Climate Appropriate Gardening and Design

Instead of "drought tolerant" I've adopted "climate appropriate" into my gardening vocabulary. Designing gardens that meet our needs in urban California involves a lot more than just saving on water use. When I'm designing a garden I always aim to create a visually richer, as well as more earth-friendly environment than what I started with. 

The word appropriate aligns especially well to our changing climate and growing conditions: this is the challenge we all face today and for the foreseeable future. And to me it implies that my climate appropriate approach to designing a garden, will adapt to meet the current needs. It's a good reminder to be flexible in my thinking, and to keep informed.

Replacing a lawn is an opportunity to add beauty and diversity

Among many inspirations, landscape architect Thomas Rainer stands out. He champions the cause for bringing more "wildness" into our urban spaces, urgently needed due to the rapid loss of wild spaces. See Rainer in this short video interview here (courtesy of the Pacific Horticulture Society).  

We have the perfect opportunity to add ecological value whenever we are replacing lawns or simply replacing and/or adding plants to our gardens. For example, plant flowering shrubs for your eyes and to feed pollinators- the gorgeous sage (salvia) below is 'Friendship Sage', also known by its original name 'Saliva Amistad'.

Sages (salvias) have lovely flowers in many colors

Hummingbirds love sages, as do bumblebees. This group of plants are generally happy with low to moderate water, even in warm climate zones such as our San Francisco Bay Area. 

In the photo below we designed a long berm with a mix of sages and other flowering plants to create a pollinator garden that would be pleasant to look at from the outdoor patio and from inside the house.  We included an herb garden for fragrance and its value in providing herbs for cooking year-round. 

This low-water garden replaced an unused pool

When replacing pools, lawns, or areas that were previously paved over, I love creating a space that enhances quality of life by being a place to relax and connect with nature. And it's a welcome bonus that adding more plants around homes results in not only beautiful, calming, environments but they mitigate the amount of heat produced by our over-paved urban spaces. Plants transpire water vapor into the local environment, especially trees. So not only do trees provide shade, they actively contribute to cooling. 

In California where the loss of trees due to drought and fires is staggering, we can do our part by planting trees with low and moderate water needs around our homes, as many as possible. 

A quiet seating area with flowering sages replaced bare soil

Below, wildflowers in a front yard meadow garden provide a spectacular seasonal display.

I'm also a big fan of growing seasonal edibles at home, and when we save water by replacing lawns or pools with a low water garden, we can feel good about using some water on our special heirloom vegetables. Growing our own food not only connects us to the seasons but can also remind us of our heritage and culture. Heirloom vegetable seeds are readily available from many sources. It's meaningful and satisfying to learn their stories and enjoy them with our families and friends by growing them.

Many fruit trees are perfect for low to moderate water gardens: avocado, plum, pluot, apple, persimmon, pomegranate and pineapple guava. Check my gardening index for more on edible landscaping.

'Four Corners Gold' bean in my front yard last summer

For more information and resources about climate appropriate landscaping go here.

Photo credit: Patricia Larenas

Edible Landscaping Your Front Yard - Start Now

Striking ornamental kale can be planted among edible kale

Fall is just ahead and it’s the perfect time for bold action: adding edibles to your suburban front yard. If you have a conventionally landscaped front yard and you aren’t sure how to begin, here are some ideas to help you get started.

Getting Started

For the front yard there is still an aesthetic norm to overcome in lawn-centric suburbia, but that convention has been shifting steadily.  Growing vegetables, herbs, and fruit boldly in plain sight needn’t be the eyesore of the neighborhood if you give some thought to how they will fit into your garden design. In my opinion, both edible and ornamental plants coexist in a beautifully in a garden. It doesn’t have to be one or the other.

America spinach with violets

To start, you'll have to consider the exposure to direct sunlight, at least 4-6 hours per day, and the condition of the soil. Check with your local UC Master Gardeners for more details on planting and soil prep for your region. They will also have seasonal planting charts. Sign up for their excellent monthly newsletter that reminds you about seasonal garden tasks, including planting edibles.

Below are some simple ideas for small additions with the potential for a big impact.

