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iii
leslie bennett d stefani bittner
Photography by David Fenton and Jill Rizzo
Floral Arrangements by Studio Choo
Design a Stylish Outdoor Space
Using Vegetables, Fruits, and Herbs
TEN SPEED PRESS
Berkeley
The Beautiful
Edible Garden
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ConTenTs
Introduction vi
ONE Principles for Successful Edible Garden Design 1
TwO Creating Your Beautiful Edible Garden 35
ThREE The Beautiful Edible Front Yard 67
FOuR The Beautiful Edible Backyard 103
FivE Beautiful Edible Containers, Window Boxes,
Side Yards, and Other Small Spaces 149
Six Planting and Maintaining Your Beautiful Edible Garden 173
Resources 200
Acknowledgments 205
About the Authors and Contributors 207
Index 208
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48 The Beautiful Edible Garden
In general, edible gardens are not low-water endeavors. Even so, you
can still be waterwise. In many parts o the country, water is a limited
resource. Even in regions where there is typically plenty o water it makes
sense to plan or a uture in which we are all being more careul with our
shared resources. Well talk about efcient watering systems and practices
more in chapter six, but or now, know that one o the more important
things you can do to be waterwise as you design your garden is to install an
irrigation system that has the capacity to direct dierent amounts o water
to dierent types o plants. Then you can group plants with similar water
needs on the same water station or valve on your irrigation system. This
way you are not over- or under-watering individual plants and, ultimately,
wasting resources, time, and energy.
Lower-water edible plants do exist and are great additions to yourgarden. Many o the edible lower-water plants that you can use in the
landscape are native to the Mediterranean, Caliornia, Australia, South
Arica, and the Middle East.
here are a ew o our avorite lower-water edible:apricot artichoke culinary sweet bay caper cardoon fg grapes lavender loquat olive oregano pineapple guava pomegranate rosemary sage thyme
Five Steps or Creating a Beautiul Edible Garden
Ater youve assessed soil, ood saety, light, and water conditions, youre
ready to start creating your garden. To achieve a space that is both beautiul
and productive, plan your garden layout methodically. This way you can add
elements to your garden purposeully and meet your goal o creating a gar-
den that really works or you. The step-by-step process that ollows is meantto be an introduction to the planning process; in later chapters, well explain
how to apply these steps to specic garden spaces.
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50 The Beautiful Edible Garden
Step One: Arrange Permanent Elements
The location o permanent garden elements such as patios, sitting areas,
pathways, encing, planting beds, and lawns should be decided rst. Once
you have determined how you want to arrange them, they will be the con-
stant, unchanging parts o your
garden space and the oundation
o your gardens utility and style.
These permanent elements
will dene the space and how you
move around in it. They are also
usually heavy and more expensive
than plants, and, i you move themaround ater plants are already
growing in your garden, youll risk
damaging or killing your plants.
For all these reasons, its important
to place everything in the right
spot rom the start, so make sure
you are pleased with how they t
into and support your overall gar-den style and ood-growing goals
beore moving on to other steps in
your garden design process.
PLaNTiNg BEDS
These are the garden spaces where your plants will grow. Planting beds are
dened and contained by hardscaping materials and pathways. We reer
to planting beds as ornamental, mixed ornamental and edible, and annual
vegetable, with each describing the type o planting ound within the plant-
ing bed. I you have the luxury o starting rom scratch, the rst permanent
elements to place are your planting beds. I you are working with an exist-
ing layout, make any decisions about adding or modiying planting beds
your rst step.
Garden gate with mature olive tree andpollinator-attracting nepeta.
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Creating Your Beautiul Edible Garden 51
Left: This annual-vegetable bed, planted with chard and kale, is built of locally quarriedstone with similarly warm-toned decomposed granite pathways surrounding it.
Right: This charming, rustic pathway leads to a tucked-away blueberry grove. Nasturtium,groundcover chamomile, golden marjoram, Tricolor and Berggarten sage, mint, andlavender provide fragrance and easy harvesting along the way.
