Garden Design | Edible Landscaping Made Easy With Avis Licht

The Spring Garden Made Easy

Books, Garden Design, Garden Reflections, Soil and Amendments 6 Responses »

Mar 022012

Finally! Here at last! A streamlined, easy to follow e-book on how to start your spring garden. It covers climate, choosing your site, soil types, what to plant, compost and irrigation. After forty years of gardening it’s hard to know what not to share. In this book I’ve winnowed down the information for novice gardeners to encourage and guide them to successful food growing at home.

Alan Chadwick was a visionary: eccentric, knowledgeable and formidable. He was also my gardening teacher. He was a master and we were the apprentices, in the old fashioned sense of the word. We worked long hours, from before the sun rose to sunset. We learned about seeds, soil, flowers, herbs, fruit and service. Service to the earth. Following the laws of nature to ensure healthy, beautiful and bountiful gardens. Always organic, but much more than that, Alan looked deep into the relationships between plants, animals and humans. My blog and this e-book is the culmination of years of gardening.

Robert Kourik author of ”Your Edible Landscape – Naturally” has this to say:

“Avis has condensed over four decades of gardening skill into one information-packed handbook. This is important reading for the beginning gardener. You will skip making many mistakes by reading this attractive handbook first.”

You can buy “The Spring Garden Made Easy” now for only $10, by clicking on the button!

Buy this e-book for the price of a movie. It will be just as entertaining, only without the popcorn.

Those of us who had the privilege of working and studying with Alan now have the obligation to share what we’ve learned. I hope in this blog, to do just that. Each topic, a window into a way of working in the garden, simply, carefully and with intention to do no harm. I hope in the e-books that I write, that you can begin to see a little into that world. Of course, the most important part, is the teachings of the gardens themselves. Open your eyes, ears, nose and mind and learn something new everyday in the garden.

The first book, The Spring Garden Made Easy, is aimed at helping you start out, one step at a time to be successful and inspire you to keep going. There will be set backs – snails, earwigs, gophers, deer, they all want a part of your garden. We learn to how to keep them from getting too much and even how to share. Click on the Buy Now button above or on the right side of the web page and you can download it immediately.My hourly consultation is definitely more than $10, which is the cost of the book. Since I can’t be with all of you in your garden, take this opportunity to pick my brain by buying the book. Be sure to sign up for the blog as well, it’s free and it’s got lots of information. I always love to hear from my readers. Leave me a comment and let me know how your garden grows.In the joy of gardening, Avis

P.S. If you’re reading this in your email, you won’t see the website. So click on the title and it will take you to all my posts.

Designing a Garden with Herbs – for Your Edible Landscape

Garden Design, Ornamental/edible plants 2 Responses »

Jan 042012

by Avis Licht

Herbs are wonderful plants for the edible landscape -beautiful and healthy

Herbs have many uses in the landscape. Many have a culinary use, many are used medicinally, they are generally easy to grow, their flowers are an excellent source of pollen and nectar for birds, bees and insects, often drought resistant and long lived. Well, it doesn’t get much better than that for a multi use plant.

In the two previous posts, I talked about making garden design decisions based on your climate and place and on your desires. When choosing plants to fill in the landscape you not only want to use plants that are pretty and useful, but also “belong” there. By belonging I mean that they fit in with the style of your garden, whether formal or informal, that they will thrive in the conditions and that they work in the scale of the garden.

Herbs are interplanted with ornamentals near the house for easy access

This is a newly planted garden. The herbs are young and small. When mature they will fill in the area and create a feeling of beauty and lushness. When the herbs have been harvested at the end of the season, there will still be ornamental plants in the garden that keep it looking good over the winter. This is one of the best tricks in an ornamental edible landscape design. Combine your annuals with shrubs and perennials so that you don’t have periods in the garden that look bare.

Mix your foliage colors for interest

Multiple herbs, both annual and perennials work together

This particular herb garden has thyme, sage, oregano, tarragon, dill, chives, parsley, cilantro and several varieties of basil. We also used rosemary and thyme to cascade over the wall, with nasturtiums for added color. Many of these plants have edible flowers. The herbs grow quickly and fill in the garden.

The ornamental plants in this bed include Azalea, Pieris, ferns, and Polygala. These are shade loving plants, which we put closer to the tree. We put the herbs in the sunniest part of the bed. It was a little tricky, but you can see by the photos that the herbs grew well even in part shade.

