Trending towards edible landscapes

By Linda C. Young
Green Thumbs Up

    History has not recorded the exact date that man first realized he could harvest a seed from a plant, stick it in the ground, and grow another plant from it. But I’m sure that within a week or two, the first article about garden trends was being etched on stone tablets.
    No landscape design class is complete without studying a little bit of gardening history and you will see that, over time, somebody, someplace is always growing a few fruits and vegetables on a small plot of land. A current trend in the world of gardening is to combine edible plants with ornamental plants and to do it right there in your front yard, or anyplace else that has soil, sunshine, and access to water. The vegetable garden is no longer something to tuck away in your back yard.
    The March/April issue of the Colorado Green magazine, the industry magazine from the Associated Landscape Contractors of Colorado features ideas for incorporating colorful vegetables with annuals and perennials for attractive gardens that also produce food. This isn’t a completely new idea, but it is gaining in popularity and is certainly a trend that has some merit. After all, we plant gardens to beautify our homes, to bring color and scent and texture to the areas we see every day. Why not have some of that beauty come from red and purple peppers or eggplant flowers or the dark green leaves of spinach?
    The March 15 National Garden Bureau Gardening Tips & Techniques e-newsletter talks about high-density vegetable gardening, ways to pack a lot of plants in a small space. There are advantages to growing some plants in containers, and there are now planter boxes that apparently release water and fertilizer, as the plant needs it, or so the advertising suggests.
    Containers can go on your porch or patio and can provide instant color as well as fresh veggies or herbs. You can plant a lot of lettuce seeds, a cool season crop, in a container, cut the young tender leaves for salads to keep everything from overcrowding. And, when the season warms up, remove all of that and plant a tomato or cucumber in the same container. Even the smallest deck or patio can house a potted tomato plant. Tuck in some nasturtium seeds around the edges and you’ll have flowers draping over the edge for summer-long color. Nasturtium leaves and flowers are edible; add some to a salad for a touch of color and peppery flavor.
    Home-grown tomatoes are still a distant dream. But it is time to get some of our cool weather vegetables going. In March, you can plant radishes, spinach, lettuce and peas directly into the ground. In early April, you can plant seedlings of broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts that have been “hardened off,” a process of putting them outside for a few hours a day so they get used to the sun and the cool weather. Mid-April to early May, we plant beets, carrots, parsley, Swiss chard and potatoes. We must be patient with the warm-season crops; they need warm days and warm soil.
    I encourage you to join the trend to include some edible plants in your gardens this year. There are almost unlimited resources out there for learning how to grow fruits and vegetables along the Front Range, including local nurseries, the library, the Internet, and the CSU Extension website (www.ext.colostate.edu). Any garden magazine you pick up will have articles on ways to grow healthy vegetables. Seed companies and nurseries will have a wide variety to choose from this year. I recently received a 16-page, glossy color brochure inviting me to attend The National Heirloom Exposition in Santa Rosa, Calif., a three-day event in September that promises more than 1,000 varieties of heirloom produce on display, along with seed company representatives, workshops on seed saving, “food politics” and farming, plus more than 250 vendors. The magazine-quality brochure includes a mouthwatering centerfold featuring an heirloom variety watermelon. It appears the trend towards home vegetable gardening is big business and is here to stay, at least for a while.