Our Growing Edible Landscape

This year we added a few more areas of edible plants to our small yard. The plants seem to be off to a great start, and my goal is to produce twice as much canned and freezable goods as last year. The strawberries that I planted along the South foundation wall have filled out nicely, and are producing tons of little white flowers that are quickly turning into green berries; which means delicious, red organic strawberries coming very soon! Strawberries are an awesome perennial that will produce year after year in good well drained soil. Ours have plenty of peat moss, vermiculite, and loose organic soil. This year I am letting the runners go crazy, but next spring it will be time to get them back under control by removing some plants and runners to ensure good berry size, and so they do not get root bound.

Our organic thornless blackberry is vining out, as I continue to train it up an old horse hitching post. (Now part of an anchor for our dog run.) We didn’t get any berries last year, but this year it is adorned with flowers, and I am anxiously awaiting making blackberry muffins and scones.

Our organic blueberry bush is still fairly small, but is beginning to produce as well. I gave it a nice dose of coffee grounds around the base of the plant around the time of our last frost, since it loves the acidity.

A three tier gutter planter is housing some various varieties of organic lettuce and baby spinach, and helps conceal an unsightly view of the driveway and grill looking from the East. The lettuce is already harvestable…and I just planted it eight weeks ago!

Our old, broken-wheeled yard cart has become a place for onions! They seems perfectly happy here and are growing wonderfully! It’s convenient having the onions and lettuce next to our deck for snipping before dinner.

The urban columnar apple trees survived a brutal attack by Japanese beetles last year, and they are starting to produce flowers as well. A great sign that we will have apples!

I have begun training the raspberries to grow up twine that I attached to a dowel rod just under our roof soffit by tiny hooks.  This is a great way to keep the plant from taking over a large portion of yard, and forcing them to grow upright.

Last year, this was our broccoli tower. This year I thought it was better suited for cherry tomatoes and jalapenos. Especially since our main garden area is filled to the brim with beefsteak, brandy-wine, and big girl tomatoes; along with green bell peppers, sweet corn, carrots, zucchini, cucumbers, watermelon, and cantaloupe. Beans and peas are coming soon! I’ve also planted brussel sprouts in large pots on the back deck as an experiment…I hope they produce well, as I think they a very cool looking plant, as well as a very delicious one! Thanks for sharing in our small edible landscape. Lots more to come!