Give your Rosemary plenty of sun and room to grow

Mixed annual and perennial herbs cover the retaining wall

A few of the herbs that are planted more for beauty than culinary use include lavender, salvias, yarrow and ornamental oreganos. By going to your local nurseries you will find appropriate herbs for your garden’s beauty and health. Peruse some of the catalogs in the Resource page of my website and you will find many herbs both common and unusual that will be just right for your garden.

Pink yarrow lives a long time and requires little care or water

Edible Landscape Plan for a Small Front Garden

Garden Design 2 Responses »

Jan 032012

by Avis Licht

A front yard fence that is beautiful and functional

Yesterday I talked about the steps involved in making a landscape plan. Today I want to share with you a small front yard garden that used those guidelines.

The first parameters you need to look at are your climate, sun/shade, slope, access, existing structures and plantings. Don’t forget that the sun moves not only east and west, but north and south. The sun is high in the sky in summer and low on the horizon in winter. Be sure to locate north and watch the sun/shade patterns in your garden over time. You will be amazed how little sun you have in the winter compared to summer if you have any tall trees or structures.

Path divides garden into shade and sun microclimate

The path divides the garden into edibles and ornamentals based on the sun

In the photo above you can see a 2 story house that creates a lot of shade on the garden. The garden is on the north side of the house. This means that in winter almost the entire garden is in shade. In summer the garden has plenty of sun from the path to the fence. Using this information, I created vegetable beds in the sunny part of the garden for Spring to Fall crops. The beds closest to the house are landscaped with shade loving ornamental shrubs and flowers.

Using beds with stone to create form and structure keeps the garden looking good all year

The yard is curved to use as much of the available ground the gets sun in the early Spring. The fence is 6 feet high and keeps the deer out. The fence is also used to grow climbing vegetables such as peas, beans, cucumbers and tomatoes. Because it is on the north side of the garden it doesn’t shade the other beds.

Once you’ve determined your site functions, based on climate and position, it’s time to start looking at your desires and finances. In this case the owner was a single person with a limited income as a teacher, but who hopes to live here the rest of her life and wanted to make it a special place to come home to every day. She wanted something beautiful as well as functional. The vegetable garden is big enough to supply plenty of veggies for her and her rabbits, as well as strawberries, blueberries and apple and pear trees. Once the garden was installed, it is easy to maintain. The initial investment will pay off many times over in the joy of coming home to a beautiful garden, in addition to the healthy food.

I always recommend that my clients balance their desires, with their budget and their long term goals. If you plan on living in your home for a long time, it is worth spending more money on a strong and safe infrastructure like paths, fences and retaining walls. If you think you may be leaving soon, or are a renter, consider simple beds, containers and annual plantings.

Vegetables in the raised bed

The raised bed has several functions. Not only is it a beautiful form that looks good in all seasons, it is strong enough for the owner to sit on while gardening. For someone with a bad back this allows for much easier access to the beds. We lined the bottom of the bed with hardware cloth, which is a 1/2 inch wire mesh that keeps the gophers out of the bed, which were a huge problem. We also brought in some excellent organic topsoil to fill the raised beds, which produced a wonderful, bountiful harvest.

In considering the “sustainability” factor, we looked at two levels of sustainability. On a personal level, the garden had to be small enough that she could maintain it in an ongoing basis and that she could afford it. We definitely feel that we accomplished that goal.

On the north side of the house: shade loving plants

Observe your site and put the right plant in the right place

On a “global” level we kept the materials as simple as possible. The paths are permeable, and covered with old sheets and towels that keep the weeds down, but eventually decompose. They are covered with free chips from the local tree service. The beds are built with locally sourced stone. The irrigation is drip, using a controller that is connected to a local weather station that determines how much to irrigate based on evapotranspiration rates. And finally, we installed a 2,000 gallon rain water harvesting tank, that stores winter rain from her roof runoff. This water can be used as back up in times of drought or for fire safety. In California we are faced with drought, fire and earthquakes.

There’s a lot of information in this post, but it will give you some ideas that you can use in your own garden. Take time, don’t rush it. The more observation you do in your garden at the front end, the less changes you’ll have to make at the back end. Your edible landscape is worth the effort.

