| “We are trying to help people find out about the positive things they can do to counteract what’s happening to our local waters.” | |
| Joan Muller, Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve | |
Incorporating food-producing plants into beautiful landscapes is an environmentally friendly trend that Massachusetts coastal resource managers are encouraging residents to sink their teeth into. In addition to augmenting dinner tables, edible landscaping can help reduce nitrogen and carbon in the atmosphere—both contributors to climate change—as well as reducing detrimental nitrogen loads in coastal waters.
“This is kind of the cool thing to do now,” says Terry Soares, co-owner of Soares Flower Garden Nursery in Hatchville, Massachusetts. “I’ve noticed for the last few years that a real trend with gardeners is to reduce their lawn area and find an attractive way to incorporate vegetables and fruit into the landscape design.”
The environmental benefits of the trend are good enough—and the topic so intriguing—that Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve worked with Soares to develop a workshop on how to do edible landscaping as part of its ongoing Reducing Your Nitrogen Footprint series.
“We are trying to help people find out about the positive things they can do to counteract what’s happening to our local waters,” says Joan Muller, the reserve’s education coordinator. “It’s also a topic that would get people in their busy lives to come to an evening program.”
Nitrogen Overload
Nitrogen overloading is a serious problem in Massachusetts’ estuarine waters. Reserve research shows that excessive nitrogen is causing an overgrowth of algae, which is outcompeting the eelgrass that provides the nursery grounds for many fish and other aquatic species.
In addition, an overgrowth of algae depletes oxygen in waters, killing marine life, increases the incidences and duration of harmful algal blooms, and lowers species diversity.
While agriculture, septic tanks, and lawn and garden fertilizers may spring to mind as the most common sources of nitrogen, atmospheric deposition from the burning of fossil fuels has the same impact on water quality.
For the U.S. as a whole, atmospheric deposition of nitrogen from smokestacks and tailpipes is estimated to contribute 40 percent of the nitrogen that reaches coastal rivers and bays. The rate of atmospheric nitrogen deposition in southeastern New England is among the highest in North America.
In addition to degrading coastal water quality, atmospheric nitrogen is a contributing factor in climate change.
Combining Concepts
As part of the Reducing Your Nitrogen Footprint series, Muller has worked with gardeners and landscapers to create workshops on organic gardening and ecological landscaping, which involves practices such as reducing lawn area, using native plants, composting, and mulching, and has developed programs with groups that promote eating locally grown food.
“I was intrigued by edible landscaping because it combines all these concepts,” Muller says. “Not only are you using less fertilizer and reducing lawn areas, but an added bonus of growing your own food is that you aren’t using all that fuel in order to get food to your area. It reduces both your nitrogen and carbon footprint.”
According to advocates, edible landscaping also is beneficial because fewer gas- or electric-powered tools, such as mowers and blowers, are used in its maintenance, compared to traditional lawns.
Trend Defined
Edible landscaping uses fruit- and vegetable-bearing plants, herbs, and edible flowers throughout yards to turn the traditional lawn into a more utilitarian—but still decorative—space.
Soares says the same design principles used for ornamental landscapes are applied—but with creativity. For instance, a walkway might be bordered with lettuce, cucumber vines might crawl up a decorative trellis, or mint might be used as a ground cover.
Edible landscaping can also be as simple as growing decorative containers of herbs and vegetables alongside flowerpots on a patio.
“Landscaping is about outdoor decorating,” Soares says. “Adding the food component is part of the trend we see happening.”
Workshop
In doing the Reducing Your Nitrogen Footprint series, Muller says she consistently turns to the experts. “We can provide the context and the why it’s important to the environment, but people really need practical information in order to be able to do it.”
During the edible landscaping workshop held in early May, Soares brought in sample plants and decorative container gardens, which were given out as door prizes, and focused on the types of plants that work well in edible landscaping, where to site them, and how to make them aesthetically pleasing.
A local bakery also prepared snacks with local fruits and herbs, and the 25 attendees all went home with seed packets. “People like food, and all these little things help reinforce the message,” Muller says.
Both Muller and Soares see the potential for incorporating edible landscaping into future reserve activities, such as a seaside garden tour where edible landscapes could be viewed.
“Anybody could do an edible landscaping workshop,” Muller says. “It’s primarily about incorporating what would work locally.”
She adds, “It’s nice that we don’t always have to be doom and gloom. This was a really positive and fun workshop to do—and tasty!”
For more information on the Reducing Your Nitrogen Footprint series, contact Joan Muller at (508) 457-0495, ext. 107, or joan.muller@state.ma.us. For more information on edible landscaping, contact Terry Soares at (508) 548-5288 or mtscapecod@gmail.com.
Edible Landscaping Resources
Designing and Maintaining Your Edible Landscape Naturally
By Robert Kourik
In the 1980s, Kourik, a landscape designer and environmentalist, is reported to have coined the term “edible landscaping” to denote a new kind of gardening that marries aesthetic design with crop production.
www.robertkourik.com/books/edible.html
Edible Landscaping: Now You Can Have Your Gorgeous Garden and Eat It Too!
By Rosalind Creasy
Creasy is credited with popularizing the concept of landscaping with edibles. The book presents everything readers need to know to create a decorative home landscape that will yield vegetables, fruits, nuts, and berries.
www.rosalindcreasy.com/edible-landscaping-basics/
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
By Barbara Kingsolver
Kingsolver and her family made a commitment to become “locavores”—those who eat only locally grown foods—for a year. This entailed growing and raising their own food and supporting local farmers.
www.animalvegetablemiracle.com
