October 2009

On a post I put in pictures of the work My husband Carl did to fix a drainage problem on the north side of the house.  The project was done earlier this summer.  I have since landscaped with more edibles in the beds.

There is a large overhang on the roof.  About 10 inches closest to the house does not receive water when it rains. Unless of course the wind should drive it in.

The chameleon plants (Houttuynia cordata ‘Chameleon‘) grew a bit this summer.  They are in the middle so get rain.  We did not have a lot of rain at the beginning of the summer but the weather made up for that later on.

I transferred my two wood millets and wild ginger here from the front beds as these plants tend to like more shade.  I figured I would try them in the beds.  As summer progressed the sun shifted more southward making this bed in total shade for a good part of the day.  The soil is shallow here and roots have nowhere to go but sideways after they hit the sidewalk.  It will be interesting to see if the plants will survive winter.  I plan on adding more composted manure and topping it with a nice layer of straw to conserve moisture and help insulate the plants.

The biggest surprises were the volunteer tomato plants that started to grow in the bed shortly after we finished the project.  I let them grow to see what they would do.  They stayed quite small for a while as it had not really rained.  Finally we had some rain and it seemed like within a couple of weeks they had really started to spring up.  This was  around mid to late July I believe.

The vegetative growth really impressed me considering they were in the shade except late afternoon when the sun past the house. They actually produced some fruit.  Not large but still impressive for the struggle they had to endure to grow here.  The plants themselves were very strong and not too leggy.  It got me thinking.  The clay soil we used had all been broken up to fill the area.  I had added some compost to the clay.  Actually I took a picture the other day of our  clay soil compared to the composted manure I add to the soil.  Here it is :

The clay is the lighter colored CHUNKS of soil.

Now I presume that breaking up the clay to fill the area allowed air pockets, good for plant roots.  The small amount of composted manure added could only help.  And here we have a few tomato plants that actually produced fruit.  Not bad.  Now think if I had actually given these plants ANY attention, some fertilizer and water,  maybe they would have produced a lot better!  And this in the shade for the better part of the day. Interesting!

I took this picture  a couple of days ago when I finally pulled them out of the bed. I had already pulled one out when I thought  ” I should take a picture!”  You can see a red tomato in front.

Also interesting… we have had a couple of light frosts, maybe the overhang helps a bit.

In the basket are the last of the tomato harvest for this year.  The two larger tomatoes are not from the side bed plants. The rest came from the volunteer plants.

I found this great basket at a yard sale for one dollar last week.  I love it!

Back to the subject.

Other edibles that I planted in the beds this fall are as follows:

Primroses:                                                                                                                                Primula veris - flowers , young leaves  edible- Evergreen

Primula vulgaris (English Primrose) flowers and leaves

Creeping Bramble:                                                                                                                     Rubus pentalobus it’s rated for Zone 6 so I hope it will survive (another reason for a nice thick mulch for winter). Also evergreen  [Depending on which zone map you consult my zone is 5 to 6]

Creeping Juniper:                                                                                                                    Juniperis horizontalis. I’ll have to find the purchase slip to tell you the cultivar.  Evergreen (seeing a theme here?)

Edible Sedums:   Dragon’s Blood

Carl wanted evergreen coverage in the beds.  I’m trying to appease him because he wanted to put  the ivy (hedera species )or grass in the bed so it would be green all year. We have hedera ivy that grows up the side of the  porch(it was here when we moved in). Yuck!  besides they are not edible. So my quest for edible evergreen coverage began.

I have not been online for a number of months as we have had a lot of painting jobs.  Also I have had spam issues with the blog and removed some articles being hit 95 spams a day! – until I could figure out how to stop them. I’ve tried something so we”ll see what happens.  My husband has been online a tremendous amount of time so the computer has also  not been available .   By the time he finishes it is very late in the evening and I’m ready for bed!  We are looking into purchasing a second computer.

This garden season was very successful.  My garlic was gargantuan!  I had one friend who asked about the “corn”.  It was over three feet tall.

The garden area  was new this year so the tomatoes did not produce as well as I would have liked but we had a good amount.  I grew ten tomato plants. Recently my husband and I got a couple of nice loads of composted manure from a friends house .  The garden will really be good next year!

I continue to add edible plants to the landscape.  I love to wait until fall when nurseries have  sales, this way I can get more plants for my money.

I bought plants from Santa Rosa Gardens (www.santarosagardens.com) at their $2.99  each sale.  Also bought from SpringHill Nursery from their one cent sale.  I bought edible sedums,  Monarda (beebalm), Ivory Peach Bellflower (Campanula sp), Primroses (Primula spp).  I also purchased some grasses for the birds.

The new front flower bed really blossomed.  I had put in a pastel mix of petunia hybrids to fill in space and they really did nice.  Flowers are edible.  Not much taste to them but  pretty on a salad.  They were beautiful in the bed!  In the bed I planted a small serviceberry, Amelanchier alnifolia ‘ Regent‘ (4-6′  X  same), which I want to train to three or four feet.  I purchased it from  Edible landscaping (www. eat-it.com). They have real good sale in the fall.  I also bought Amelanchier canadensis ‘Prince William‘ (8′ X 6′) for the back yard and Thai Ginger (Alpinia galanga) which will of course have to be indoors in winter.

Well have to go second coat the clawfoot tub.  So I’ll sign off.

Cat

I am working on some quick reference lists to make it easier to identify edible plants I want to incorporate into my postage stamp size landscape. The internet is definitely the information highway.  I can find anything I’m looking for -  eventually -  but sometimes it takes a lot of time and energy.

First I  googled the category of interest, then went from site to site checking to see if they contained information I  needed.  Once I found information – I read it,  followed links, scanned, searched, jumped back, rechecked, looked for pictures of the plant and recorded all the basic information ( growing zones,  sizes, tree- shrub-vine-herb-, annual-perennial–biennial,  soil and sun requirements;  edibility- culinary and/or medicinal, etc…)  comparing it with information on every other plant I  discovered by repeating the same process.  It was a time consuming, tedious task to compile a list of a handful of plants that I felt fit my requirements. Then I would chance onto another site – find another plant that sounded wonderful (you need to know that I would have every edible plant imaginable – IF I had the space).

This is where the idea of a handy reference guide popped into my head.  I do love to research but I was getting very frustrated.  The list of plants  I wanted kept growing.  If I put  basic information of each plant in an easy to read comparable list I could quickly compile a list of  edible plants for my yard without exhausting myself.

The ability to narrow down my plant search quickly appealed to me.  WHY?  As I stated I have a postage stamp size area that I want to landscape with edibles.  I want the most uses out of every single plant in my landscape.  My goals are to locate plants native to the area,  enrich and beautify the environment, provide food and shelter for birds, beneficial insects and my family.

There are many choices of edible plants. My yard may not provide the requirements needed by certain ones. Neighboring houses are very close and sunlight is an issue in some areas and at certain times of the year.  So a quick glance down a column regarding sun requirements would guide me to plants suitable for the area.  From there I could compare the plants other attributes to my goal and see if it makes it onto the list.

Living in the city I also have to  be cognizant of  the rules.  I would have a meadow in the front yard but the weed police would put a sign in the yard stating I must mow it to the ground and keep it that way.  If I did not comply, the city would mow it and send me a bill.  So the landscaping in the front yard has to be aesthetically pleasing.  Another goal is to encourage others around me to follow suit.  Supplying food for themselves and wildlife while at the same time enriching the environment.  Allowing the earth to continue sustaining life.        Cat