Where to Add Edibles Now

Flower Beds and Borders:

If you have existing flowerbeds, that’s a great place to begin. If not, you might consider removing a strip or patch of lawn to make a combined flower and edibles bed. This would be nice as border along a walkway or fence, or even in the center of a lawn (remove and prepare a square or round shaped patch). Small shrubby herbs such as thyme (choose from lemon or lime thyme) or sage (add a trio of culinary sage with blue-gray leaves, tri-color sage edged with purple, cream and green, and yellow sage) fit well among flowers, and they hold up to the mild frosts in our San Francisco Bay Area. Rosemary is a popular, large landscaping plant that is covered with sweet blue-lavender or purplish flowers for months of the year. 

Trailing rosemary is attractive, fragrant, and great for cooking

You can easily slip in vegetable seedlings when planting out flowering annuals or among bulbs.  Spinach, lettuces, kale (including ornamental kale), and Asian greens, can be grown in fall since they prefer cooler temperatures and can be grown during winter in our region. These leafy green veggies will add attractive foliage to a bed of flowers, and if you really want to be on your game, plant edible and beneficial flowers, such as calendulas, and add nasturtiums and marigolds for summer.

The viola family, which includes violets and pansies, are good cool weather choices for fall and are high impact for their varied colors. This group is semi-perennial in mild winter climates and provides lots of blooms fall through spring, going dormant in hot summer weather (some will reseed). For annuals such as nasturtiums, which are frost tender, wait until spring. But beware: if you buy nursery seedlings make sure they were grown without pesticides and herbicides, otherwise, don't eat the flowers!

Artichokes have spectacular foliage, but need space

Go Big and Bold with Artichokes

If you have the space for them, artichokes are a spectacular addition to the garden. Their bold foliage is striking, and in spring they'll reward you with edible artichoke heads. I particularly love the violet ones, such as Violetto and Purple of Romagna. Romanesco is a tightly rounded variety that is tinged with purple. The green globe types have equally beautiful foliage. Fall through early summer is the best time for artichokes. They tend to go dormant with the heat of summer, at this point you can cut them back and keep them mulched. Mine are shaded in the later part of the afternoon for the hot sun so they begin to sprout new growth if I water them occasionally during summer. Towards fall they really start to bulk up.

All of them will eventually yield huge flowers with purple stamens if you leave the heads on the plants. I always leave a few to flower, then watch the bees enjoy them!

Artichokes will eventually explode with purple flowers if they aren't harvested

Containers:

Planting into containers is another great way to experiment with edibles since containers can be moved around, grouped in different locations or used as a welcoming feature on a porch. Numerous colors, sizes, shapes and textures are available to match or brighten up your existing landscape. Containers filled with flowers and lettuce are sure to be a conversation piece. For the coming cool months you could pair lettuce, kale, or spinach, in containers with edible flowers for a beautiful display. Mix with ornamental kale for an extra showy focal piece.

Showy heirlooms: Dwarf Gray Sugar Peas date back to 1892

Trellises:

I also love growing snap peas and snow peas over winter and early spring. They are beautiful on a trellis, and you can plant flowers and leafy greens around them. I have several different trellises in the front yard of different types and sizes for climbing edibles. Lovely bicolored Dwarf Gray Sugar Peas resemble sweet pea flowers (which are NOT edible) and would be a winning combination with cool season flowers in your front yard.

Start Small, But Start Now

Eating sweet crisp pea pods with fresh salad greens and herbs, plus edible flowers from your own front yard may inspire you to expand your edible landscape into a beautiful productive kitchen garden by the time spring rolls around. A good approach is to start gradually. You can start this fall by adding these varieties that will overwinter well, then plan to add warm season edibles in spring and summer. Enjoy learning as you grow, gather ideas about what you enjoy growing and eating, and design features you’d like to add. If you are new to growing vegetables and herbs, getting some experience first will help shape your overall landscaping goals.

Note: during our cool and rainy months in California you will have to have a plan for slug and snail control. Handpicking in the early morning or evenings is effective if you keep at it. You can supplement handpicking with a sprinkle of  a non-toxic product such as Sluggo.

A earlier version of this post was published in March 1, 2012 at Eat Drink Better

Photos: Patricia Larenas, Urban Artichoke

Rosalind Creasy's Garden: Edible Landscaping with Color

Anyone familiar with Rosalind Creasy's landscaping design savvy knows that she is a champion of color in the garden.  As the guru of edible landscaping - her first book on the subject was published in 1982 and she has since published numerous others - she integrates edibles beautifully in stunning arrangements throughout her front and back yards. 

