More on the Edible Landscaping Tour
Aug. 2nd, 2009 07:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deirdreThis edible landscaping tour was co-held by two ecology non-profits, and the tour specialized in people who grew food in their gardens. In short, 11 stops at 10 homes and one demonstration garden to help people get ideas for growing food in their gardens.
The first stop was the home of Jesse Cool, a local restaurant owner who was, along with Alice Waters, one of the early bay area pioneers of eating fresh food, preferably organic and local. While Flea St. Cafe isn't as famous as Chez Panisse, it's a lot closer for me.
In this garden, there's quite a few beds that are a bit over two feet wide and ten to twelve feet long.
She's also got chickens (which we saw as a recurring theme) and fruit trees.
The second place we went was a small back yard with a large redwood tree neatly in the middle, affecting what could go anywhere. Raised beds grew many plants, but I'd never seen anyone stake a chile pepper plant before:
One family had more than an acre, the front third of which was a terraced organic garden including sixty (!) fruit trees. One terrace had mostly tomatoes.
At the time, I didn't realize that one of the gardens was at the home of John Warnock, one of the founders of Adobe, and his wife. They had a bean teepee that was probably 12 feet (4 meters) tall:
About a third of the gardens were in the front yard, which I always find surprising (we grow most of our vegetables in front). The gardens were a mix of large and small, established and new, and one of the gardens had been put in in just the last year.
Some gardens had whimsical elements:
Almost all had a mix of flowers (especially marigolds and nasturtiums) and vegetables, but some had quite beautiful flower gardens:
Most had at least a small greenhouse, even if it was just something one could place over a raised bed.
Only about half had any permanent sort of watering system, and in those, there were per-bed (or sometimes per-side-of-bed) shutoff valves. We have shutoffs on our soaker hose installations.
Lots of great plants, too many to take in all at once, but one of my favorites is this hyper-abundant bell pepper:
Common themes:
* some kind of permanent drip irrigation (1/2 the houses)
* composting (everyone)
* seed exchange (1/2 the houses)
* food exchange (most of them)
* chickens (between 1/3 and 1/2)
* greenhouse (almost all, most small)
More photos here.
The first stop was the home of Jesse Cool, a local restaurant owner who was, along with Alice Waters, one of the early bay area pioneers of eating fresh food, preferably organic and local. While Flea St. Cafe isn't as famous as Chez Panisse, it's a lot closer for me.
In this garden, there's quite a few beds that are a bit over two feet wide and ten to twelve feet long.
She's also got chickens (which we saw as a recurring theme) and fruit trees.
The second place we went was a small back yard with a large redwood tree neatly in the middle, affecting what could go anywhere. Raised beds grew many plants, but I'd never seen anyone stake a chile pepper plant before:
One family had more than an acre, the front third of which was a terraced organic garden including sixty (!) fruit trees. One terrace had mostly tomatoes.
At the time, I didn't realize that one of the gardens was at the home of John Warnock, one of the founders of Adobe, and his wife. They had a bean teepee that was probably 12 feet (4 meters) tall:
About a third of the gardens were in the front yard, which I always find surprising (we grow most of our vegetables in front). The gardens were a mix of large and small, established and new, and one of the gardens had been put in in just the last year.
Some gardens had whimsical elements:
Almost all had a mix of flowers (especially marigolds and nasturtiums) and vegetables, but some had quite beautiful flower gardens:
Most had at least a small greenhouse, even if it was just something one could place over a raised bed.
Only about half had any permanent sort of watering system, and in those, there were per-bed (or sometimes per-side-of-bed) shutoff valves. We have shutoffs on our soaker hose installations.
Lots of great plants, too many to take in all at once, but one of my favorites is this hyper-abundant bell pepper:
Common themes:
* some kind of permanent drip irrigation (1/2 the houses)
* composting (everyone)
* seed exchange (1/2 the houses)
* food exchange (most of them)
* chickens (between 1/3 and 1/2)
* greenhouse (almost all, most small)
More photos here.