Art of the Edible Landscape
Welcome to my Edible Landscaping resources page – I originally created this page for some classes I taught at Otis College of Art & Design. If you are interested in taking an in-person Edible Landscaping Design course with me, please join my mailing list. Thanks for your interest!
Section 1: Overview
- “The Living Land” Wes Jackson, John Jeavons (video 13:26)
- Poyourow, Joanne, The Design Process (video …)
- Poyourow, Joanne, Why We Grow Food info sheet (pdf)
- Vocabulary List (pdf)
Download our free app: VegGarden365.
It tells you what to plant when
in year-round growing seasons like Southern California!
Section 2: “Big Picture” Design
- Poyourow, Joanne, A brief introduction to Permaculture (blog post)
- Brookes, John, The Book of Garden Design
- Brookes, John, Garden Design Workbook
More:
- Fukuoka, Mansanobu, One-Straw Revolution (video 9:07)
- Guinness, Bunny, Creating a Family Garden
- Hazelip, Emilia, Synergistic Gardening (video 29:25)
- Hemenway. Toby, Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture (book available at L.A. Public Library)
- Permaculture Forest Garden, 8-layer diagram
- Poyourow, Joanne, What to Plant When in Southern California
- Poyourow, Joanne, High-Yield Vegetable Gardening (pdf)
- Shapiro, Howard-Yana, Gardening for the Future of the Earth, Chapters 1 & 2 (book available at L.A. Public Library)
Vertical Gardens
- Poyourow, Joanne, Vertical and Container gardens (slides)
- L.A. Times, “Vertical Garden Skeptic”
- Knutzen, Erik, “Vertical Vegetables”
- for 3-dimensional gardening ideas that work, research these keywords: forest gardens, trellises, espallier, vines …
Elements & Principles of Design
- A very quick review of the Elements and Principles of Design (YouTube 0:54)
- The 7 Elements of Art video (YouTube 5:36)
- Principles of Design (YouTube 5:45)
- Your Foundation Documents (slides: Chair Exercise, Initial Site Plan, Bubble Diagrams)
Section 3: “People in the Garden”
Garden Sharing
- Orsi, Janelle Orsi & Emily Doskow, The Sharing Solution, chapter 8
- Nolo, Sample Garden Sharing Agreement (see inset box, 2/3 of the way down the page)
- GrowFriend, Garden Sharing Template
Community Gardens
- American Community Gardening Association, 10 Tips, 10 Tools, 10 Steps
- Poyourow, Joanne, Your Community Garden (booklet/ebook)
- San Francisco Rec & Parks, Model Community Garden Plot Agreement
- University of California Extension, Community Garden Startup Guide
- University of Missouri Extension, Community Gardening Toolkit
- early draft version of the Maintenance Plan for Emerson Avenue Community Garden
Changing ideas about community and space
- City Repair of Portland Oregon
- City Repair, “Intro to Placemaking” (YouTube 5:30)
- Little Free Libraries (vimeo 2:26)
- Changing ideas of ownership & sharing can upset people: L.A. Times article about people opposing Little Free Libraries
Christopher Alexander / Pattern Language
- Alexander, Christopher, A Pattern Language – exceptional resource about how to create spaces that “feel right” when people are in them.
- Gretchen Rubin on why Alexander is important (video 2:22)
- “Spaces for the Soul” – experience the vision of Christopher Alexander (video 28:36)
Vegetable plants
- Michalak, Patricia, Vegetables (Rodale’s Successful Organic Gardening series, 1993)
- VegGarden365
- Elpel, Thomas, Botany in a Day
Other related items
- Knutzen, Erik, Clues to Care
- Las Pilitas, Checklist of things for Attracting Wildlife
- National Wildlife Federation, How to Create a Wildlife-Friendly Garden
- Petrini, Carlo, Slow Food Nation
- Honore, Carl, In Praise of Slowness
- Johnson, Wendy, Gardening at the Dragon’s Gate
- recommended by Virginia: “Nature is Speaking” Mother Nature (video 1:58)
Section 4: Take a Field Trip
Video tours
- Kumar, Rishi, “The Growing Home,” – 2014 tour of a Diamond Bar urban permaculture site (YouTube 14:38)
- Finley, Ron, “A Guerrilla Gardener in South Central LA” TED talk (video 10:31)
Edible gardens you can visit
- Erika Glazer Family Edible Garden at the Museum of Natural History
- Roman herb garden at entrance to the Getty Villa, Malibu
- Del Aire Fruit Park, Hawthorne
- Central Garden at the Getty Center, Brentwood
- Demonstration garden at the Greystone Mansion, Beverly Hills
- Herb garden and food garden (once called “The Ranch”) at the Los Angeles County Arboretum
- South Coast Botanic Garden used to have a vegetable/herb garden and a fruit orchard, but I do not know if it is still there
- Edible and Functional gardens near Los Angeles (blog post, list)
Section 5: “Living Soil”
- Conservation International, Nature is Speaking: Soil (1:25)
- Ecology Action, What is Grow Biointensive?