Recently, I was lucky enough to be invited to spend a few weeks working in her remarkable gardens and meet Creasy and her knowledgeable, amiable staff.

Rosalind Creasy welcomes APLD members on a tour of her garden

It Takes a Village 
When the opportunity arose to assist her regular gardeners in preparing for a tour of her garden by the Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD) last September, I jumped at it. My friend and budding landscape designer, Susan Stansbury, and I were welcomed warmly to the prep team. 

The Creasy prep team (left to right): Valerie Williams, Susan Stansbury, Debbie Stern (Gudi Riter in background)

There we met head gardener Debbie Stern, intern Valerie Williams, and Gudi Riter, gardener and personal assistant to Creasy. Besides meeting and chatting with Rosalind Creasy, making new gardening friends was the highlight of my time spent in these beautiful gardens.

Detail of front arbor with hops

Our mission was to prepare the substantial garden beds, including every nook and crany, to be inspected by knowledgeable landscape designers. Many of the designers were not likely to be familiar with landscaping with edible plants, therefore the pressure was on to impress and demonstrate that edibles have a place in the suburban landscape. 

Entry to front yard garden

A Feast of Color
Creasy has devoted her career to educating others about the the beauty and utility of including vegetables, fruits and herbs in the home landscape, including the front yard. Creasy's gardens are lovely, and although the various garden "rooms" are lush with edible plants, they are not immediately obvious since the first thing you notice are the brilliant colors. 

The hybrid Enchantment tomato is a Creasy favorite for sauces

She has a special talent for using edibles in unexpected and delightful ways, like the hops that frame the front yard arbor, and another arched arbor covered in  luscious climbing "Enchantment" tomatoes, gorgeous hybrid roma-type tomatoes, of which Creasy is particularly fond (seeds available from Burpee).

Front yard feature: an archway of trellised Enchantment tomatoes

Flowers are bountiful throughout, and besides a riot of color, they provide food for pollinators and a lush habitat for birds, elements that are important for a balanced, healthy, ecosystem for the garden.

The Queen Elizabeth heirloom iris blooms twice a year

Gardening for a Small Planet
Why such passion for landscaping with something you can eat? As resources such as water and fuel become increasingly precious, and our agricultural lands are burdened with serious pesticide and herbicide contamination, producing food locally increasingly makes good sense.

Creasy has been determined to spread the message of gardening (and cooking) with edibles since the 1970's when it was not fashionable to show off the veggie garden in front yard suburban landscapes.

Creasy has designed a serene sanctuary in her heavily shaded backyard

I asked her how she had the fortitude and sheer guts to keep up her work when it earned her a reputation as an oddball in landscape design circles. She stated flatly that she simply "knew it was the right thing to do".

Rosalind Creasy's head gardener Debbie Stern, and APLD tour group

Not one to rest on her laurels, Creasy is as busy as ever, gardening, lecturing, and writing.  And as she enjoys the rising popularity of gardening with edibles in suburbia, she has every right to shout from the rooftops: 

I told you so!

A cleverly designed "tomato house"makes a surprisingly lovely feature in the backyard

Just call me the "hedge whisperer"

Photos: Patricia Larenas, Urban Artichoke

How to Grow From Seed

Butterhead lettuce and Dwarf Gray Sugar Peas transplanted into the garden from my cold frame

Growing vegetables from seed for your edible garden is a lot of fun and not hard to do if you keep in mind a few basics. Why go through the effort? There are lots of reasons, but my top reason is that I enjoy it: seeds are beautiful and mysterious and I love the process of nurturing them through their stages of growth. Second, I can grow heirlooms that are only available as seed, third, I can grow a larger quantity of plants economically, and in waves through the season.

It’s magical to propagate your favorite seeds successfully for generations! I hope you'll give it a try...

Purple of Romagna Artichoke seedliings watched over by a deity

Sowing Seeds in Flats Versus Direct Seeding

There are a couple of practical reasons for sowing seeds in flats or pots before putting them directly in the ground: you can start them earlier indoors so that they have a head-start by the time it’s warm enough that they can be planted outdoors (tomatoes, squash, cucumber- the summer heat loving vegetables) and better survivability.  When I sow seeds directly in the garden they have a bigger chance of drying out or getting munched on by critters.

