SUSTAINABILITY:  Edibles A Growing Trend in Southern California Landscaping

Palisadian-Post August, 2006    Home & Garden Special Section

by Nancy Cipes


The trend these days in Southern California is toward conservation and increasing sustainability. In terms of landscaping this means reducing turf, minimizing water, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and in turn, reducing greenhouse gasses. Planting an organic edible garden is a way to create a useful, versatile and attractive landscape, and it is a giant step towards increasing sustainability and self-reliance.

Los Angeles architect, Fritz Haeg, creator of the Edible Estates Project, is on a mission to eradicate front lawns all across America and replace them with practical, food producing landscapes.  Haeg’s Lakewood prototype garden, just 25 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles, transformed the Foti family’s front yard into a veritable Garden of Eden.  The project, which was first planted over Memorial Day weekend, has been producing since the Fourth of July—enough peppers, eggplant and heirloom tomatoes to feed the whole neighborhood.  In addition to replacing a useless, water indulgent lawn with fresh organic food, Haeg has accomplished the loftier goal of getting people together and bringing them a little closer to the Earth.

While you may not be ready to tear up your front lawn, you might still want to consider adding a few edibles to your existing landscape design.  Start by planting a small kitchen garden with lettuces and herbs, or tuck in small seedlings among the flowers, rose bushes and shrubs.  Lettuces, especially, like filtered sunlight and will do quite well in the shade of your established plants.  Fall is the perfect time to sow lettuce from seed, and many other vegetables and greens flourish as the weather cools down.  Artichoke, Rainbow chard, Italian black kale, onions, peas, carrots and beets, are all examples of cool season crops that grow easily in the home garden.

If you’re adding trees to your landscape, think about planting fruit trees.  There are many varieties of citrus that are now available, like the new orangequat (tangelo and kumquat) and limequat (lime and kumquat) hybrids.  Also new are fruit tree “combos,” Washington navel orange on the same tree with, say, Oro blanco grapefruit.  Fruit tree combos come in apple/pear, nectarine/peach, plum/pluot, and will typically have varieties that ripen in succession, so you are guaranteed fruit all season long.

Growing edibles in your yard may be a life-changing experience.  It will cause you to take a closer look at the way you eat and what you feed your family.  Before you make dinner, take a basket and scissors with you outside to the garden to see what’s ready to harvest.  Your cooking will be inspired by fresh picked organic ingredients, your family will be nourished with a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, and your guests will be thoroughly impressed.

The key to growing fruit and vegetables successfully is good sun, well-amended soil and regular, but not excessive, water.  A drip irrigation is a great system for maximum water efficiency, and a weather-based timer will automatically turn your system off when it rains.  Compost your kitchen and garden waste, and you’ll be further increasing your sustainability and maybe even decreasing your contribution to global warming.  Whether you go all out and rip up your front lawn, or just plant a little parsley on your patio, you’ll be on the path to a healthier, more sustainable and self-sufficient lifestyle.