I recently read an article in the September 2009 Landscape Architecture Magazine ‘Haag’s Edible Estate’. For those of you who don’t know, Rich Haag founded the Landscape Architecture program at the University of Washington and has designed some very notable places including Gasworks Park here in Seattle and the Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island. This article looks at the landscape of his private residence in Capitol Hill, which is an active experiment and example of what he has coined ‘nutrimental horticulture’. The term is a mouthful but the ideas behind it caught my attention immediately.
Balancing the utility of a food producing garden with a landscape that is also beautiful and welcoming is something that drives many of my designs, including my own gardens. Gardens are about discovery and activating our many senses. Showy flowers and an intoxicating smell are great but think of discovering your first ripe strawberry; this evokes a special reaction. Why can’t all landscapes have this multi-sensorial experience? They can.
One plant that is very easy to utilize in a landscape are blueberries. They are tolerant of a wide range of soil and light conditions (err on the side of shady and moist) and beyond the berries, the leaves have great fall color, changing to a bright red as the plant goes dormant.
If you are looking to create an informal screen, try red raspberries. They grow into 5-6′ canes which spread through rhizomes over time. Raspberries can be perfect for obscuring a utility shed or a tall cedar fence. Many varieties of raspberry will produce fruit multiple times throughout the summer.
Does your garden need a bulletproof ground cover? Similar to the aforementioned strawberry plant (which is a must) creeping bramble (Rubus pentalobus) sprawls low to the ground and produces bright orange, raspberry-like fruit.
A great way to bring structure to the garden is a trellis. Trellises allow plants, especially vines, to grow vertically and often with a dramatic result. They can support garden variety vegetables like climbing beans and peas that can be grown throughout the year. As an alternative try grape vines or better yet, hops. This summer I grew hops (Cascade variety) for the first time. They quickly grew to about ten feet tall with pendulous clusters of yellow green hops, a surprisingly good turnout for the first year. Hop plants grow from rhizomes that mature and increase in size over time producing more and more hops.
Lastly, an edible plant that makes both an architectural statement and is very sought after for its culinary uses, the artichoke. This plant may not be for everyone but it is dramatic as a focal plant. Mature plants can grow to be 6-7′ feet tall with bold serrated fronds and large thistle flowers (the artichoke). Tall and conspicuous, I see it as the Palm Tree of the garden. Unlike the Palm, however, the artichoke is perennial and will die back in the fall to emerge in spring.
I will readily admit that I have had mixed results with some of these plants (especially the artichoke). To me the experiment is a part of the experience. Try new things alongside successes of the past. It is a great way to discover what works in your garden landscape.
Zach
Peter Kahn is an environmental psychologist at the University of Washington. Kahn has done extensive cross-cultural studies of children’s values and attitudes about open space and animal life and forests and plants and water—and the degradation and disappearance of all these things. He believes that, with every generation, kids are lowering their knowledge and expectations for what is a normal interaction with nature—creating a kind of generational amnesia about the natural world. If nature is indeed a source of mental and emotional replenishment, this could emerge as one of the most compelling psychological issues of the not-so-faraway future.