- FAO, Drought-Tolerant Soils
- Factors influencing soil fertility summary diagram
- Grow Biointensive, Composting (video 5:00)
- Grow Biointensive, Double Digging (video 9:21)
- Kiss the Ground, “The Compost Story” (video 6:46)
- Lowenfels, Jeff and Wayne Lewis, Teaming with Microbes
- Poyourow, Joanne, “Do-It-Yourself Soil Tests” info sheet
- Poyourow, Joanne, “How to get rid of Bermuda Grass” info sheet
- Poyourow, Joanne, The Secrets of Soil Building
- Shapiro, Howard-Yana, Gardening for the Future of the Earth, Chapter 3
- Solomon, Steve, “Remineralization,” Chapter 5 of The Intelligent Gardener: Growing Nutrient-Dense Food
- Soil horizons – on a site following new construction, you may find you are missing Horizon O, Horizon A, and perhaps even Horizon E
- Stamets, Paul, TED talk “6 ways mushrooms can save the world” (video 18:18)
- University of New England, Enhancement of Soil Structure – how soil organisms improve soil structure, including a good diagram of soil aggregate
- identifying Bermuda grass Cynodon dactylon photo 1, photo 2, photo 3
Soil testing
- Penn State, How to take a soil test (video 4:28) Note: in video the guy uses a metal shovel. Lowenfels recommends you avoid using metal because flakes can alter your test results.
- Soil Texture Triangle
- Poyourow, Joanne, “Do-It-Yourself Soil Tests” info sheet
- Logan Labs, less expensive, recommended by Steve Solomon for nutrient testing; you can then use Solomon’s book to interpret your results
- University of Massachusetts, inexpensive, recommended by Erik Knutsen
- Wallace Labs, El Segundo – not cheap, but they do offer heavy metals testing
- University of California Davis, Soil texture by feel (video 4:04) – flowchart to accompany this process
Living Soil & Global Warming
- Kiss the Ground, “The Soil Story” (video 3:56) – returning carbon to the soil
- Marin Carbon Project
- Ohlson, Kristin, The Soil Will Save Us: How Scientists, Farmers and Foodies are healing the soil to save the planet
- White, Courtney, Grass, Soil, Hope: A Journey through Carbon Country
- Kaiser, Paul and Elizabeth, Sustainable Farming 2.0 audio on YouTube
Section 6: “Water and Rainwater”
- Lipkis, Andy, “Water in the City” (video 5:31)
- Greywater Guerillas (video 1:28)
- CalFlora, Southern California Plant Communities
- Conservation International, Nature is Speaking: Water (video 1:28)
- Las Pilitas, Habitats of California / California Native Plant Communities
- Lawton, Geoff, “Greening the Desert” (video 5:21)
- Poyourow, Joanne, “Drought-tolerant food plants”
- Shapiro, Howard-Yana, Gardening for the Future of the Earth, Chapter 4
Rainwater harvesting
- Dunnett, Nigel, and Andy Clayton, Rain Gardens (LAPL)
- Lancaster, Brad, HarvestingRainwater.com – videos and articles
- Lancaster, Brad, Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands, volumes 1 and 2
- Poyourow, Joanne, “In Defense of Rain Barrels”
- Poyourow, Joanne, “Rainwater harvesting: Capture and Store devices”
- Poyourow, Joanne, “Rainwater harvesting: infiltration features”
- Sonoma County, Slow It, Sink It, Spread It: A Homeowners Guide to Beneficial Stormwater Management
- Walton, Brett, “Here comes the sea” – a great explanation of saltwater intrusion, the huge reason why rainwater infiltration / groundwater replenishment is so important in Calif
- Wikispaces, “Edible earth parfait” diagram for understanding aquifers
Greywater
- Graywater Action, Laundry-to-Landscape No-Permit Systems
- Greywater Guerillas (video 1:28)
- Ludwig, Art, Oasis Designs website “Greywater Central”
- Graywater soaps: comments from Graywater Action ; comments from Brad Lancaster
More water features
- Permaculture Research Institute, “Ollas” includes spacing recommendations.