Patios and Pathways
Patios and pathways dene the garden, creating diferent destinations
and leading you to them. I you are starting rom scratch, think about
how many people may be using the patios and pathways, what purpose
they each serve, and what material youd like to use. A patio can be a com-
munal gathering space or secluded destination. A pathway can take you to
a patio, garden bench, or garden gateor can even just be a circular path
with a dened start and nish. Choose one pathway material through-
out, then either continue it as a basis or your patio or select a diferent
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52 The Beautiful Edible Garden
material that complements the rst. This will give your garden an overall
cohesive look.
Patios and pathways can be made out o a variety o materials, but it is
best to use permeable suraces in the garden so that rain and other watercan inltrate through the surace to the soil below. This way, you can keep
water on-site instead o having it run o into storm drains. Your ruit trees
and other deep-rooted plants can access this groundwater, reducing your
need or irrigation. For these reasons, permeable options such as gravel,
decomposed granite, and pavers with unmortared spaces between them are
usually better choices than concrete. Use gravel or pavers or main access
pathways because they drain more quickly and will not get mucky during
winter rains. Groundcover herbs are oten grown in the spaces between
pathway pavers. Although this looks great and we encourage you to plant
LEFT: Line simple pathways with groundcover chamomile, variegated lemon thyme, andcreeping thyme.
RighT: Pathways between annual-vegetable beds provide the space to maintain andharvest rom your garden.
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Creating Your Beautiul Edible Garden 53
them here, its best to cook with herbs harvested rom your plantings beds,
which are less likely to be contaminated by oot trafc, and reserve the herbs
planted in your pathway or decorative and pollinator-attracting purposes.
You need a way to get rom point A to point B in your garden withouttromping all over your reshly turned soil and delicate plants. Ideally, main
pathways should be about three eet wide, a comortable size or a wheel
barrel and strolling side by side with a riend. A secondary pathway through
a planting bed can be as simple as a piece o stone or brick to step on. Make
secondary paths a minimum o eighteen inches wide. In a perennial planting
area, youll be using the secondary pathway to pick owers, ruits, and ber-
ries, and also to ertilize and mulch. Annual-vegetable planting beds require
more requent access to harvest, plant, ertilize, and turn your soil. So, while
an eighteen-inch pathway is ne between your vegetable beds, youll need to
have a wider main pathway nearby so that you can use your wheelbarrow to
bring resh compost to your beds a couple o times each year.
LawNS
Deciding whether or not to grow a lawn in your garden is an important
decision. Lawns take up a lot o sunny space that could otherwise be used
or growing ood; most traditional lawn grasses are water-thirsty, and many
require a lot o ertilizer and herbicide to stay green and lush.There are ways to reconceptualize your lawn as a more productive space.
First, consider how large your lawn really needs to be. A straightorward
option or gaining more edible space is to simply reduce the size o your lawn.
I you expand the planting beds that border it, you can cultivate them with
edibles and pollinator-attracting perennials. When growing edibles along-
side a lawn area, it is important to switch your lawn care to organic methods
so as not to introduce toxic chemicals into the ood you will be eating.
There are also alternatives to a traditional lawn that still provide an
open look and space or amily recreation. New eco and no-mow lawn
options require less water, less gas-powered mowing energy, and ewer er-
tilizers. Or, consider a lawn o low-growing herbs, such as Roman chamo-
mile, groundcover yarrow, or thyme. All o these attract pollinators such as
bees, so they are not good choices or a recreational lawn, especially i you
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54 The Beautiful Edible Garden
have young kids running around bareoot. However, i the lawn is more
or visual impact, these herb alternatives are a great way to achieve an openlook while also creating more habitat or benecial insects and increasing
the productivity o your garden.
