Boston Flora

Tag: edible landscape

  • Wednesday, May 12, 12:00 noon – 1:00 pm – The Journey of Edible Landscapes, Online

    Edible landscaping is the use of food-producing plants in the residential landscape. It can combine fruit and nut trees, berrying shrubs, vegetables, herbs, edible flowers, along with ornamental plants into aesthetically pleasing designs. These designs can adopt any garden style and may include anywhere from 1 to 100 percent edible specimens. A gardener can install an entirely edible landscape or incorporate some edible plants into existing gardens.

    But where did edible landscapes begin?

    This Ecological Landscape Alliance online presentation on May 12 at noon begins where agriculture began, the Zagros Mountain Range on the border of Iran and Iraq. From there it travels through the Middle East and Europe showing how we went from subsistence farming to aesthetic gardening in response to the rise of privilege. The remaining portion of the presentation covers edible plantings in a variety of settings such as within flower gardens, in garden islands, and in containers and closes with different annual and perennial plants commonly found in Edible Landscaping.

    Sven Pihl, founder of CT Edible Ecosystems, LLC is a Regenerative Land Planner/Designer and Permaculture educator formerly based in Connecticut. Sven designs multifunctional Edible Landscapes and Forest Gardens for homes, commercial properties, campuses and public spaces. He’s passionate about regenerative landscape design to create productive agro-ecosystems. His education ranges from local coursework to the University of Missouri’s Center for Agroforestry and Multifunction Carbon Sequestration Agroforestry at the Yale School of the Environment. He has worked on Permaculture and Agroforestry projects from New Jersey to New Hampshire.

    Sven currently works for the Savanna Institute as the Agroforestry Technical Service Provider for the state of Illinois and Indiana and is working to rebrand CT Edible Ecosystems into a national entity.

  • Monday, August 18, 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm – The Edible Landscape at Wellesley College

    The Ecological Landscaping Association will sponsor The Edible Landscape at Wellesley College with tour guide Tricia Diggins on Monday, August 18, from 5 – 7 on campus in Wellesley.  $20 for ELA and Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Garden members, $25 for nonmembers, free for Wellesley College students.

    Join Tricia to explore three main components of the Wellesley College Botanic Gardens edible landscape.  As part of its collection policy, the WCBG is collecting and interpreting plants as food for humans and other organisms.  The tour will start in the kitchen garden courtyard that includes an herb garden, a vegetable garden, and other small fruit and nut plants.  The design for the vegetable garden changes each year and this year will be modeled after a Russian dacha garden.

    You will then move on to the Edible Ecosystem Teaching Garden and check on the progress of the garden started in 2010 and a new outdoor classroom.  The garden was designed by forest and permaculture specialists Dave Jacke and Keith Zaltzberg.  The garden features fruit and nut trees planted in association with herbaceous polycultures to maximize ecological functions using a wide diversity of pants.

    Lastly, you will walk to the nut tree collection in the Alexandra Botanic Garden and see a variety of native nut trees (and a few non-native as well), along with a 9 year old grove of paw paws (see picture of cluster below.)  Register on line at https://www.eventville.com/catalog/eventregistration1.asp?eventid=1010983.

  • Tuesday, October 19, 10:00 am – 11:30 am – The Edible Landscape

    Birds love the Arboretum’s many fall fruiting trees and shrubs, but how about us folks? Come and identify trees and shrubs with edible fruits, suitable for growing and harvesting at home. Maggie Redfern, Visitor Education Assistant at the Arnold Arboretum, will lead the walk on Tuesday, October 19, beginning at 10 am. Meet at the Hunnewell Building. Free. No registration required.

  • Saturday, June 12, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm – “Alternative” Lawns

    The Ecological Landscaping Association, in conjunction with Green Decade, sponsors a tour of four residential Newton properties on Saturday, June 12, from 1 – 4 pm.  Are you looking for alternatives to traditional, monoculture lawns that require a lot of water, chemicals, and time?  There are many alternatives to a resource-intensive, chemically-maintained lawn.  Visit four beautiful and successful properties in Newton to see organic lawns, meadow gardens, and edible landscapes.  Each location that you visit will have a professional on-site to discuss the project design, maintenance, answer your questions, and help you understand the options that you have this season to move to more sustainable and organic practices.  All of the sites will be open during the entire tour, so you may choose how much time to spend at each location.

    Perennial and Meadow Gardens:  Elaine Bresnick is a technology entrepreneur.  A few years ago, her gardens, which she called “the final frontier,” were rescued from over 25 years of neglect by Risa Edelstein, a local landscape designer, who designed and installed the lovely, indigenous and drought tolerant organic plantings which thrive there today.  The design was inspired by Elaine’s neighbor, Virginia Inglis, who adopted the notion of no lawn, years before.  Virginia’s backyard garden, terraced with billows of grasses and perennials, is a wildlife sanctuary in the middle of Newton.  Risa will be on hand to guide you through these gardens and answer your questions.

    Edible Garden: Ted Chapman, another local landscape designer, is opeing his own property for this unique opportunity to tour a successful example of an edible landscape.  Sustainability and energy efficiency are hallmarks of this property.  Using a permaculture model, Ted began designing this edible landscape in 1983.  The mature plantings are both beautiful and productive and are a testament to sustainable maiintenance practices.  Ted’s property also features a 1983 passive solar retrofit of an 1880 working class Victorian home.

    Organic Lawn: This private property will demonstrate a successful organic lawn installation that has been managed sustainably for a few years.  Frank Koll, an organic lawn care professional, will be on hand to answer your questions about organic fertilizers, compost tea, watering, and organic lawn care.

    $15 for ELA or Green Decade Members, $20 for non-members.  Registration is limited.  Call 617-436-5838, or email ela.info@comcast.net.

    http://www.ithaca.edu/alternativelandscaping/images/full/garden1.jpg