- Global Buckets, “Olla Irrigation” tells how to make your own, cheaply
- Poyourow, Joanne “Make your own flowerpot ollas”
- Poyourow, Joanne “How to build a garden sink”
Section 7: “Fruit Trees and Herbs”
Resources for designing your Canopy layer:
- Low-Chill fruit trees (Bay Laurel Nursery)
- Table grapes (Bay Laurel Nursery)
- Citrus Variety Guide (Armstrong Nurseries)
- Avocado fact sheet and cultivars (California Rare Fruit Growers)
- exotic fruit trees – Fruit Facts (California Rare Fruit Growers)
- Dave Wilson Nurseries, Fruit tree harvest chart
Learn more about trees:
- Bay Laurel Nursery, Rootstock descriptions
- Bay Laurel Nursery, What are Chill Hours?
- roots graphic
- Martin, R. Sanford, How to Prune Fruit Trees and Roses. The very best guide I have seen.
- UC Davis, find chill hours for most California counties
- UC Davis, Citrus: about greening disease (Huanglongbing disease) & Asian Citrus Psyllid
- UC Davis, Grapes: about Pierce’s disease & Glassy-winged Sharpshooter
- U.S. Forest Service, “Watering Young Trees” (video 3:26)
- Woodrow, Linda, Fruit tree harvest rotation schedule – The Permaculture Home Garden, chapter 11
- Blueberries: which blueberries yield when in Southern Califormia (page 3 of pdf)
Learn more about herbs:
- De la Tour, Shatoiya, The Herbalist’s Garden: A Guided Tour of 10 Exceptional Herb Gardens
- Hobbs, Christopher, Grow It, Heal It (book available at L.A. Public Library)
- Marcin, Marietta, Herbal Tea Gardens (book available at L.A. Public Library)
Section 8: “Vegetables and Crop Rotations”
Resources for designing your Understory layer:
- GrowMyCityGreen, helpful Plant Heights diagram to get you started. In this diagram, their plants under “spring” grow in our Southern California cool season. Also, the plants <3′ need trellises. For more detailed information, research each plant individually in Michalak or online.
- Michalak, Patricia, Vegetables (Rodale’s Successful Organic Gardening series, 1993)
- Poyourow, Joanne, What to Plant When in Southern California
- Ashworth, Suzanne, Seed to Seed – learn about vegetable plant families in-depth
- Catalog of Plants blank pages (pdf)
- Dave’s Garden, crowd-sourced plant database (Arizona)
- Missouri Botanical Garden, “Vegetable Families” (pdf) – a brief guide
- Plants for a Future, searchable database (international)
Section 9: “Beneficial Insects”
- Bryant, Peter (UC Irvine), California Butterflies and their Larval Food Plants
- Las Pilitas, California Native Plants to attract birds
- Las Pilitas, about California Native Pollinators
- Las Pilitas, to create a California Butterfly garden
- Which milkweed should I plant in Southern California gardens? (hint: it’s not the yellow-and-orange kind)
- Las Pilitas, ultimate online guide to California Native Plants
- National Wildlife Federation, Certified Wildlife Habitat
- Bauer, Nancy, The California Wildlife Habitat Garden: How to Attract Bees, Butterflies, Birds, and Other Animals – great photos and ideas
- Larner, Judith, Gardening with a Wild Heart – about naturalistic gardens and gardening for wildlife habitat
- Rodale, The Organic Gardener’s Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control – a thick reference guide with photos and solutions
- Xerces Society, Attracting Native Pollinators (book available at L.A. Public Library)
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