Step Two: Establish Focal Points
Once you have arranged the permanent elements o your garden, the next
step is to establish your ocal points. Focal points are where the eye comes
to rest in a garden. They help give a garden direction and energy. You havemany options to choose rom: a place to sit, a ountain, a piece o garden
art, a single special specimen plant or tree, a central planting bedor
even a vegetable garden. The key, however, is that your ocal point must be
something permanent that is special or beautiul. When deciding on your
gardens ocal point, think about what you love and then arrange the rest
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56 The Beautiful Edible Garden
This persimmon tree, covered with chartreuse-colored spring leaves, stands out amongthe evergreen Tuscan Blue rosemary hedging. The tree is a ocal point in this relaxedhillside garden.
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Creating Your Beautiul Edible Garden 57
o your design to highlight it. You can do this by making a pathway lead to
your ocal point, encircling it with low-growing plants, or giving it a back-
ground o monochromatic plants so that it stands out. Focal points draw
the eye by being a dierent material, color, or height than their surround-ing environment.
Focal points should be in proportion to the scale o the garden and
reective o your chosen garden style. The larger your garden, the larger your
ocal point or points can be. You can also use ocal points to enhance the
sense o space in your garden. For example, in smaller gardens, a ocal point
toward the end o the gardens longest viewrather than right in the center
o the gardenwill create a more spacious eeling. Whatever you select, a
ocal point denes the character o the space and gives everything else in the
garden a reerence point.
Step Three: PositionAnchor Plants
Along with your permanent hard-
scaping elements, anchor plant-
ings are the structural ramework
upon which the rest o yourgarden is based. These anchors
will dene your garden through
the seasons. Even in winter, when
deciduous plants lose their leaves
and patio urniture is put away,
there should be strong elements in
place that provide visual interest
and that maintain the basic lines
and ow o your garden.
Evergreen pineapple guava, blueberry,and ornamental blue oat grass worktogether to anchor this traditional rontyard border planting.
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58 The Beautiful Edible Garden
Use perennial plants as your anchors. They should be evergreen or, i
they are deciduous, they should provide another element like height or strong
branch structure. Many ruit trees work well or this purpose. Screening
and hedging plants are oten used or privacy, but their evergreen oliagecan also serve as an anchor in your overall garden design.
Step Four: Add Plants or Beauty and Production
Ater you have nished placing the permanent elements and anchor plants
in your garden, you are ready to choose additional plants that are beautiul
and productive. These plants include perennial edibles (like rhubarb, arti-
choke, asparagus, lemongrass, and berries), annual vegetables (like peppers,
eggplants, chard, onions, and celery), herbs, and owers that you will add to
the remaining spaces in your planting beds.
Just as your edible plants work or you, pollinator-attracting plants
work or your edibles by providing a habitat or the pollinators and ben-
ecial insects that your edible garden needs. Pollination is what happens
when pollen is transerred rom a plants male parts to its emale parts.
Without it, the development o new seeds and ruit wouldnt happen. The
most eective way or pollen to move around rom ower to ower is when
it is carried by insects, also called pollinators. Pollinators include bees, but-teries, beetles, ants, and sometimes also birds. Even plants that can rely on
the wind to distribute pollen will increase production signicantly when
they have support rom visiting pollinators.
A healthy garden also needs a whole host o benecial insects to help
ght o unwanted garden pests. Benecial insect is a general term that
includes the above pollinators and also insects that prey on garden pests
like aphids or mites. These pest-killers include ladybugs, green lacewings,
praying mantis, assassin bugs, and some ies and wasps. Because this rangeo insects help keep each others populations in check, you cannot have a
healthy garden ecosystem without them.