Copper gate invites you into the garden

Garden Design Ideas for the Edible Landscape

Garden Design 1 Response »

Jan 022012

by Avis Licht

It’s possible to have a backyard that is both productive and good looking

Winter is a good time to think about designing, changing or tweaking your garden.

Instead of being knee deep in garden projects, you can sit back and take the time to consider changes to your garden. Your changes can be big or small, but make sure they fit into the grand scheme.

Using plants and curving path for hillside erosion control

Your parameters will be:

1. Your site: Whatever you do has to work within the givens of your site. These include your climate, soil, sun/shade, slope, existing plantings that you won’t change, buildings and hardscape: paths, stairs, retaining walls, driveways and fences.

A well laid, flagstone path, sturdy yet still informal

2. Your finances: New landscaping can be exceedingly expensive or fantastically frugal – it depends on how much of the work you do yourself, and whether you use new, used or recycled materials.

Gate and Arbor from recycled materials

3. Your desires: What you need and what you want may not always coincide, but at least you can consider them and prioritize them. Not everything needs to be done at once. Have a plan, then build it over time as you can afford it.

4. The sustainability factor: So hold on here, I have a couple of different definitions of sustainable. Hear me out. On a personal level, your garden is only as sustainable as you can take care of it. If it takes more work than you can keep up with, then it is NOT sustainable on a personal level. If it takes more money than you can afford, that too is not sustainable. If you put in plants that require more water than you have available both from nature or from finances, that won’t work either. Your personal input has to coincide with what you can afford on an ongoing basis.

On a more global level, sustainability is about the energy and materials you use to build, maintain and grow your garden. Whether it means reusing the wood from your old fence to build a new one, or using permeable pavers instead of concrete for patios and paths, every time you make a decision on what you will use in your yard, be sure to consider the larger impacts.

Using recycled materials we built a brick step

These bricks were taken from an old job and used by me at my own home. You don’t have to give up on beauty when you reuse or recycle materials.

Tomorrow I’ll talk about specific designs for edible landscapes for small yards.

Pineapple Guava – A great shrub for your Edible Landscape

Garden Design, Ornamental/edible plants 12 Responses »

Dec 212011

by Avis Licht

Edible blossoms from the pineapple guava

You can eat the petals from this plant. They’re good!

The Pineapple Guava is one of my favorite plants. It serves many purposes in the edible garden. It’s an easy care, evergreen shrub that has edible flowers, edible fruits and somehow, the deer DON’T eat it. How could you know?

Where I live, deer eat almost all our plants, so having one that does all these good things is a real treasure.

Climate:The Pineapple guava grows in Zones 8 – 10. What this really means is that it likes some cool weather, can go down to 10 deg. F, likes rain in the 30″ – 40″ range, and doesn’t like super hot daytime weather – not so good in the desert.

Soil: It’s adaptable to a wide range of soils, including acidic soil, but prefers a humus rich soil that is well drained. Adding compost and not manure works for this plant.

Water: This is considered a drought tolerant plant, meaning it survives with relatively little water, but needs adequate water for good fruit production. During dry spells you should give it additional water. In real terms, this means observe your plant. In real terms, in the garden, you always need to observe your plants. Everyone’s garden is different from the norm that all these books talk about. You’ll always want and need to adjust requirements to your own situation.

You can prune it, you can eat it, you can watch the hummingbirds feed on the flowers

Sun: Full sun is best – but it can tolerate partial shade

Wind:The Pineapple guava makes a good windbreak. It can take some salt air, but I wouldn’t put it on the dunes as a first line wind break.

Care: What I really love about this plant is that it needs so little care. It just grows happily on its own. You can prune it for shape or let it alone. If you prune it back hard, you will lose some fruit production.

Pests: Almost none. Well, I haven’t seen any.

Fruit and flowers: The flowers which bloom late Spring are edible. The thick petals are spicy and are eaten fresh. The petals may be plucked without interfering with fruit set. The fruit ripens in late Fall, which is a great boon, since almost everything else in the garden is gone. The fruit in the picture below, came from my garden on December 22 after many days of frost. They taste fresh and tangy. We eat them by scooping out the fruit with a spoon. Or you can cook them in puddings, pastry fillings, fritters, dumplings, fruit-sponge-cake, pies or tarts.

Cut the fruit in half and scoop it out with a spoon. Really tasty.

