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Welcome
to Cook’s Corner at California Gardens!
Diary of an Edible Landscape
February 1, 2011
Edible
gardens usually follow me, I don't even have to look for them. My
childhood home was well stocked with a blackberry patch, wild mint, and
plum-cot, tangerine, lemon, and apple trees when we moved in. This was
all before my dad started planting any of his own trees, which now number
close to 50.
Then
I moved to Philadelphia for four years and after the first snow melted I
found wild hops growing in my backyard. How's that for luck for a
girl with two homebrew fiends in her life?
Next
stop: one year in San Francisco. We have an itty-bitty 5th story
apartment. There's barely room for a potted plant on the fire
escape. But, lo and behold, there's a fifty foot avocado tree
outside our bedroom window.
So
how is it that when I move to Sacramento and buy a house in the middle of some of the best
agricultural land in the world, there isn't a single edible thing in my
yard? Even the small clump of chives I was so excited about turned
out to be society garlic (Tulbbaghia violacea), a not so tasty
imposter!
Now
I'm on a mission to turn my yard into an edible landscape. I want it
to be intensive and efficient and to grow year round, but without feeling
like I'm sitting in the middle of a vegetable patch. I have plans
for an espalier of apple trees and a patio shaded by grape vines growing
on an arbor. I have visions of an herb garden and groundcover
strawberries. If it's not edible, I'm not planting it. And if
I plant it, I get to eat it!
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