From Garden to Table: Designing Your Edible Landscape for Beauty and Bounty

Photo by Freepik

Imagine stepping into your garden, where the very essence of beauty merges seamlessly with practicality. Each plant, flower, and shrub not only adds to a stunning visual display but also promises a bountiful harvest of fruits, vegetables, and herbs. This is the heart of creating an edible landscape—a harmonious blend of form and function that transforms your outdoor space into a living, breathing canvas of sustenance and aesthetic appeal.

In this guide, courtesy of Edible Gardens Inc., we'll share essential tips and innovative ideas to help you cultivate an edible landscape that is not only a feast for the eyes but also for the table. Whether you're a seasoned gardener or a green-thumbed newbie, get ready to turn your garden dreams into a delicious, blooming reality.

Use Raised Beds

Raised beds offer a multitude of benefits for your garden, from improved soil conditions to...

It can feel like forever waiting for seeds to sprout once we've planted them. If you're feeling anxious - don't worry, it is still very early in the Kentucky growing season. Soil temperatures outdoors are not staying warm enough for long enough to properly germinate vegetable seeds outdoors. The question is, how can you germinate seeds now to get a jump start on the growing season?

Hiring a professional garden coach makes it easy as they always have helpful tips on seed germination in a jiffy! But for you DIY'ers... here are the dirty deets: 

#1. Seed Selection

You may start *most* lettuces, brassicas, and some herbs indoors now. EX: salad greens, cooking greens, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kohlrabi, (wait on brussels sprouts), fennel, celery, green onions, dill, cilantro, calendula, nasturtium, etc.

It is not advised to start root vegetables indoors or very fast growing plants. EX: Carrots, beets, turnips, radish, parsnips, rutabaga, potato, snow peas, snap peas....

 1. Look at your yard, this is vital. Look at it in the morning, midday, and afternoon. If you want, just sit in your yard for a day and if anyone asks, say you're working on your garden because it's the truth. You need to know where the sun hits in your yard. While you watching take note of where the sun hits at each point in the day. Placing your garden in the right place will set you up for success right away.

2. Once you've observed your yard, use the information you collected to find a spot that gets around 6 hours of direct sunlight. If you have to choose between shaded in the morning or shaded in the late afternoon choose the afternoon shade as this can be helpful in the peak of summer.

3. Make a plan. Before you put a shovel in the ground you need to make a plan for your garden. This will help you stay focused and motivated because you will have a clear goal. Your plan should include a garden layout; how every you want to organize your garden. Here at Edible Gardens, we...

When setting up your garden you may have grand ideas of saving money on groceries while eating organic and fresh! Then you start and realize that, especially in the first year or two, the grocery store prices aren't looking so bad. You have to buy tools, soil, raised beds (or material to make them), trellises, and it all takes time!

Don't despair because we have 10 tips to help you save money gardening and a promise that if you stick with it and invest the time and money now, in the years to come it will be worth it. Gardening really can be cheaper and better than shopping at the grocery!

1. Buy Quality

That is actually our first tip, invest now in quality that will last you your life time. If you can, buy quality materials to build your raised beds like the red cedar we use, or just buy quality raised beds. It will cost more upfront but it will last and you won't find yourself spending as much time on repairs or spending more money replacing them multiple times later on. Red cedar...

Have you ever had little vegetable plants pop up in spots where you haven't planted anything? Or maybe you've seen a tomato plant amidst your squash. These are volunteer plants, plants that have sprouted from seeds that overwintered from the season before. It is common for these volunteer plants to be in the tomato family which can be very exciting, free tomato plants!

The best case scenario is that these volunteer plants are just like the tomatoes you planted last year but what people often don't consider is cross pollination. Some vegetable plants can cross pollinate with other plants in the same family. Cross pollination is when the pollen from one plant reaches the female flower of a different species in the same family of plants and creates a viable seed. An example of this in that animal kingdom is a ligar, a mix of a tiger and lion, which can then go on to mate with another liger, a tiger, or a lion and have more ligar babies. In the plant kingdom tomato plants in the ...

Identification: 

The easiest to spot in your garden is the adult moth. They are bright red/orange with black stripes and black wings. If you see them then you know to look for eggs. The eggs will usually be found right at the base of your squash vine near the soil in little clusters. To me they look like mustard seeds. If you find eggs and moths start checking all your squash for holes in the base of the stem. If you find holes near the base with "saw dust" (crumbles of your vine from the borrowing) then you have an infected plant. Another way to identify these plant killers is by watching for morning wilt during your scout walks. If any of your vines specifically squash are wilted in the morning start checking for holes at the base of the plant. 

Host Plants:

They are found primarily in squash vines but will also attack zucchini, pumpkins, and even melons. There have also been some reported sightings near potato plants though the larvae will not be there...

If your hands are not coated in green resin, then your hands are not in your tomato plants NEAR enough. Tomatoes are amazing to have in your garden, but they can also be problem children because they are susceptible to a lot of diseases and pests. Get in your garden and get in your tomato plants business that is the secret to a successful tomato season, daily management. I know with summer our lives are getting busier especially mommas out there like me, I've got two beautiful girls 6 and 3 and summer means lots of time with them! I love all the extra time with my girls, but it also means I have to work harder to make time for my garden, one of my solutions is getting them in the garden with me. One thing they help me with is tomato care, tomatoes like kids need attention to grow and produce to their full protentional.  

First things first, fertilize.

Tomatoes are takers, they need to draw lots of nutrients from the soil to grow and produce fruit. To help them out you...

Green Onion seeds are like the friendship bread of gardening, because they are easy to grow harvest, and share! They are the perfect plant to grow from seed because they have a reliable germination and go from seed to harvest in just 50 days. Once they have flowered you can harvest the seeds and a few flowers can produce enough seeds to plant, for next year save, and share with fellow gardeners, or someone just getting into gardening. It’s the perfect gate way crop. 

A few green onion facts you should know before jumping in! They are cool weather crops, that means they will grow in whatever time of year is your cool season, for us here in Kentucky that is the spring and fall. For some that might be the winter months if you live in a very warm climate. Green onions are bi-annual crops meaning they will over winter for one year and then go to flower the next so if you are growing with the intent to harvest the seeds, plan a year ahead.  

When harvesting seeds from...

Happy Father's Day! 

Going into the weekend I wanted to share some of my favorite cookout recipes with you all! These are recipes we not only love but are also based around seasonal produce so that you can make them using ingredients right from your garden! There is nothing more satisfying than homegrown homemade meals and trust me these recipes are tried and true, easy to follow, by wonderfully talented cooks and bakers!

Click on the images below to be sent right to the recipes!

Our vision at Edible Gardens Inc. is to inspire edible gardens for every space. We work to achieve that mission everyday by helping home gardeners wherever they are at in their journeys! We will install a garden from scratch or help you better care for the garden you have through classes and mentorship or give you the tools to DIY your own garden! 

We know from personal experience and scientific evidence that gardening provides substantial benefits to human health. A recent study in 2017 showed that home gardening is linked to better social, and emotional health in young children as well as reduction in behavioral difficulties (Richardson et al., 2017). Another study showed the connection between home vegetable gardening and reductions in depression, stress and an increase in ability to handle stress, overall it increased the physical and mental well-being of adults (Machida, 2019; Peeters et al., 2014). Having a garden in your own yard creates a space for you to connect...