The 3 Steps to Success are great once you know where to plant, but no one wants a landscape that is ugly, hard to manage, and void of any style or taste, especially if it's an edible one! To get a landscape dialed in, Justin Rohner with Agriscaping said it's important to design a garden with the following seven tips in mind to ensure it turns out beautifully productive, sustainable and easy to manage.
- Assessment: Set yourself up for success, not overwork and underproduction. Determine the space allocation. Look at the use of your space, and design with specified square footage allocated to people, pets, plants and pests. There are plants that can grow in every microclimate in a yard, but know your best sun exposure and plan with that in mind. Have a water source that is easy to access and is cost effective. Soil is the living ecosystem that must be cultivated to optimize growing conditions, rather than just a growing medium. Look at the sustainability of the garden from an economic standpoint as well as an environmental one.
- Design: Incorporate your favorite outdoor activities (for example, if the kids love to play soccer, leave some space for them to kick a ball around without trampling over the garden). Consider the “look” of the yard. Keep everything within reach.
- System Alignment: Avoid binge-gardening. Make it a routine, and make it manageable.
- People Alignment: Consider who the garden is growing for. Include favorite foods. Include people—get people involved in growing their favorites, too.
- Productive Pets Integrations: Productive pets help with the gardening. Productive pets aren’t your typical household pets. Consider chickens, rabbits or fish, all of which can help to break down the plant material into something plants can use.
- FUNctional Attitudes: Find the fun way to interact with the garden and get the job done every day.
- Sustainability BEYOND Survival: This type of a landscape can be sustainable at any level. A traditional landscape is very consumptive, with water and money used to build and maintain it. Urban gardening balances consumption and production, as the landscape produces food.
This is just an overview of the design tips Agriscaping has. Check out their webinar for more information on each of the seven ideas above.
Want to learn more about urban gardening and Agriscaping? Visit bit.ly/EwingAgriscaping.