How to Start

If you are new to growing from seed, I recommend starting with two or three vegetables or flowers to get a feel for it so you aren’t overwhelmed. Once the seeds begin to germinate you can’t forget about them- if they dry out they’ll die, and you’ll need to start over. Most seeds take about 7 to 10 days to germinate, and some take longer. It helps if they are indoors where you’ll be reminded to check them. As the season warms up you can keep your newly sown flats or pots outdoors.

Basic seed sowing equipment, including my saved seeds on the right

Basic Equipment

Potting soil (you can mix your own, but I found it’s easier to buy a big bag, premixed).

Labels, pencil, pen, or marker.

Flats or small pots, reused six-packs from buying seedlings (or other containers, such as waxed paper cups- but these need drainage holes).

Bucket or plastic container for mixing soil with water.

Spray bottle for water.

Seeds (there are several reputable organic suppliers ).

Sowing Basics

Moisten your potting soil first, then fill the planting containers

Fill the Containers

Tip: I use a bucket to mix the potting soil with water to just get it damp before filling the potting containers. It’s much easier to start with damp soil than to try and water it thoroughly once you’ve planted your seeds- trust me!

Fill the containers and lightly firm the soil (soil should be about ½ inch from the top of the container).

A comparison of sizes: squash, cucumber and lettuce seeds

Seed Size and Planting Depth

As you would guess, the sizes of seeds vary enormously from tiny lettuce or poppy seeds, to squash and bean seeds. Follow the instructions on the seed packet for the best chance of success.

Here are some general guidelines:

How deep to plant? For most seeds, plant as deep as the seed is wide (the width of the seed, not the length). So if a squash seed is ½ inch wide, it should be covered with ½ inch of soil. It is better to plant too shallow than too deep. When the seed germinates (sprouts) the embryo has just enough stored food to start poking out of the surface of the soil, and begin developing the leaves for photosynthesis, which will take over for food production. If it’s buried too deep it won’t make it to the surface. This is also why seeds don’t need fertilizer until they begin developing leaves.

Small Seeds

For tiny seeds such as lettuce, sprinkle the seeds on the surface (a flat is great for this) then cover with a sprinkle of soil. Spray the surface down with a water in a spray bottle. Next, I cover the flat with one layer of newspaper, perlite, or a fabric called a floating row cover. The idea is to keep the soil moist but to let light in until the seeds sprout, then remove the cover.

Set the containers near a sunny window indoors in a warm spot. Don't forget to label them.

Flats covered with a layer of perlite sitting in my cold frame for protection from frost

Let There Be Light

Once the seeds start to grow they'll need 4 to 6 hours of light daily. For strong seedlings move them outdoors if the temperature permits (after your last expected frost date). Alternatives are to move them into a cold frame, or keep them inside under grow lights, available from your nursery or garden supply center. Otherwise you'll have spindly weak seedlings.

Transplanting Your Seedlings

For most seedlings, wait until the second pair of leaves form. If your seedlings are in a flat, transplant them to six packs or small pots to give them a chance to develop a healthy root system before planting out in the garden. When they're ready to move outside, keep them in a protected area (a covered porch, etc.) for a few days so that they can adjust to outside temperatures before planting in the garden.

Remember:

1. Once the seeds are wet, don’t let them dry out- this is critical. Aim for even moisture when the seeds are germinating and have sprouted, but don’t let them sit soggy or they may rot (need adequate drainage).

2. Feeding the seedlings: fertilizer is not necessary until the leaves begin to grow. If you are going to transfer the seedling to a larger pot for more growth, you’ll need to give it nutrients.

For liquid fertilizer:  use an organic dry fertilizer mix, such as, Dr. Earth, soak overnight in water (read the label- some are about 1 cup dry fertilizer to a gallon of water).  You can also use a cup of mature compost from your compost pile to make a compost tea- this should soak about fours days before you use it. It won’t be as nutrient-rich as the fertilizer mix, but it’s good for the seedlings in a pinch.

Now for the hard part: choosing just a few to grow from hundreds of possibilities!

Got a favorite heirloom to grow? I'd love to know, really.

 Photos: Urban Artichoke

Published on Eat Drink Better