Including vegetables in my edible landscaping project

One of the main reasons for creating an edible landscape in the front of our house was the amazing sun exposure. Our house faces south which means the back garden where all the vegetables are growing is in shade for some of the day. With two trees being removed due to disease from the strip next to the street, our front garden is now awash in sun all day. I needed to get my hands on this sun drenched earth!

Black Beauty Eggplant

I had two criteria for incorporating veggies into my edible landscaping plan. I did not want to be digging up rows of veggies which would leave holes in my design, so the vegetables I chose had to either produce fruit, or be cut and come again varieties. For the most part I have stuck to that plan. I have included radishes but if I reseed immediately after harvest, they grow so quickly there will only be gaps for a couple of weeks.

Peppermint Swiss Chard

Love the hot pink on this chard!

I have kept the vegetables for the most part in the center diamonds. Either side of the ceramic pot is Peppermint Stick Swiss Chard which has amazing pink stems. Next to them are bush zucchini. Behind the pot I have New Zealand Spinach and Black Beauty Eggplant. In front of the pot are three kinds of peppers: Twingo, California Wonder and Giant Jalapenos.

Three kinds of peppers will add lots of color to the landscape

All of these plants are at last starting to grow after a little transplant shock from the eggplant and zucchini! In the left hand herb triangle I planted rows of radishes and cut and come again lettuce. I had planned on growing chamomile in this space but the seeds didn't germinate, so on to Plan B! In the right hand herb triangle I planted radishes and cilantro. All of these vegetables fit into my height zones plan and will contribute to the design with their colorful fruit and/or leaf and stem texture.

This zucchini is called 'Patio" and designed to be grown in a container or small space.

I'm anxious to see how this all looks and functions once the plants are mature. I want this garden to be attractive but it needs to also be productive. It needs to produce vegetables, herbs, berries and edible flowers that I can eat or ultimately I have just created an experimental garden.

New Zealand Spinach

I got a late start with planting due to delays in getting the garden ready, so I know I need to give myself some slack! This is also virgin growing soil and there will be some trial and error in figuring out what is happy here and what is not. I can already see after just a few weeks of maintaining this garden that next year I need more perennial fruits and vegetables (I have some great ideas!) and I need a water management plan.

Radishes on the left, cilantro on the right

 It feels like the garden is growing slowly, but it has only really been a few weeks. I am already thinking about the fall and some of the veggies I am planning on planting in the front to fill in the spaces left by the summer crops. I have both Tuscany Kale and Red Russian Kale planned as well as some beautiful red cabbage varieties.

This is the left side garden.

I also plan on reseeding the poppies that I planted too late this year. Apparently, sown in the fall, they come up in the spring. My other flower sown for their seeds - the sunflowers- were eaten by birds as soon as they popped through the soil. I have a second group happily growing indoors and will plant them out when the danger of instant death has passed!


Gardening is always a mixture of joy and frustration. So far this project has brought me moments of both. I'm hoping that in a month, with another four weeks of growth, this edible landscape will be on the way to fulfilling it's purpose and I will be harvesting and eating the fruits of my labors.

See you in the garden,

Sue

If you are interested in following the progress of this project, click on the front garden redo tag in the right hand column.

To see all the plants I have included so far in the project visit my Pinterest board "My Edible Landscaping Project".