MALE ANNOUNCER: Growing a Greener World is made possible in part by-- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: The Subaru Crosstrek, designed with adventure in mind, built in a zero landfill plant, so you can roam the earth with a lighter footprint.

Subaru-- proud sponsor of Growing a Greener World.

MALE ANNOUNCER: And the following-- the US Composting Council, Milorganite, and Rain Bird.

[gentle instrumental music] ♪ JOE LAMP'L [voice-over]: I'm Joe Lamp'l.

For 10 years, Growing a Greener World has told the stories of the people and the places who are making a difference in the health of our environment and the sustainability of our global community.

But as we embarked on our 11th season, life changed overnight.

So many things we took for granted would never be the same again.

Now it's up to each of us to take a more active role in not just saving our planet, but making it better, feeding our families with organically grown food, conserving vital resources, protecting natural habitats, starting in our own backyards.

Growing a Greener World-- it's still our mission, and it's more important than ever.

JOE LAMP'L [voice-over]: Old habits are hard to break.

Long established ways of thinking can be tough to suddenly re-examine with a new eye, but oftentimes, if you're able to take a step back and shift your perspective just a little bit, you start to see things in a whole new way, and it changes everything, usually for the better.

Here's an example from the world of horticulture.

Why are landscaping and gardening so frequently treated like two completely different things?

Both disciplines are about the same core things-- working with mother nature, putting the right plant in the right place, making sure that there's enough sunlight and proper water, and then helping the plants along as they grow.

So obviously, there are more similarities between landscaping and gardening than there are differences, so why not treat them both with the same approach?

Why does your vegetable garden have to be tucked away in a far corner of your landscape?

Why designate certain plants just for show around your home and living spaces, and keep them totally independent of the food that you're also growing to feed your family?

Why not mix your vegetables in with those aesthetic plants to create an edible landscape?

It's called foodscaping, and if it sounds like a new and radical concept to you, maybe it shouldn't be.

Maybe it should be the way more of us are doing it.

And for those of us who decide to include food escaping in our gardening repertoire, we'll have Brie Arthur to thank.

Brie is an award-winning horticulturist, a leading expert in plant propagation, star of her own gardening video series, and author of the bestseller, The Foodscape Revolution.

Regular viewers of Growing a Greener World recognize her as a frequent correspondent.

Drive through her neighborhood near Raleigh, North Carolina, and you may recognize her yard as the best looking one on the street.

What you may not recognize are some of the many intermingled food crops that make it such a showstopper.

One of the most unusual things that you plant in your foodscape are peanuts, not likely something that most people have growing in their front or their backyard, right?

But you love this plant.

BRIE ARTHUR: I love peanuts.

They're so easy to grow.

They love heat and humidity.

They're very reliable, ground cover during the frost three months.

JOE LAMP'L: You're not just using left over from your bag that you bought at the grocery store, right?

BRIE ARTHUR: No, you can't plant roasted peanuts.

They won't terminate.

From the experience, we have defined raw peanuts ready for planting.

You typically find those at a farm store, or you can also find them from online retailers.

So I think peanuts are going to become a little more mainstream now.

JOE LAMP'L: Yeah.

If there was ever a time for foodscaping itself to go mainstream, it's now.

With so many people returning to growing their own food, whether in urban settings or backyard homesteads, mindfully utilizing every square foot of growing space has never been so popular.

The concept has been around for a long time, well before it had a catchy name.

BRIE ARTHUR: So I was first introduced to foodscaping as a teenager reading Roz Creasy's original book, Edible Landscape.

And for me, it just started to really click as to why we should be growing food with our ornamental plants using the same resources in the same space.

But fast forward to when I bought my first house in 2005, and I found myself living in a neighborhood for the first time in my life with this thing called an HOA, a homeowner association.

Having a degree in horticulture and this being my profession, I was amazed and very disappointed by some of the rules that they had, especially the rules about no vegetables in the front yard.

So I went back to that original book that Roz wrote, and I started applying those principles to my home garden.

And I was basically hiding vegetables in and amongst the trees, the shrubs, and perennials that were on my HOA approval list.

And several years into that, I ended up winning yard of the year.

And it was a real light bulb moment for me when I realized that when you take the farm-like approach out of your vegetable production, it automatically looks more ornamental.

So I realized I'm not using equipment.

I don't have to grow things in a straight line.

I can be more creative about what I place where and how I plant them and how I orient these vegetables to the point where people don't recognize them as vegetables.

HOAs are really interesting.

I find that it's best to first start with an understanding that vegetables incorporated can look really beautiful, and they add a lot of seasonal beauty.

So first, getting them to understand there doesn't need to be a distinction between a landscape and food producing space.

That's always the biggest challenge, and a lot of times, I will start with simple perennial things, like blueberries and strawberries and figs, and then ease them into the idea of seasonal vegetable production.

JOE LAMP'L: In Brie's foodscape, blueberry bushes can be found lining a side yard pathway in a spot a lot of us have been programmed to place an evergreen hedge or a grouping of some other flowering shrub.

These beauties serve the same purpose in the landscape, but will produce homegrown berries that you can put in everything from pancakes to pie, or just snack on straight from the bush.