If you live in the right climate, I really think you ought to try growing the Pineapple Guava. It’s a giving and a forgiving plant for your edible landscape.

If you want to know a lot more about this plant go to this site at Purdue University.


	
			Pineapple_guava_bloom
How to grow a Pineapple guava plant.

			
			Foliage of feijoa
Growing Feijoa sellowiana, also known as Pineapple Guava

			
			the fruit of the pineapple guava
			
			Pineapple_guava_bloom

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What to Plant in the Winter – For your Edible Landscape

Garden Design, Ornamental/edible plants 2 Responses »

Nov 292011

Lettuce seedlings can be planted in winter

: Lettuce seedlings can be planted in winter. Plant your seedlings in a sunny well drained site

Although we’re almost to the shortest day of the year, it’s still possible to work and plant in your winter garden, at least in some parts of the United States. You can look out your window and see if you have snow on the ground or you can look up your planting zones in this nifty site. Type in your zip code and they will tell you what you can plant and when to plant it.

This is the time of year to choose your sites for deciduous fruit trees and shrubs. Depending on your available space and sunlight, you can consider dwarf or semi dwarf fruit trees, blueberry shrubs, raspberries, and other cane berries, currants, kiwis and grapes.

This kiwi grows on a strong fence.

There are some hardy vegetables like lettuce, chard, kale and all the cabbage family, including broccoli, brussel sprouts and cabbage that can take the cold weather. A little extra protection provided by row covers can really help your plants grow during the cold weather.

For the very committed gardener you can use cold frames and green houses to extend your seasons.

There’s no end to the fun one can have in the garden in the winter season.

How to Use Recycled Wood for Gates and Railings in your Edible Landscape

Garden Design, Uncategorized No Responses »

Nov 112011

: Gate and Arbor from recycled materials

There are times when you build something for your garden when you want it to look new and times when you want it to look like it’s always been there.

Hand hewn pickets make a beautiful fence

A garden gate from old Redwood pickets

When picking a gate design, you need to consider:

Form of the gate
Existing structures and style in your garden
Security issues
Strength and durability

These pickets were hand hewn and many years old. They came from a job where the owners wanted a new fence that looked more modern. Style changes. Into the back of my truck and home they went with me.

In the case of my garden, which is very informal and has Oak trees that are hundreds of years old this picket fits in perfectly.The hand hewn form of the pickets create a beautiful look that you can’t get from milled lumber.

Since this is an interior gate, going from one part of the garden to another, it did not need to be terribly strong. Just strong enough to keep the dog on one side.

Hand hewn pickets create interest

Another use of the pickets was for the railing coming down my stairs. When seen up close as in a railing, the pickets add interest and history to the stairs.

Hand hewn pickets for stair railings

It is becoming more common to find recycled materials. The trick is to find what works for your particular situation. When making design decisions, pay attention to what already exists in your garden so that there’s not too much mixing of styles. Find materials that are easy to work with. Have fun coming up with new ideas.

How to Build a Brick Step on a Wood Deck

Garden Design, Uncategorized 2 Responses »

Nov 102011

Recycled Brick and wood go together well

Recycled brick steps with wood edge on a wood deck

When adding new structures to your garden such as steps, paths, trellises and gates be sure to consider using recycled materials.

For the steps above I used bricks that someone else didn’t want anymore and that I had been storing for some “future” project.

We did a small remodel in the living room, putting in sliding doors. This then required some steps down to the existing deck. My first thought was to use the same wood as the deck. But I had the bricks and we needed something right away.We laid the bricks in front of the door on the wood deck. They looked good, but posed two problems. Though bricks are heavy, they tended to slip a little and were not entirely safe. The second problem was bricks on wood held in moisture and would rot the deck.

Wood framing and metal shelf keep the steps dry and in place

Solutions to these problems were straight forward. We built a wood frame around the bricks with 2 x 4 Redwood and laid an old wire shelf underneath for drainage. The wire shelf had just enough height to keep the bricks off the wood, but not so much as to change the height of the steps.

The final decision on the steps was an aesthetic one. How many different materials can you use in one area and have it look unified? Using recycled materials is great, but throwing whatever you have at a project won’t work if it doesn’t look good.

Keep your design simple and it can look very elegant. Look around with an open mind and you might surprise yourself with what materials are available.