Happily, the plants that are attractive to your local benecial insects
and help lure them to your garden are also attractive to uswe all like
owers! There are so many pollinator-attracting blooms to choose rom,
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Creating Your Beautiul Edible Garden 59
This beautiul garden produces a rich harvest o vegetables, ruits, herbs, and cut ow-ers. Stone and decomposed granite materials are used or the permanent elements,including pathways and bed borders. Concentric, circular vegetable beds are the ocal
point o this space. Compact lavender hedging encircles the vegetable area, providingstructure and screening through the year. Peach and apple trees urther anchor thespace. Globe artichokes and verbena attract pollinators and benefcial insects to thegarden and are a great source or cut owers. Edible lime thyme flls out the bed andadds vibrant color.
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60 The Beautiful Edible Garden
Let your garlic chives go to ower.
such as yarrow. Yarrow is the real workhorse o the garden. A beautiul,
perennial, low-water plant, it is available in a wide range o colors and
attracts ladybugs, lacewing bugs, hover ies, bees, and more. In addition to
traditional perennial owers to attract pollinators, you can cultivate herbsthroughout the garden and let them ower.
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Creating Your Beautiul Edible Garden 61
A bees avorite fowers are some o our avorites, too. Yarrow has a wonderul
sweet scent and comes in a wide variety o colors. Yarrows texture is an excel-
lent addition to your garden and lasts a long time in a fower arrangement.
Mix yarrow with other pollinator fowers, especially fowering herbs. To make
a small bouquet, pick a ew stems o mint, sage, and chive fowers, scented
geranium, yarrow, and the fowers o any other herbs in your garden. Hold the
bouquet in one hand while adding in a ew stems at a time. Once you have a
bouquet in the size you want, choose an appropriate vase or small glass, give
the stems a resh cut, and place in the water.
Pollinator
Arrangements
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Dont orget to include some o the owers you really loveeven i
they are not pollinators avorite owers. Dahlias, hydrangeas, daodils, and
tulips all have a place in your garden i you like them. Mix them in with
owers that pollinators love too or a beautiul, productive, and healthygarden. Its easy to do regardless o your chosen garden design style,
because there are so many owers to choose rom.
here are a ew o our avorite pollinator and benefcialinect-attracting plant:
agastache anise hyssop blue throatwort ceanothus coreopsis cosmos crassula echinacea echium erigeron euphorbia owering culinary herbs oxglove germander grevillea helenium lavender nepeta penstemon rudbeckia Russian
sage salvias scabiosa sedum stonecrops sunower sweetalyssum verbena yarrow zinnia
LEFT: Apple blossom yarrow; RighT: White-owering yarrow.
TOP ROw, LEFT TO RighT: Nepeta, salvia.
miDDLE ROw, LEFT TO RighT: Lavender, owering dill, echinacea.
BOTTOm ROw, LEFT TO RighT: Scented geranium, anise hyssop, agastache.
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64 The Beautiful Edible Garden
sel-Pollination and Cro-Pollination
Many plants are sel-ertile, which means that pollen rom one ower can successully
ertilize another ower on the same plant. Other plants must be cross-pollinated; theyneed pollen rom another plant o the same or similar type to ertilize their own owers.
As you are laying out your garden, make sure that any edibles planted on their own are
sel-ertile and that any plants that need companionship are planted in groups o two or
more. They dont need to be right next to each other, but the closer they are, the more
likely the pollen rom one will end up on the other instead o being lost in between.
Step Five: Fill It Out with Groundcovers and
Low-Growing PlantsThe last step is to ll in unused spaces with groundcovers and low-growing
plants. Repeated throughout the landscape, they are an eective way to
establish a balanced and cohesive look in your garden. Rather than orna-
mentals, use low-growing perennial herbs and edibles as groundcovers
throughout your garden. Groundcover chamomile under a ruit tree can
be repeated between agstones in a pathway. I you use a variegated yellow-
and-green ornamental grass in one part o the garden, repeat that same
color scheme with a variegated lemon thyme. Remember common sensewhen harvestingdont harvest and eat the ones that are planted in more
pedestrian areas like the edges o driveways and sidewalks; instead, leave
those to ower and attract pollinators to the garden or use as cut owers in
your home.
