.com.

• Garden Valley Ranch rose garden is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays at 498 Pepper Road in Petaluma. Self-guided and group tours are available. $2 to $10. Call 707-795-0919 or go to www.gardenvalley.com.

• The Luther Burbank Home at Santa Rosa and Sonoma avenues in Santa Rosa has docent-led tours of the greenhouse and a portion of the gardens every half hour from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays. $7. Call 707-524-5445.

• McEvoy Ranch at 5935 Red Hill Road in Petaluma offers tips on planting olive trees and has olive trees for sale by appointment. Call 707-769-4123 or go to www.mcevoy ranch.com.

• Wednesdays are volunteer days from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Occidental Arts and Ecology Center at 15290 Coleman Valley Road in Occidental. Call 707-874-1557, ext. 201, or go to www.oaec.org.

• Quarryhill Botanical Garden at 12841 Sonoma Highway in Glen Ellen offers third Saturday docent-led tours at 10 a.m. March through October. The garden covers 61 acres and showcases a large selection of scientifically documented wild source temperate Asian plants. The garden is open for self-guided tours from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. $5 to $10. Call 707-996-3166 or go to www.quarryhillbg.org.

The Trowel Glove Calendar appears Saturdays. Send high-resolution jpg photo attachments and details about your event to calendar@marinij.com or mail to Home and Garden Calendar/Lifestyles, Marin Independent Journal, 4000 Civic Center Drive, Suite 301, San Rafael, CA 94903. Items should be sent two weeks in advance. Photos should be a minimum of 1 megabyte and include caption information. Include a daytime phone number on your release.

—-

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Tweetery, Tweetery, Tweet: The Bird Friendly Landscape

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Very late at night, not quite dawn, the insects shush and the first bird says hello. If your garden is particularly bird friendly, lots of sweet tweeting and chirping and song-of-the-morning bird music greets  you before the sun arrives. And then, during the day, more birdsong fills the garden, making it a place of sound and motion, not just color and light and fragrance. And I swear, varieties of plants that are bird friendly tend to be hardier and lovelier than other plants.

sunflower in the cutting garden at CGC

sunflower in the cutting garden at CGC

If you’d like to make your garden a place birds want to hang out, sign up for The Bird Friendly Landscape, a class offered by Sue Trusty, Horticulturalist, on Thursday, August 22nd from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. It’s fun and interesting to incorporate plants in the landscape that will attract the interest of our flying friends. The presentation reveals the secrets to attracting birds to your yard using appropriate plants and landscaping. Also learn how to make your backyard a certified wildlife habitat. Go to the Civic Garden website for registration details.

Cindy Briggs

Posted in: classes, favorite, garden, Wildlife

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Filed Under: gardens and landscaping

Associated Garden Clubs keeps city beautiful

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If you go

What: Associated Garden Clubs annual tour

When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday

Tickets: $10, children 11 and younger are free; available at Judy’s Enchanted Garden, 2628 W. Northwest Blvd. and Northwest Seed Pet, 2422 E. Sprague Ave., or at any of the featured gardens during the tour.

Gardens: Gloria and Jim Waggoner/Paulsen House garden and Myrtle White Paulsen Meditation Garden, 245 E. 13th Ave.; Jane and Sam Joseph, 1910 S. Upper Terrace Road; Breck and Elaine Breckenridge, 31 W. 37th Ave.; Barbara and Will Murray, 1004 W. 23rd Ave.; and Norma Norton, 729 E. 23rd Ave.

Call: (509) 448-3037

One thing I’ve always enjoyed about Spokane is the community spirit that is driven by the many social organizations and clubs.

One of the clubs that has been an integral part of Spokane development is the Associated Garden Clubs. The group has its roots with the formation of the Spokane Floral Association in 1896; the first garden club in the state of Washington. This was during City Beautiful era in America when garden clubs and other civic groups promoted beautification through the development of gardens in blighted areas. Spokane was part of this movement and between 1900 and the early 1930s, the city’s many neighborhood garden clubs helped develop green spaces throughout the city.

In 1933, the Associated Garden Clubs, the Spokane Floral Association and six other garden and community clubs came together to have Spokane declared the Lilac City after Portland was designated the Rose City. The City Beautiful efforts did have their competitive side.

