Wendy's Wanderings

Wendy Wilber

March 8, 2018

We Can Do Better

For the time, the effort, and the energy, we can do better.

We are amending soil, picking the right plants, watering, fertilizing, scouting insects, and weeding in our landscape beds—and no food crops are allowed in.

What if you slipped some edibles in those landscaped beds? Start with herbs, advance to leafy greens, and then grow tomatoes, eggplants, and squash in plain sight. There are lots of places to grow food even in a way your HOA will approve of. This is the philosophy behind Brie Arthur’s book, "The Foodscape Revolution."

Brie was a featured speaker at the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival last year and she recently made another book-tour sweep through Florida. In her “Foodscaping” presentation, she shared with us tips for pairing edibles and ornamentals and for keeping unwanted animal guests at bay.

But her philosophy, website, and book go far beyond solid horticultural advice—she delivers a call to action to everyone who gets their hands dirty in the garden to do better. To find places to grow food so we don’t have run to the store every time we need lettuce for a salad or beans for dinner. She holds a light on the absurdity of shipping a 50-cent head of garlic all the way from China to the U.S. when we could grow it our own yards. She really got us thinking about the “food miles” of what we are consuming. Food miles are the distance food travels from where it is grown to where it is ultimately consumed. Some sources say that a typical American prepared meal contains, on average, ingredients from five countries outside the U.S.

Most of us are putting a ton of effort into growing plants; let's include something for our table, too. For those who are already growing edibles, step up your game by growing something different, or by teaching others to try a new vegetable crop or a new growing method. We are lucky enough to grow in a climate that offers us almost a year-round season for edibles in the garden. You really can make a difference in this world by how you garden, and I believe Brie Arthur when she says we can do better.

-- Wendy Wilber

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