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Edible Landscaping |
What is Edible Landscaping?Guava, ginger, cucumber and garlic. Orange, rhubarb, persimmon and lemon. What if I told you all manner of tropical flavours can be grown year after year from one bed in the garden? Well they can... Edible Landscaping combines the Permaculture principle of 'Edible Forest Gardening' with conventional garden design theory. The result? Beautiful ornamental gardens with an edible twist! Edible landscaping is the best of both, an ornamental garden with every plant producing something delicious to eat. Edible Landscaping is also a great way to grow and harvest exotic flavours straight from the garden, often fruits and flavours not available anywhere else and by using perennials and self seeding annuals, harvests will return year after year after year - without the need to re-sow or work the soil! Edible Landscaping is the only way to create a beautiful, Willy Wonka inspired flavour factory in your garden... What's not to like? |
No-Dig for Victory Garden: Brassica oleracea - wild cabbage, a perennial kale providing a year round supply of cabbage leaves. Growing well with Lavendula angustifolia 'Hidcote', Rhubarb, Lemon verbena, wild strawberries and a plum!
Red and white alpine strawberries, used as ground-cover in a woodland themed Edible Landscape.
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Tropical themed Edible Landscape. Featuring plants such as; Chinese rhubarb Rheum palmatum, Persimmon and Ficus 'Sultane'
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Brassica oleracea - wild cabbage growing well with Pum 'Pink Candy,' Lavandula angustifolia hidcote and Aloysia citrodora the lemon verbena. All contrasting well with a scorched wood bee-post.
Strawberry 'Yellow Wonder' a white alpine strawberry. Alpine strawberries make effective groundcover in Edible Forest Gardens as the fruit is lifted above the ground. Protecting them from slugs!
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Pineapple Guava, Acca sellowiana 'Mammoth' flower. The pineapple guava produces edible marshmallow flavoured flowers followed by edible egg-sized fruits. All on hardy ornamental evergreen shrubs.
Improving food; security, accessibility and affordability. |
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Low-maintenance | Edible Ecosystems An Edible Landscape uses the same principles as a Food Forest or Edible Forest Garden. Designed to:
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Diagram explaining the different layers and roles for plants in a Food Forest or Edible Landscape. The examples above are suitable for a frost free garden. Note: 'Root layer' is not included to prevent soil disruption
No-Dig Edible Forest Garden in Newquay. The course texture of Sea kale (Crambe maritima) contrasts well with the fine texture of fennel and curry plant.
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Woodland themed Edible Landscape. Featuring plants such as; Welsh onion, Kale 'Pentland Brig' and Chilean Guava.
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Ficus 'Brunswick' figs ripening well in the Edible Forest Garden in Newquay.
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Allium nutans - Beautiful, edible allium that bees love! Allium nutans can be used like chives!
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Why Edible Landscapes? Uk wildlife is in massive decline, with several species facing extinction. Conventional agriculture, climate change, loss of habitat and pollution are key contributors to the devastating loss of our native ecosystems. Now more than ever we need to look at alternative ways to produce food for a growing population and re-establish habitats for our native wildlife. By creating edible landscapes we can create ecological, edible ecosystems resilient to the forces of climate change that do not require chemical feeds or pesticides and create habitats for wildlife at the same time. In addition; we can provide communities with access to local, accessible and affordable food, alleviating our dependency on a globalised food system. Edible Landscapes can create beautiful, edible ecosystems in our gardens resilient to forces of climate change and the uncertainty of the economy. Moving towards a sustainable, organic, more self sufficient way of producing delicious food. |
Below: Zacs talk on Edible Landscapes at the Cornwall Garden Society Spring Flower Show 2019 and his talk on: Localised Agriculture at the Eden Project Symposium on Food security. |
Dig for Victory for the 21st century:Empowering Communities: Edible Landscaping in domestic gardens, public greenspaces and community plots has wider potential. With access to edible landscaping communities could have access to free food source and therefore control over a portion of their food supply. If edible landscaping can provide just 5% of a communities food supply this could prove invaluable in times of emergency. The recent pandemic has exposed the fragility of our current food system, it only takes a bit of panic from the public to cause food shortages. Edible Landscapes in our gardens and greenspaces could alleviate our dependency on our current food system. - Providing security and peace of mind in times of uncertainty. |
Tropical themed Edible Landscape. Featuring plants such as; Chinese rhubarb Rheum palmatum, dwarf mulberry, Persimmon and Ficus 'Sultane'
Fruits of Ugni molinae - The Chilean Guava. Evergreen shrubs which produce delicious blueberry sized, guava flavoured fruits.
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Is food from Edible Landscapes nutritious?When we grow food our self's it is often more nutritious than the shop brought alternative... why? A combination of reasons, cultivar, ripeness, growing methods and post harvest handling all play a part but commercial growers are not motivated by the desire to create nutritious food they are motivated by £. Years of selective breeding for qualities such as shelf life and yield has led to the decline in nutritional value from most produce. With cultivars, the wild ancestor of the cultivated vegetable is often more nutritious. (wild cabbage for example) when we grow our own food with edible landscapes we can select the most delicious, nutritious cultivars, harvest at optimum ripeness, grow organically and eat straight away, ensuring food is as nutrient dense as it can be. |
Dahlia 'Luwig Helfert' - Dahlia flowers and tubers are edible. The Aztecs cultivated dahlias for their starchy tubers and used them like a potato.
Is Edible Landscaping the same as Edible Forest Gardening?Sort of: Edible Landscaping uses the principles of; 'Edible forest gardening' - and scales them down appropriately for a domestic or public space setting. This is then combined with conventional garden design theory, creating a mini-edible forest garden without having to sacrifice floral colour or epic form. Combining the edible and ornamental garden into one. |
Edible Landscaping in Practice: Havana: The Suburban Micro-farm No-dig, Semi Edible, Forest Garden Cut Flower- Herb Garden No-Dig for Victory Garden. 
Allium × proliferum - the tree onion. Perennial onion that produces mini shallots on the end of edible stalks.
Tulbaghia violacea - society garlic, edible herbaceous perennial with a garlic taste.
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Trained at the Eden Project and awarded BSc Horticulture (Garden and Landscape Design)
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