In 1938, inspired by the new Portland Rose Festival, the groups held the first Lilac Festival Flower Show that featured displays of French, Persian and Chinese lilacs. On the side there was a small parade. The Davenport Hotel’s lobby was filled with bouquets of lilacs for the occasion. The first Lilac queen and court were selected in 1940, and the parade evolved into our current Armed Forces Torchlight Parade. Today the parade is managed by the independent Lilac Festival Association.

After the Lilac Festival was spun off, the Associated Garden Clubs’ neighborhood-based groups continued their work beautifying the city and creating green spaces and small pocket parks. Many of the small odd triangles of land created by the intersection of streets on Spokane’s South Hill were planted and cared for by various AGC neighborhood garden clubs. Being a member of your neighborhood garden club was an important way for women in the 1940s and ’50s to become involved in the community. Today it is still an important way to engage with like-minded neighbors. Many of the original clubs are still active including Lincoln Heights, Manito, Rockwood and Spokane.

In 1986 the Associated Garden Clubs created their now famous April Plant Sale and held the city’s first garden tour as a way of showing off some of the city’s great private gardens. The sale and tour also helped raise funds to support beautification projects all over the city and scholarships for the Lilac Festival Court.

Some of the places that have benefited from these events include Manito Park, gardens and landscaping around schools, the downtown YWCA, Spokane Civic Theatre, Riverfront Park, Hospice of Spokane, the Turner-Moore Heritage Gardens and Polly Judd Park.

Pat Munts has gardened in Spokane Valley for more than 35 years. She can be reached at pat@inland nwgardening.com.

Filed Under: gardens and landscaping

Tweetery, Tweetery, Tweet: The Bird Friendly Landscape

by Leave a Comment

Very late at night, not quite dawn, the insects shush and the first bird says hello. If your garden is particularly bird friendly, lots of sweet tweeting and chirping and song-of-the-morning bird music greets  you before the sun arrives. And then, during the day, more birdsong fills the garden, making it a place of sound and motion, not just color and light and fragrance. And I swear, varieties of plants that are bird friendly tend to be hardier and lovelier than other plants.

sunflower in the cutting garden at CGC

sunflower in the cutting garden at CGC

If you’d like to make your garden a place birds want to hang out, sign up for The Bird Friendly Landscape, a class offered by Sue Trusty, Horticulturalist, on Thursday, August 22nd from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. It’s fun and interesting to incorporate plants in the landscape that will attract the interest of our flying friends. The presentation reveals the secrets to attracting birds to your yard using appropriate plants and landscaping. Also learn how to make your backyard a certified wildlife habitat. Go to the Civic Garden website for registration details.

Cindy Briggs

Posted in: classes, favorite, garden, Wildlife

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

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Backyard bounty: Landscaping can include a lot more than grass

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I do not have a green thumb. I learned long ago to avoid growing things inside or outside. I suppose I could try again, now, many years wiser and smarter, but I’ve conditioned myself that I’m just going to let yet another poor, lovely plant die.

Luckily, in many ways luckily, Jim has enough green thumbs for the both of us, so in the front yard in Austin, Texas, there is cactus, a sweet potato growing like wildfire in a pot, and a few other plants I don’t know the names of. The back yard has grapes growing on a trellis, three tomato plants that yield a few ripe tomatoes a day, and oodles of herbs — basil, sage, dill, tarragon, chives and more. That’s just outside.

When I’m down in Austin, I finally get to pick herbs for those sometimes successful vegetarian meals I make. The last one was a disaster, but at least it had nice herbs in it. Who knew baking mushrooms, broccoli and cheese in a cast iron pan on top of the stove could go so horribly wrong? At least my polenta turned out OK.

The backyard garden is a wonderful thing. When you combine beautiful landscaping practices with stuff you can eat, well, it’s perfect harmony. Our gardens aren’t meticulously landscaped — some of the herbs are in a tub — and the back yard is decorated by non-working (for now) vintage cars and a random Corvair Ultravan, along with a big wooden bar, the top of which is embedded with girly playing cards from the ’70s but someday, we might have some method to the madness.

Many can, indeed, combine well-crafted back or front yard flora with something to eat. And this, readers, is how I segue into telling you about the Slow Food Seacoast Edible Garden Tour and Gala. Boom!