Mixed media works for me - Brick and Wood

Brick steps with wood edging look good on a wood deck

Tomorrow I’ll show you how I used someone’s throw away fence pickets to build a gate and a railing.

Erosion Control – More Ideas

Garden Design, Soil and Amendments, Uncategorized No Responses »

Nov 082011

Low retaining walls can help prevent erosion

Low stone retaining walls keep soil from falling into the driveway

Erosion of hillsides can range from minor movement that is easy to repair, to major and dangerous situations.

Caveat! Caveat! Caveat!

If you think you have a major problem, please refer to a professional soil engineer or contractor to help you. In this post, I am only going to address simple erosion problems.

Building low stone retaining walls can be simple and effective for keeping hillsides from eroding.

These walls were built without mortar in a method called drystack. Only soil was used to hold them in place. Cutting back into the hillside, laying the stone, back filling with soil and then planting keeps the base of the wall stable.

Loose soil will collect in the beds at the bottom of the hill.

The swale is covered with a biodegradable erosion blanket and sowed with clover and wildflower seeds

When assessing your slope for erosion problems look for these signs:

Channels already formed in the hillside from runoff
Bare soil that is exposed to rain or water runoff
Downspouts or other water sources

Ways to minimize water damage include:

Create swales that are on the contour of your slope
Build retaining walls that have drainage in them
Sow seed and plant fast growing shrubs to cover bare soil
Mulch, mulch, mulch

Wild strawberry and Mahonia with stone wall

At the top of the stone wall you can see the wild strawberry (click to enlarge)

In the photo above I planted a native strawberry that sends out many runners and roots into the hillside. It will cover the hill very quickly. Other California native plants that provide excellent cover are creeping Ceanothus, trailing Manzanita and Sonoma Sage and Coastal Sage Brush.

Creeping ceanothus, trailing manzanita and other natives were used on this steep shady slope

Small walls at the base of trees keep soil and mulch in place

The most important action for you to take in your garden is OBSERVATION. Go out in the rain and storms and watch how the water flows. This is the best way to learn about your garden and the only way to really know what is happening.

Erosion Control on Steep Hillsides – Do it before the rains come!

Garden Design, Uncategorized 2 Responses »

Nov 072011

The hill came down, the walls went up

Before the rains come crashing down, take a good look around your property. It’s especially important if you are on a hill or have slopes around you. When water picks up speed it can really create havoc. Take a look at this hillside. After a number of rainy days, the whole hillside came down into the driveway. Fortunately, no person and no cars were there when the soil came down.

In an effort to get more light in the property the owners cut down many trees. The result, light came down and so did the hillside. They should have made sure the ground was planted and drainage was put in place. To do it after the soil erodes is much more expensive. In addition to cutting back the hill and putting in retaining walls, we also put drain pipe behind the walls, at the top of the hill and at the bottom. Water has to go somewhere! Take a look.

Erosion control for steep hills may mean building retaining walls

Cement block wall at the bottom and wood retaining walls will hold back this hill

Retaining wall in process

There's still too much soil, and erosion can be a problem

Cement block wall is not high enough, and soil needs to be removed

After the walls are built, it is important to plant for soil coverage. I use seeds for immediate coverage and plants for long term coverage. At the top of the hill we put in a swale to redirect the water away from the main walls. We covered it with erosion control blankets. They are both 100% biodegradable, but they are slightly different. One is thicker and made of coconut fiber and the other has straw put between cotton netting. The thick mat is better for stronger erosion control and the straw allows better germination of seeds.

Two types of erosion control blankets - coconut and straw

The blanket on the left has straw and the blanket on the right is coconut fiber.

A long swale covered with netting and also planted with seed

For quick germination I used rye grass, Dutch white clover, vetch and California wildflower mix, with extra California poppies. We were lucky with early October rains that helped with excellent germination. If you don’t expect rain, you should water the seeds to take advantage of warmer weather in the early Fall. Once the winter rains come it gets too cold for most seeds to germinate.

Rye grass, Dutch white clover, Vetch and Wildflowers

Straw mulch holds the soil in place and protects the seed

Tomorrow I’ll talk about other simple erosion control methods.

Using plants and curving path for hillside erosion control

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It’s possible to have a backyard that is both productive and good looking

Winter is a good time to think about designing, changing or tweaking your garden.

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