Edible Garden Xeriscape

Edible gardens consist of a combination of edible and ornamental drought tolerant plants. It also utilizes one of the main principles of xeriscaping – combining similar water use plants in the same area.

This design shows a gravelpath looping through a sunny side-yard with the vegetable garden contained by a rock border in the center of the loop. This allows the gardener to concentrate soil amendments, fertilizers, and greater irrigation demands in this bed. Raising the bed 12 – 18" will also allow easier access to the plants and allow the gardener to add better soils on top of their existing yard.

Other plants placed around the garden are also edible but do not necessarily need the intensive maintenance or water of a typical vegetable garden.

Fruit and vegetable plants have been placed away from the shadow of the house to try and maximize the amount of daylight available. Most of these edible plants will need a minimum of 6-hours of direct sunlight per day.

Remember to keep a compost bin (or 2 or 3) going to continually improve your soils.

Plants:

A, B, and C: Apples, Cherries, or Pears. Several varieties are available from local nurseries. Ground level plantings should be kept to a minimum under these trees.

D: Bishop's Weed – plant in shady areas only.

E: Flower bedfor cuttings, or currants

F: Herbs and Flowers for cuttings.

G: Currants for jams and jellies.

H: Pine or Juniper for foundation planting.

I: Double-dug ground-level garden bed in low spots. Use natural drainage of your yard to water plants for you. (See Sunset's Western Garden book for a description of "double-dug")

J: Grapes trained onto a wire mesh.

K: Blueberries

L: Blue oat grass

M: Lavender

N: Kinnickinick – used in some teas and herbal remedies

O: Vegetable garden areas in raised planting bed with improved soils.