All over the Seacoast, there are people with green thumbs and big appetites who combine their at-home landscapes with fruits, herbs, nuts, veggies, bees and even chickens. Slow Food Seacoast, in partnership with the Piscataqua Garden Club and Strawbery Banke Museum, will present a tour of 15 of these amazing gardens that feature an edible component in their landscape. You’ll be able to take inspiration from these gardens and maybe even do it yourself. The tour will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 11, and includes historic gardens, community gardens, school gardens and exceptional private gardens throughout Portsmouth and New Castle.

In addition to the tour, Slow Food Seacoast is hosting an Edible Garden Gala Fund-raiser from 4:30 to 7 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 10. Enjoy an evening of fine local food prepared by The Green Monkey Restaurant. You’ll gather with the community and likely a bunch of people you already know, and stroll through the beautiful edible gardens and grounds of a magnificent Kittery Point oceanside estate with specially created local brews and wines. It includes brews from Earth Eagle and Tod Mott who has made two special brews for the occasion. Admission to this “fun-raiser” includes sumptuous appetizers, beverages, and tickets for the Edible Garden Tour the following day.

If you’re a member of Strawbery Banke, Slow Food or the Piscataqua Garden Club, tour tickets are $12, $15 for non-members and the Gala and Tour together are $45 for members, $55 non-members.

Tickets can be purchased online with credit card or check at http://slowfoodseacoast.givezooks.com/events/edible-garden-tour or at Strawbery Banke Museum-Portsmouth, Rolling Green Nursery-Greenland and Wentworth Greenhouses-Rollinsford with cash or check only.

More important information and reasons to go, as if what I already wrote was not enough (lifted from their press release): If you wish to view all gardens, plan on taking most of the day. This is not a walking tour. The gardens are located in both Portsmouth and New Castle and you will need a vehicle or bicycle to reach all of them. The tour begins at Strawbery Banke Museum where each ticket-holder will receive free heirloom seeds, and a garden location guide that includes information on unique garden features, featured foods and activities. While at Strawbery Banke, participants will be invited to visit and view a variety of historic edible, organic and heirloom gardens, including the new ethnobotanical herb garden, community gardens, 17th-century raised bed kitchen gardens, immigrant gardens, victory gardens, heritage orchards, a children’s garden, and a special 1 p.m. “edible garden history tour” with John Forti, co-founder of Slow Food Seacoast and curator of Historic Landscape at Strawbery Banke. John Forti, one of my most favorite people on the planet.

Tickets support Slow Food Seacoast efforts to preserve regional heirloom biodiversity, foster local taste education, sponsor school gardens and cultivate a new generation of environmental stewards, farmers, gardeners, chefs and consumers, in order to promote locally produced, good, clean and fair food for all. Edible gardens and landscapes are the new victory gardens in the battle against genetically modified organisms, corporate agriculture and poor nutrition. They also offer a positive inter-generational opportunity for families to unplug, plant, cook and eat together while helping to foster healthier habitats and a sense of place.

What a great way to learn how to make a garden that is not only beautiful, but feeds the family, too. I’m hopeful my own knowledge will grow and my thumb will be much, much greener. I’m still going to be ruining perfectly good ingredients trying to make more diversified vegetarian meals for quite some time, though.

Rachel Forrest is a former restaurant owner who lives in Exeter (and Austin). Her column appears Thursdays in GoDo. Her restaurant review column, Dining Out, appears Thursdays in Spotlight magazine. She can be reached by e-mail at rachel.forrest@dowjones.com.

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Orlando prunes its proposed front-yard-garden rules

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After an embarrassing battle with a couple of College Park gardeners, Orlando officials have drawn up new rules governing homeowners who want to plant carrots and cucumbers in their front yards.

It’s the latest salvo — and probably the last — in a literal turf war over what Orlando residents can plant in front of their homes. It started last year, when Jason and Jennifer Helvenston were hit with a code-enforcement citation for digging up their front lawn and replacing it with lettuce, kale, radishes, tomatoes and more.

The perception of big government cracking down on veggies drew national media attention and a gardener revolt.

City planners responded by drawing up rules that specifically allowed front-yard vegetable gardens, but greenies protested outside City Hall. The rules were so strict that they would drastically cut the space available for food gardens, they argued. Commissioners sent the planners back to the drawing board.

The new version, expected to go to the City Council for final approval next month, is quite a bit more lax.

“We’re going to get to keep our garden,” Jason Helvenston said. “There are going to be very few gardens that will be illegal under this particular wording.”

