ST. CATHARINES –
My idea of gardening in January involves sitting back with my feet up and enjoying a good gardening book.
I love reading about new ideas and ways to garden, and this is the perfect time of year to start planning changes to your home garden.
My companion this week has been the comfortable, information-packed Edible Landscaping: Urban Food Gardens That Look Great, by prominent Vancouver landscape architect and Niagara Parks School of Horticulture grad Senga Lindsay.
This book teaches us a garden doesn’t have to be decorative or functional — it can be both. Discover how to make an edible Eden in some unlikely spaces with this fresh garden design book.
“Edibles can double as ornamentals,” Lindsay said. “Grapes can replace traditional vining plants for arbours and screening. Kale, Swiss chard and lettuce are available in an array of colours and can be striking bedding plants.
“I always include edible flowers in my garden — they are great multi-taskers, providing food and cut flowers.”
Traditional Row Vegetable Garden describes a pleasing, ordered and utilitarian space with beds laid out in simple squares or rectangles with pathways between for access. A dedicated space for composting is often included along with a small potting shed, greenhouse or cold frame. This type of garden is ideal for people with a large property and lots of time to devote to their hobby.
The Children’s Garden chapter includes simple instructions for a garden tunnel covered with cucumber vines and a delightful sunflower fort or house. Also included are fun themes for children’s gardens — tree forts, pizza garden, alphabet garden and creative ways to recycle ladders and chairs as garden props.
The whole idea is to allow your children’s imagination to soar, to let them explore and learn about nature.
“No ground to grow your edibles? Think up — onto your rooftop,” recommends Lindsay in the chapter on Edible Rooftop Gardens.
I visited a garden in Buffalo a few years ago with tomatoes and other vegetables growing on the roof of their garage. This handsome raised bed was ingeniously accessed with a librarians ladder, installed on a rail along the front of the garage. The property was situated in a well-treed area, and the couple claimed the only sunny spot was on the roof.
At the University of Guelph trial garden, Dutch crates stacked on top of one another filled with planting medium and planted with annuals, were used to create an economical and portable living wall.
Another ingenious design for a living wall was shown at Canada Blooms a few years ago. The designers stood recycled wooden pallets on their side, then planted mesh-filled pockets between the wooden slats with herbs and baby lettuces.
An Edible Wall Garden is ideal for homeowners with limited space.
“An edible wall can accommodate a huge variety of crops from herbs and strawberries to tomatoes, eggplants and peppers to vines like peas,” Lindsay suggests.
Various edible walls systems including panel, trellis, pocket and A-frames are explained.
A chapter dedicated to the Enabling Garden is filled with practical tips for a barrier-free gardening. Raised garden beds, using unused walls and fences as vertical planting spaces, including shelter and seating, and the importance of landmarks, such as a fountain or birdbath to help orient visitors to larger gardens, are all detailed in this helpful section.
Lindsay explains, “In many cases, all it takes is a little tweaking to remove a few flaws that are inhibiting someone from enjoying the experience of an edible garden.”
Edible Landscaping also covers dreamy designs such as a formal Herb Garden with espaliered fruit trees and wattle fences; a French inspired Potager Garden laid out in a geometric pattern and edged with tightly clipped boxwood; or a stylish Gourmet Garden Kitchen, decked out with the latest appliances and furnishings for people who love to cook.
Whether you want to start with a simple edible wall, or experiment with beehives in a permaculture jungle, Edible Landscaping encourages us to think about growing and harvesting food with style.
A graduate of the Niagara Parks School of Horticulture, Senga Lindsay specializes in integrating edible gardens into her design practice, whether for large developments or individual homeowners. She contributes to GardenWise magazine, and was awarded Best of the City by Vancouver Magazine in 2010 and Western Living Magazine’s 2009 Landscape Architect of the Year.
She lovingly maintains her own bountiful garden in North Vancouver.
— Edible Landscaping: Urban Food Gardens That Look Great, published by Harbour Publishing, is available on Amazon.ca
Theresa Forte is a local garden writer, photographer and lecturer. You can reach her by phoning 905-351-7540 or by e-mail theresa_forte@sympatico.ca
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