The Beautiful Edible Landscape: Planning

Having grown tired of spending a big chunk of our monthly budget on overpriced organic groceries, I decided to explore growing our own organic vegetables and herbs.  I'd made my mind up a few years back about taking this step but was somewhat reluctant to begin this process because I was actually worried about the appearance of the garden.  It's an 'occupational hazard' but I can't help it:  I'm fussy about the look of everything and I'd always believed that it was an either/or situation when it comes to gardens: a beautiful garden that wasn't edible or an edible garden that was...well...not so beautiful.

Then I came across The Beautiful Edible Garden.  It is chock full of great tips and instructive dialogue on achieving that elusive beautiful, edible garden.  I also ordered The Edible Landscape (by Emily Tepe) which I'm hoping will offer a different perspective and also help to make sure I'm not missing out on anything. I'm still waiting on this book to arrive (I've ordered it from Chapters Indigo which simply cannot beat Amazon in terms of price and delivery speed, but I think it's great to support a Canadian company.)

I've discovered that many of the principles behind garden design really don't differ much from those in interior design. With my design skills already in hand I'm going to focus on understanding the gardening discipline itself which should be enough of an undertaking, having never planted anything edible before. The good news here is that the actual planting takes place in the final step, so hopefully I'll have familiarized myself with the art and science of edible gardening by then.

FIRST STEP - PLANNING

The previous owners lived here for 25 years and did little to improve the existing yard which works to our advantage in terms of having a 'clean slate' to work with. Placement of trees and structures can be at my discretion whereas many properties often have mature trees which would need to be either eliminated or incorporated into a plan. The obvious drawback is that unless we import mature trees (which can prove costly) we will need to wait for young trees to mature and provide that beautiful summer shade!

Here's a picture of what our backyard looks like now:

Now, my first step was to come up with a master plan of the "what-where-when-and-how." My master plan: to turn the backyard into an oasis with beautiful edible landscaping, an outdoor entertaining space and a safe place for the kids to run around in (of course we will need to train them to be 'garden-friendly' by then!)  I'm going to approach the overall design in phases for a number of reasons which I'll explain.

Setting about physically drawing a plan forced me to to think through many of the potential usage scenarios in order to minimize any surprises or disappointment when it comes to the implementation stage. For example, I plan to fill the space outside the rear windows with a container garden instead of a garden bed (even though that would be the best spot for many edible fruits and vegetables due to its southern exposure.) The chief reason for this is that we are considering putting a rear addition on this house at some point in time in the future.

The plan shown here represents 'Phase 1' which is still far from my dream garden (where the landscaping has more vegetation than lawn) but it should serve our purpose for the next 10 years or so. The west side location of the arbour is based primarily on two factors; first, to have a relatively secluded area centrally located within the overall space in order to maximize enjoyment and second, to take advantage of two large existing shade trees, located in the neighbours yard, as a means of protection from the western sun in the afternoon and evening. It made sense to have the shed tucked in behind the arbour away from the house and screened with vegetation to minimize visibility. The treeline along the back (south side) of the property is meant to provide a buffer from the adjacent arterial road while softening the overall look, partially obscuring the rear wood fence and giving a sense of depth to the far end of the yard. The large tree is placed to obscure the large commercial building beyond while providing a remote, restful, shady out-of-the-way area. Finally, the easterly garden will provide a suitable location for sun-loving plants of both the edible and ornamental variety.    

Future backyard, looking from deck.

Future view of the outdoor dining space c/w herringbone interlocking and cedar arbour

Phase II will involve the potential house addition along with placement of the permanent garden beds and any usage changes resulting from the kids growing older. I can't wait to enjoy many wonderful dining experiences out here while we consume our own organic produce. But we have a lot of work ahead of us before that dream can be realized. Where is my copy of The Edible Landscape book!?! It's time to start reading because we are undertaking the next step very soon!
If you need some help planning your garden, I found Sheridan Nurseries to be quite helpful (although expensive) and they offer decent landscape plans that you can download and adapt to suit your own needs.