If you don’t have a fence to plant your trees alongside, Scerra suggests that you flank your back door with columnar apple trees. In Puget Sound, you can select from apple, pear and cherry tree varieties. Additionally, these trees are typically self-pollinating (three varieties are grafted onto one tree) so you’ll only need to worry about finding space for one fruit tree.įruit trees. Espalier or flat trees don’t take up a lot of space and look nice along a fence. Even if you think you don’t have room for a cherry, apple or pear tree, you may find that, with a little ingenuity, you can squeeze one (maybe two) into your plan. There are many edible plants that will continue to grow year after year, including fruit trees, rhubarb and asparagus. Read our article about container gardening for more ideas and tips. You can even grow tomatoes in a hay bale! The more imaginative you are, the more fun you’ll have while gardening as a family. Potatoes can be grown in a trash can, and lettuce could thrive in a recycled rain gutter. It’s your garden, and the sky’s the limit when it comes to getting creative with your planting. “Corn can be a temporary privacy fence, and grapevines can become a fort,” suggests Christy Scerra, a certified professional horticulturist and owner of The Urban Gardener. An edible family garden can (and should!) include more than annual vegetables, and there are many creative planting strategies. You don’t need to plant everything in a typical raised-garden bed. Selkin shares this perspective on his family's chief gardening accomplishment: “Our garden was a success because my kid can identify the plants food comes from.” Planting your edible garden On the other hand, if you were secretly hoping to sustain your family’s vegetable needs through the winter, you may find yourself quickly disillusioned. ![]() Peter Selkin, a Tacoma father of two, advises edible-garden neophytes to keep expectations appropriately low, and gives a fair warning to parents with younger tots: “Kids are going to dig things up and destroy plants.” If your goal is to spend time in the garden with the family, then you will not be disappointed when this inevitably happens. But if no one in your family likes turnips, then don’t plant them! Just because something is easy to cultivate does not mean you should bother growing it. If you want to encourage your children to eat specific vegetables, planting and tending them may work to encourage your kids to sample what they grow. ![]() If your family eats a lot of pizza, reserve a section of your garden for growing pizza ingredients (herbs and toppings). For instance, if your kids love berries, then plant extra for grazing. One fun way to plan your garden is to include plants that can be eaten while harvesting (or without any preparation), and to include a theme area. The reason can be anything from providing a nature lesson to the kids to encouraging them to expand their palate, but overall, having a vision for your garden's raison d'être will help keep your ideas in perspective (and your budget in check).įor all the planning and work that goes into planting an edible garden, you want to be sure to choose plants that your family will actually enjoy. To create a successful edible garden, you’ll want to visualize an outcome. ![]() What's more, you don’t even need a proper backyard to have a successful edible garden! Whether you wish to teach your children about nature and where their food comes from, or you just want to grow some of your own food this year, read on for plenty of tips to help you get started. Edibles can be grown as trees and shrubs, or be part of an herbaceous landscape that returns every spring. But believe it or not, an edible family garden can go beyond the backyard. When most people think about growing their own food, they picture a raised-bed vegetable garden in the back or side yard of a suburban home.
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