Edible Landscaping: Where To Begin?

 I have a new booklet for you! "Edible Landscaping: Where To Begin?" answers just that question.

The most frequent question I get about edible landscaping is "where do I begin?". Over the years, I've written several articles on this subject, but I decided to publish them in one booklet so that everyone can benefit.

It's a short, informative, gentle, no-fluff read which will ease your mind, help build your courage, and give you the direction you need to begin.

Here are all the places you can get it!

(retailers are being added daily so if your favorite isn't on there, check again soon)

Harvesting my prickly pear ... (you can grow that!)

This week, I harvested the fruit from my prickly pear (with the help of some salad tongs!), following the instructions on this page (which has a nice recipe).

I found it very easy to take the fruits (called tunas) off of the plant -- they simply twist off -- but much harder to clean them properly. They tend to spin in the tongs, and I ended up having to hold them with one hand and scrub them with the other. Of course, now I'm picking tiny needles out of my fingertips, but ... ;)

If I were to do this again, I would get some different tongs (mine are like the ones in the article I linked to above) and/or wear some thick household gloves set aside for the purpose.

The fruits really are lovely once picked, and to me they taste just a bit like strawberries. I'm looking forward to making some sorbet or ice cream with them this evening.

Planting this was as easy as putting it in the ground (it was much smaller then!). I've put some landscape cloth around it so I don't have to weed it later, and eventually I'll fill it in with gravel, once I find the kind I want.

It doesn't require any maintenance, watering, or anything else. When it gets a bit bigger, I might try harvesting some of the pads and report back on them. :)

Edible bouquets: you can grow that!

Growing edible cut flowers is as easy as growing the flowers themselves, as long as you do so without using chemicals on the plants.

It's fun to be able to go outside and cut flowers, some for your vase and some for your plate, plus it saves you the money of going out and buying them.

What edible flowers are you growing? How do you use them around your home? Do you have any photos to share?

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You Can Grow That! is a campaign created by garden writer and master gardener C. L. Fornari. On the fourth of each month participating garden bloggers write about something you can grow. Stop by the You Can Grow That! Facebook page to read all of the posts.

You Can Grow That! - Roses

Did you know that the rose was named 2012 International Herb of the Year?

Yippee! Roses are wonderful in just about every way.

 I have had very good experiences with growing roses, so it puzzles me when people say that they're difficult to grow. Of course, if you want something that you just stick in the ground and never have to bother with then your choices are more limited.

I like to think of taking care of roses sort of like taking care of yourself -- baggy sweats and dirty T-shirt vs manicured and nicely dressed. You don't get the latter without a bit of care, and that's how roses are.

The key to keeping your roses blooming all season is deadheading.

If you're not familiar with the term, it means taking off the old beat-up roses and any that have lost their petals. I go out in the yard in the mornings and do this, but you can do it any time.

If the plant has too many rose hips on it (what they call the fat part under the flower after the petals fall off) then it will stop blooming. Also, take off any leaves with spots on them, or any that turn brown.

Now this is the important part: do not leave these old nasty leaves on the ground, especially if they have spots on them, look powdery, or show any signs of plant illness. Get rid of them.

If you keep your roses cared for, they will reward you with amazing flowers.

One of the first things I planted when we moved here was this beauty:

This gives me the most amazing, fragrant roses! One of these days I'm going to make some rose jelly with the petals -- it smells that good.

I bought this at Wal-Mart of all places, and it does get a few spotted and browning leaves on it, especially during our hot, humid summers. But over time, it has gotten stronger and the problem has improved considerably. And I have never sprayed or applied any sort of poison, so I can make whatever I like with these flowers and not worry at all about it.

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You Can Grow That! is a campaign created by garden writer and master gardener C. L. Fornari. On the fourth of each month participating garden bloggers will write about something you can grow. Stop by the You Can Grow That! Facebook page to read all of the posts.

You Can Grow That! -- Cherry tree

Remember my Food4Wealth experiment? Well, here's the center of my potager:

And in the middle is a sweet cherry tree!

(To be more precise, it's a Starkrimson Sweet Cherry from Stark Bros, which is in Missouri. I ordered the "dwarf supreme".)

This was ridiculously easy to plant. The hardest part was digging the hole, which the directions said to dig 2x2x2 feet. So my husband and I got out there a few days after a rain and started digging ... and it really didn't take that long.

I was so excited to see it putting out leaves that I ran back inside for the camera and took this photo for you. I imagine it will make flowers and fruit in a year or two, once it gets big enough.

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You Can Grow That! is a campaign created by garden writer and master gardener C. L. Fornari. On the fourth of each month participating garden bloggers will write about something you can grow. Stop by the You Can Grow That! Facebook page to read all of the posts.

You Can Grow That! -- Cabbages

Hi, everyone ... I've been hibernating lately, but with the warmer weather I wanted to get back into posting more.

Today I'm going to tell you about something exciting that happened last week:

I harvested my first cabbage!

You might remember how I've been posting photos of these beauties out in the front yard ... they're still going strong out there, but this one was starting to look bent over and bedraggled, so I pulled it up, stripped off the outer leaves, and ... take a look --

It's gorgeous, it tasted great in my salad (yes, it went fast!), and my rabbits loved the outer leaves! (those are edible too, but they got to share in the fun!) I'll need to rotate to something else for now once these are all pulled up, but next year I'm definitely growing these again!

You can grow cabbages too! I just bought cabbage starts from our local food co-op, but you can find them at many nurseries or online. The only thing that seemed to bother them were the grasshoppers, but it was just cosmetic, although if your area is a big cabbage producer you may have problems with cabbage moths -- if so, use row covers for a few weeks until they move on.

Do you like to grow cabbages too?

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You Can Grow That! is a new campaign created by garden writer and master gardener C. L. Fornari. On the fourth of each month participating garden bloggers will write about something you can grow. Stop by the You Can Grow That! Facebook page to read all of the posts.