so i'm matt libon with custom foodscaping foodscaping is very
similar to landscaping except we use food producing plants so we might have instead
of planting a hydrangea we might plant a bush service berry or a blueberry instead
i would say there's absolutely enough space to get started because there's so many cool
you know compact growing plants um one of the ones that we just talked about was the the fig
you know figs in our climate do not get very big and they're great compact plants they fruit on
first year growth so even if you keep them small you can get fruits and then probably the easiest
to grow fruits of all are berries and pretty much all the berry producers are really compact so
you know blueberries and blackberries raspberries strawberries like these things can be tucked in
in any little urban space and um and provide that that whole experience of connecting with
some of the food that you're growing i would also add that vines are often overlooked as
things that you can grow in compact spaces so things like grapes and kiwis can be grown up
existing trellises and fences and arbors and decks and that may be the only space you've
got but if you can just eke out a little bit of space you can grow a grape up a wall
if you're feeling intimidated by this you know starting with some of the easier to grow fruits
is really key and you know some of the things like the service berries or some of the native fruits
aronias and the clove currant the pawpaw the native persimmon a lot of times native fruits are
more forgiving because they don't have nearly as much pest and disease pressure
there's way too much grass in the landscape you know we in america we love our grass landscape
so a lot of the time um one of the ways we can start to break that up is by planting what we
call a foodscape island which is basically just a planting within the grass that we see you know
commonly done in ornamental landscapes but you know plant a fruit tree you know something that
maybe doesn't have much pest or disease issues like that service berry for example that we'd like
to plant in front yards and then around it we can plant perennial herbs or things like strawberries
as a ground cover and then you know that would just be a really simple
combination of plants a strawberry ground cover with a fruit tree around it
you know starting small is really the key and just
even starting with one plant um is a great way to begin you know we have
if we think about edible landscaping as a complement to traditional landscaping you
know it might just mean that we go ahead and and try you know one pie cherry and that's the only
thing we plant and it is just getting a feel for what is it like to have a fruit tree and
i think maybe most importantly we can't underestimate the power of
children growing up around a few plants like this and what the impact is because i can't tell
you how many clients of ours are people who said you know i we grew up with a few fruit trees and
you know i never really thought about it you know and then they are coming to us as adults
now that they're homeowners and they they they know what it is to just have a few fruit trees
in the yard and that makes a big difference in terms of getting over that intimidation so
i would say if you're feeling intimidated that's because maybe you didn't have this experience
growing up and maybe we should be giving that to all of our kids so that they can approach
adulthood and the landscapes and they can feel like i don't need to just plant one or two like i
i know what this is about and i can plant a lot more
you