Edible Landscaping: Now You Can Have Your Gorgeous Garden and Eat It Too!

Rosalind Creasy's nummy new book, Edible Landscaping: Now You Can Have Your Gorgeous Garden and Eat It Too! is almost good enough to eat.Ros coined the now-ubiquitous term "edible landscaping" in 1982 when she published her first book on the subject. Thirty years ago, putting swiss chard and tomatoes with the roses in a front yard was considered radical. Now even the White House is doing it.Many of us are adding edibles to our yards for the first time. Ros gives valuable information for experienced gardeners and for beginners. In the chapter devoted to "Designing with Vegetables" she recommends starting small with a 9-foot by 3-foot pine tomato box. A friend of hers in Pennsylvania grew three tomatoes (Ros says there's room for 8 plants): a cherry, `Celebrity' and `Early Girl' that yielded 67.5 pounds in one season.Luscious photographs show how veggies can be as gorgeous as flowers.You don't need a lot of space; pages 172-173 show the design for Ros' front-yard edible patio garden in California packed with sesame, edamame, basil, strawberries, peppers, and more. The patio holds nine permanent wine barrel containers and a few permanent beds with a blackberry vine, climbing rose, and annual vines and flowers. She changes the contents of other large decorative containers every year.Common-sense design techniques pepper the book. For example, she mentions that many large homes have tiny garden beds that are out of scale with their surroundings.Although it's a paperback, it's beautiful enough to put on your coffee table. As a reference book, it's invaluable.Disclaimer: Ros is a friend and fellow member of the Garden Writers Association, but she did not ask me to write this, nor did I receive a review copy.

This is exactly the book I was looking for. We have a small urban yard and all our outdoor space has to pull double duty, so I was looking for a guide to blending vegetables, fruits, and herbs with more ornamental elements for a garden that can provide food and atmosphere. This one has the best formatting and really showcases the author’s experience. My favorite part of the book is where she walks through the first design of a garden and then how it is redesigned over the years. Really helps visualize different uses for the same space and helps me more than just pictures of (admittedly very pretty) gardens that similar books seem to feature. That’s not to say that there aren’t lots of pictures, because there are, but the substance of the book goes deeper than “plan your hardscaping first” (cool, HOW though?).

It is educational.

This book is beautifully written and illustrated and is the real deal for designing a practical, attractive, sustainable and ecologically sound landscape. Landscape designer as well as home gardeners will find this a valuable tool for hobby or profession in the field of residential gardening . The plant index is outstanding for educating everyone on the care of these pratical plants and trees . I have studied horticulture and landscaape design for 2 years and this book summarizes everything I studied and complements the plants I learned with edible choices in place of purely ornamental which for me are unworthy of my time and effort to raise. Edible plants can give beautiful ornamentation as well as nutrition .Bottom line, I recommend this book for the hobby gardener , for the landscape designer and for all master gardeners.Farmer Dan

There are several items in the book that I can start working on immediately, as was my intention for purchase. I have a problem with pests (deer, birds, etc) and this has caused me to hessitate in my efforts to grow food. This book offers practical solutions.

Rosalind Creasy is an amazing landscape designer who really shows how to create amazing landscapes with edible plants that look ornamental, provide a wonderful ecosystem and provide plentiful food. She is a very talented photographer and most of the photos in her book are the ones she took and often in her own edible front yard in Los Altos california where she has been growing edibles for over 25 yrs. This is the bible if you want to really enjoy the fruits of your effort in the garden. It is not just a cottagey informal garden you can create but edible plants will work even in formal landscapes. Be inspired to break free from the confines of tucked away out of sight backyard veggie garden!! This is the garden book to get for your foodie friends. The book covers it all- trees, vines, companion planting, herbs, flowers, shrubs. Best of all, it gives very specific advice on the landscape aspect of it --> How to keep that hedge of variegated basil looking nice, when to harvest your produce and how to (Lettuce and chard is one leaf at a time from each plant) to keep your garden looking good. What plants do better in containers. How to use, color and form and line to make your garden visually stunning.

I am a senior citizen who has been tearing up the front yard, and combining food and flowers and shrubs since I moved here eight years ago.I am very glad to have a book by Rosalind Creasy that is both beautiful, and based on organic gardening principles, as well as sound "how to garden" information.To a hard core gardener, it is a real boon. This week, I harvested some fingerling potatos that I could not justify paying the market price for, combined in a roast with my home grown carrots, onions and parsnips, garlic, and herbs, I will have a feast!Time those of us inclined, stop wasting valuable front yard space, and use our resources more wisely. This book will lead the way.