Library Program Spotlight: Edible Landscaping Edition

Don't Mind Me, I'm Just Eating My Yard...

My barren backyard, soon to be a food jungle!

So, yesterday I didn't get to post my daily written conglomeration that I love to hurl at the swirling info-cornucopia that is Steemit. I was totally saddened by this fact, but I had a great reason for being absent: I was facilitating an edible landscaping program at our library.

In between making parfaits for the attendees, running around to find extra seating (we had a full house), setting up projecting equipment, the ever important "speaker meet and greet", and handing out gardening seeds to the participants, I actually got to listen to a bit of our edible landscaping expert speaker's presentation.

Who was this person? Her name was Lisa Taylor. Some people have a gift when it comes to being able to educate people. Lisa is one of those people. She projects a welcoming, knowledgeable ease when she walks into the room, and boy, does she know her gardening stuff. She is a garden educator for the Seattle Tilth, and a huge part of her focus is educating people of all ages about how to grow your own food. Our class was about Edible Landscaping, which is a pretty self-explanatory term. Instead of having a landscape surrounding your house that is barren of anything edible, why not be able to eat what's in your yard?

Lisa presented her yard food overview in a clever way; by course. There was the soup, salad, main dish, and dessert sections. Her focus was on space saving techniques, inter-cropping, organic methods, and while her specialty is urban agriculture, it was applicable in any growing scenario, plus, her knowledge and enthusiasm, bled through like beet juice!

If you are an urban or suburban beginning gardener (or any gardener!), and you want to try to produce more of your own food, I highly recommend giving her book "Your Farm In The City: An Urban Dweller's Guide To Growing Food And Raising Animals" a look. Your local library might even have a copy!

Some spotlight plants she covered that I just had to share with you are:

Tromboncino Squash

Source

Lisa had a picture of one of these fellas that she grew. It was over five feet long! What really excited me about this plant is that it only takes 1 1/2 square feet of soil per plant. However, it's vine can grow up to 30 feet in length. Lisa trained hers to wander up the side of her house. I don't know about you all, but the idea of a squash plant covering a huge chunk of my house sounds very appealing. That is going to be a thing around here this summer!

Another interesting fact about the Tromboncino is its seeds are all in the bottom of the squash, not interspersed throughout the fruit. And does that thing ever yield! Well, most squash varieties tend to have that er, "blessing". I am going to give this variety a try this year, if all goes well I will have more seeds to share next year, as it is an open-pollinated heirloom of excellence!

Sweet Woodruff

Source

Another plant that I am interested in giving a grow after listening to Lisa speak on its merits is Sweet Woodruff, AKA Gallium Odoratum. Okay, maybe I really just like it's Latin name, but I honestly didn't know that this low growing ground cover had so many uses!

If you enjoy fragrance, you’ll probably like sweet woodruff (Asperula odorata or Galium odoratum), because its scent has been likened to that of new-mown hay or vanilla.

WHAT? That is like two of my most favorite smells ever, and let's be honest with each other for a moment. I live on a farm, and there are times that I come into the house covered in biological "stuff". The more dried aroma giving plant material freshening the air my home, the better, as far as I am concerned.

Lisa also talked about the Spring Solstice sprinkling of Sweet Woodruff leaves in wine as done by people in the past at fertility festivals. Apparently this action makes your imbibing a little more "merry". Hmmm....my first thought was, "How did our ancestors figure that little factoid out?"

This magazine article about Sweet Woodruff contains a nice overview of its uses.

It was really amazing to witness the enthusiasm exhibited by so many people in my community regarding growing their own food. There is so much space around and in all of our homes that can be utilized in the production of all things edible. Aside from the fact that you will be well fed, I have noticed that gardening really brings people together.

Even here on Steemit we gardening folk have a thriving community that shares everything from ideas to seeds! Yes, growing anything, whether it be in the soil-real or digital-pastures can sometimes be a dirty business, but we all bring something unique to the table, and if we keep moving forward by exchanging ideas and listening to each other we won't go hungry. At the very least we will all be immensely entertained!

And as always, with the exception of those cited, the image in this post was taken by the author on my non-edible iPhone.