What's Up Wednesday

The Bloomsdale Spinach I planted from seed in the garden is doing great- 

look how big it got in the past few weeks!

From near to far: Kidney and Provider Bush Beans, Potatoes, Carrots and 

 Leeks, Lettuce, Kale, and Onions! Woo- what a green garden!

Carrots are going wild- I'll need to thin them soon

Genovese, Thai, and Lemon Basils newly transplanted outdoors.

You wouldn't know it from the picture, but this is an Apricot Tree! :) So cute.

What's Up in your Garden this Wednesday?

Book Review- Landscaping with Fruit by Lee Reich

I was recently searching at my local library for books on backyard fruit, cultivating fruiting plants, and small-scale fruit growing and I found a keeper- Landscaping with Fruit by Lee Reich!

For anyone looking to incorporate some (or more) fruit into their landscape, this is a great resource. Lee is thoughtful and creative about the ways to use fruit in your yard, in both an attractive and functional way.

Landscaping with Fruit also has a nice section on home landscaping plans, as well as a 'Guide to Fruiting Landscape plants' section. In the guide section, each plant that Reich lists is rated on a scale he has created- beauty, taste, and ease of care are each factored into the ratings. The factor that makes this book stand out from other books on landscaping that I've picked up is that this isn't a book of crazy, fantasy fruit gardens. There is careful thought put into what you might want to grow, how much work each plant takes to grow successfully, and considerations you'll want to think about.

Raspberries trellised along the fence in my backyard

I honestly hadn't heard of at least 5 of the plants that Reich suggestes- the new ideas were appreciated! This is definitely a practical guide to adding more fruiting plants to your landscape. If you're one of those gardeners who has always dreamed of an arbor covered in grapevines or a trellis with (hardy) kiwi fruits, pick up Landscaping with Fruit and turn those dreams into reality!

Happy Reading!

Book Review- Edible Front Yard by Ivette Soler

Totally recommended!

For the holidays, I had a lot of books on my list. One of the ones that I got and really loved is, Edible Front Yard by Ivette Soler. The Edible Front Yard is the (and I quote), "Mow-less, Grow-more plan for a Beautiful, Bountiful Garden". 

The book starts out in Chapter 1 with "Inspired Curb Appeal"- basically a whole chapter devoted to your inspirations for gardening, and motivating you to think about your house features, your dream garden, etc. Really a fun chapter! Chapter 2 is probably my favorite and the most useful, in my opinion- it goes through Edible Ornamentals- basically the nicest-looking varieties of a lot of your favorite fruits and veggies. Bronze fennel, espalier apple trees, African Blue basil, lavender, borage- all things you can either eat or consume in one way or another, but they are also just damn good-looking 

plants!

I was so inspired that my roommate and I put in an order for lotsa Herb seeds to start and keep indoors! Here's our order: Globe Bail, Mrs. Burn's Lemon Basil, Thai Basil, Cilantro, Cumin, Bronze Fennel, Green Culinary Sage, and Spearmint! Hopefully these will be attractive, product plants that will be a breath of fresh air indoors and a pretty addition out in the front yard when it comes time!

Edible fruit tree lust

As a resident in a urban suburb with a pretty small yard (about 1/6th of an acre including the space taken up by my house and garage) There's only so much space I can utilize for gardening. I've started to look at getting more dwarf edible trees, as ways to capitalize on landscape and edible space potential.

Some of the types of fruits I've been looking at lately are mulberry trees, grapes, nectarines, hardy kiwis, or paw-paws. Downsides of mulberries, paw-paws and grapes are that they need a lot of space. I've found some dwarf nectarines, and hardy kiwis can be relatively small. Paw-paws are shade lovers, which could be good for my front yard which doesn't get a lot of sun. Trying to consider what I would actually eat and use the most..

Paw-paws would be cool because they're native to North America, and they're unique as far as what's available in a conventional grocery store or even at the Farmers' Market. Hardy Kiwis would be pretty awesome for similar reasons- a way to grow kiwi fruit without having to buy it from across the globe would be great! On the site I was looking at, it said you could start the kiwi tree in a 5-gallon pot and then transfer it to its' permanent home the next year.

Mulberries can get to be really tall and I don't really need anymore tall trees in my yard. I still to want to do grapes, but I need to have the trellising structure before I invest in grape growing.

When you have a small yard and you want to grow your own food, you have to think creatively in order to make the best use of your space! In what ways do you creatively use your space to grow more food?