some avorite edible groundcover and low-growing plant include:SPREaDiNg FRuiTS: blueberries (low bush varieties) cranberries strawberries (alpine, ever-bearing, and June-bearing)
hERBS: chamomile (Roman variety) Corsican mint other mints(use only in contained areas and pull back rom around bases o trees andshrubs) oregano (try variegated White Anniversary oregano) rose-mary (prostrate varieties) sage (try La Crema, Tricolor, and goldenvarieties) sweet woodru thyme (try Caraway, creeping, SpicyOrange, lime, variegated lemon, and silver varieties) winter savory
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Creating Your Beautiul Edible Garden 65
Underplant your ornamentals with groundcover herbs. Here, Greek oregano sotens aplanting o succulents and euphorbia, and cascades beautiully over a stone wall.
Now that we have walked you through the design principles o a
beautiul edible garden and the ve steps or planning a garden, you are
ready to apply these ideas to your ront yard, backyard, and other smaller
garden spaces.
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http://www.indiebound.org/product/info.jsp?affiliateId=randomhouse1&isbn=1607742330https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-beautiful-edible-garden/id558300470?mt=11http://books.google.com/books?q=9781607742340&pubid=21000000000124596http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?ISBSRC=Y&ISBN=9781607742333&cm_mmc=Random%20House-_-The+Beautiful+Edible+Garden-TR--scribd-9781607742333-_-The+Beautiful+Edible+Garden-TR--scribd-9781607742333-_-The+Beautiful+Edible+Gardenhttp://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1607742330?ie=UTF8&tag=randohouseinc4095-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=16077423307/30/2019 The Beautiful Edible Garden - Excerpt
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For our mothers, Christine and Garna, our partners, Linval and Jay,and the next generation, Ana and Lauren.
pHOtO OppOsite title page: Edible salad burnet with ornamental succulents and euphorbia.
pHOtO OppOsite table OF cOntents: La Crema sage.
Copyright 2013 by Leslie Bennett andStefani Bittner
All photographs copyright 2013 by DavidFenton, except as noted below.
Photographs copyright 2013 by Jill Rizzo:pages i, 9, 10, 11 (right), 16, 18, 19 (bottom right),20, 21, 23 (top left and bottom), 26, 27, 30 (center),31 (far left and far right), 34, 38, 47, 56, 61, 62(right), 63 (top left; middle row left and center;bottom left, center, and right), 65, 73 (top), 77(top left and right, bottom left), 78, 79, 82, 83 (topright, middle row right, bottom right), 85, 86,88, 89, 91, 95, 96, 99 (top left and right, bottomright), 100 (top, second from left), 105, 114, 115,118, 119 (top), 129 (top right and bottom left),130, 133 (top and bottom right), 136 (middle
row center and right; bottom row left, center,and right), 137, 139, 141, 142, 144 (top center), 146(bottom left), 148, 151, 155 (bottom), 156 (far right),158, 159, 161, 162, 164, 165, 167, 177, 182, 185, 194,197, 203, back cover (center)
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States byTen Speed Press, an imprint of theCrown Publishing Group, a divisionof Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.comwww.tenspeed.com
Ten Speed Press and the Ten Speed Presscolophon are registered trademarks of RandomHouse, Inc.
Library of CongressCataloging-in-Publication Data
Bennett, Leslie, 1978The beautiful edible garden : design a stylish
outdoor space using vegetables, fruits, andherbs / Leslie Bennett and Stefani Bittner. 1st ed.
p. cm.Design a stylish outdoor space using
vegetables, fruits, and herbs1. GardensDesign. 2. Plants, Edible. 3.
Organic gardening. I. Bittner, Stefani, 1969 II.Title. III. Title: Design a stylish outdoor space
using vegetables, fruits, and herbs.SB472.45.B465 2013635.0484dc23
2012030122
ISBN 978-1-60774-233-3eISBN 978-1-60774-234-0
Printed in China
Design by Betsy Stromberg
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
First Edition