The first version of the garden regulations would have allowed residents to plant vegetables over no more than 25 percent of their front yard; required gardens to be screened with fencing or shrubs, set back at least 10 feet from the property line or put in planter boxes; and limited vegetable plants to no more than 4 feet tall.

Green-thumbed protesters objected to the city’s approach. Gardens are on the rise, partly because of the still-struggling economy, partly because of a “clean food” movement that worries about pesticides and the environmental footprint of factory farming. Gardeners argued that city officials should be encouraging residents to cultivate their own food, not limiting how much space they can use or how tall their tomatoes grow.

Planners revamped the new rules with help from landscape architects, horticulturists and even the Helvenstons themselves.

The new rules would allow veggies to cover as much as 60 percent of a front yard. The 10-foot setback was shrunk to 3 feet, and the vegetable-height limit was thrown out entirely. Jennifer Helvenston credited the gardening army with changing minds at City Hall.

“I think we arrived at the right spot in the end,” chief planner Jason Burton said. “That input from around the world and locally helped get us to the point we are today, where we have an ordinance I think everyone can live with. I think it’s a positive thing.”

Burton said Orlando unfairly got something of a black eye over the garden war. Planners simply want to ensure well-maintained landscaping, vegetable or otherwise, rather than out-of-control weeds or a garden gone to seed.

“People thought we were against front-yard gardens, and we really weren’t,” Burton said. “People are not always successful with gardens, and what happens is, people will do it for one season and suddenly it’s dirt forever. We wanted to make sure there was a level of permanent landscaping.”

Helvenston predicts one portion of the new code will have unintended consequences. The city added a 5-foot height limit on temporary structures that was meant to govern things such as tomato cages, but Helvenston thinks it would prevent homeowners from placing swings or fountains in their front yards.

Gardeners are likely to be as happy as they can be with a set of rules. But the Helvenstons wonder: Why adopt any rules at all, especially if they are so limited they’ll affect few homeowners?

“It’s a perfect example of how a government reacts to something and tries to do their thing but goes way too far,” Jason Helvenston said. “They didn’t really need to do anything but say, ‘Front-yard gardens are OK.'”

mschlueb@tribune.com, 407-420-5417 or Twitter @MarkSchlueb

Filed Under: gardens and landscaping

Edible landscapes deliver food and beauty – The Herald

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This is all Rosalind Creasy’s fault. The diva of edible landscaping, she has been preaching integration of all things edible for more than 25 years. Her own garden is her living lab, showcasing her passion for plants that feed both our bodies and souls.  

Watching a recent webinar spotlighting Rosalind’s techniques, I was impressed with her gardens’ vigor, productivity and loveliness. She changes the garden often to illustrate how edibles can be used creatively.

Her most recent book, “Edible Landscaping,” is a stylish showcase. 

Red tulips pop from speckled lettuce. Pears drape over an arbor. Red and yellow peppers pop from a crimson planter. Edible pansies and nasturtiums do-si-do with perennials. Herbs fan in front of giant lupines. Tiny cabbages march through a turquoise grid. Seeing is believing.

Edible landscaping is not a new concept. In days gone by, when a garden’s purpose was at its most practical — the feeding of our families — almost all of what we grew was edible. Flowers were an aesthetic afterthought. As we prospered, we flipped the equation, growing pretty things to say, “I can afford NOT to grow food.” 

I say why not have it all? Beauty and food. An edible landscape can be as lovely as any landscape and feed you as well. 

So, I skirt my Tardiva hydrangea with variegated thyme and grow its lemony cousin by my doorstep. I pluck tiny alpine strawberries from my herb bed and snip basil from a fat clay pot under a tumble of coral honeysuckle. And if I listen carefully, I can hear my best patch of black raspberries nearby whispering, “jam, jam, jam.” 

And I’m just getting started. I want nuts and figs and espaliered fruit trees. I want more berries and enough greens to keep the bunnies and me well-fed. I want to snack from every garden bed. Is that really too much to ask? I think not. 

So try some incredible edibles in your garden. It’s food. It’s fun. And it looks fabulous. 
 
Annette Ipsan is the Extension educator for horticulture and the Master Gardener program in Washington County for the University of Maryland in Washington County.  She can be reached at 301-791-1604 or aipsan@umd.edu.

Filed Under: gardens and landscaping
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