Just follow a few special tips when planting, and growing them couldn't be easier.

OK, Brie, incoming special delivery of one beautiful blueberry shrub and your favorite mulch, triple ground shredded hardwood, right?

BRIE ARTHUR: Yes.

JOE LAMP'L: OK, so let me ask you, first of all, about your blueberries, because I grow a lot of blueberries, and I think I have some good looking ones.

But honestly, I'm envious of yours.

I need to know exactly what you're doing differently, so I can emulate that back at my place.

BRIE ARTHUR: Well, I learned early on that the trick to growing blueberries is to add copious amounts of soil conditioner.

JOE LAMP'L: Which is this right here, right?

BRIE ARTHUR: This magic stuff.

This is ground aged pine bark.

Aged is really important, because it won't rob nitrogen from the plant versus, say, buying pine bark that is in the mulch form.

That is still going to be decomposing and can rob nutrients from the plant.

JOE LAMP'L: So the fresh mulch hasn't finished breaking down yet, and it needs the nitrogen to do that, and we don't want to run the risk of that in the soil right around those roots, because that's going to deprive the plant from the nitrogen.

And this is all around it down there, so that's why that's so important.

Makes a lot of sense.

BRIE ARTHUR: All right, well, I think we're ready.

JOE LAMP'L: Incoming.

That's a beautiful hole.

Give you all of it.

Perfect.

BRIE ARTHUR: Now, the next step will just be to water this in.

And I can't wait to show you what this produces a year from now.

JOE LAMP'L: I'm ready.

I'll be back.

BRIE ARTHUR: I think there are probably a million reasons that people should get excited about growing their own food.

I always use an example in my presentations about food miles, and I use garlic as the example, because garlic is the most consumed vegetable in the United States.

But since 2012, 90% of the garlic sold in American grocery stores is being imported from China.

And that's a really long distance, and it doesn't make sense to me when you really look and realize that every sunny landscape in America could grow some garlic to support the people that live there or the community, the restaurants.

Why are we moving products so far across this planet, when we have developed landscapes that offer opportunities?

You know, foodscaping, you're not going to never go to the grocery store, but you'll grow a crop and eat it.

Next time you buy it, you have a greater understanding of what it took to get it there.

I think in this time, particularly in 2020, where we have food shortages at stores, this is the perfect opportunity to get people to really understand the opportunities that they have.

JOE LAMP'L: In Brie's foodscape, every bit of every planting bed represents another opportunity.

Great borders.

And I love this garlic.

I'm looking at that.

What variety is this?

It's huge.

BRIE ARTHUR: This is creole garlic.

I got this at the Mobile Botanic Garden, and it's quickly becoming my favorite variety.

It's enormous, and it's so flavorful.

JOE LAMP'L: Right.

Well, everywhere I look, I see garlic growing.

But for you, it's along your borders, and I know you're a big fan of that not only for self-serving, but it also serves the purpose of pest deterrent, too.

BRIE ARTHUR: Yes.

So I believe very strongly in planting your bed edges intentionally with food crops that we like to eat, but that animals don't like, so garlic, onions, arugula, basil, potatoes-- these are all really practical food crops to bring in and eat yourself that will deter deer, rabbits, groundhogs, and voles.

JOE LAMP'L: Wow, voles-- that's my biggest nemesis.

Now all of those that you just mentioned, I understand the ones that have that pungent smell to them.

But then you mentioned potatoes, and I know that that doesn't have the smell, but it's because it's a Solanaceae crop.

BRIE ARTHUR: Right.

JOE LAMP'L: The foliage is poisonous.

BRIE ARTHUR: Poisonous nightshade.

JOE LAMP'L: Yeah.

BRIE ARTHUR: Take advantage of that.

And again, edges are the easiest place to plant and harvest.

You don't have to do a yoga move to get to it.

It's right here, where you're walking.

JOE LAMP'L: And you know, the other thing about everything you mentioned, some of those are what you plant in the cool season over winter, and then there's the potatoes and the things that would prefer the warmer climate.

BRIE ARTHUR: That's right.

And basil, especially, the globe basil is a fantastic edge plant, because it's neat and organized.

It kind of looks like a boxwood.

JOE LAMP'L: Yeah.

BRIE ARTHUR: And it does its job all summer long.

JOE LAMP'L: Nice.

Can't have too much basil either.

BRIE ARTHUR: Never had too much basil or had too much garlic.

JOE LAMP'L: Correct.

Obviously, if you're growing things you're frequently harvesting, like garlic and basil, in a highly visible landscape bed, you'll need to change those plants out more often than if they were just perennial ornamentals.

But that's a guaranteed way to constantly reinvent your landscape and keep it from becoming stagnant.

And as one plant comes out with the change of seasons, it's a great time to really consider what should go in its place.

Ideally, you want something that still works and looks great in the existing bed, but also sets you up for success down the road when the seasons change again.

BRIE ARTHUR: Foodscaping over the last nine years, here on my property, has led me to a whole new obsession with growing cover crops.

Now this is a really confusing idea for most people, because traditionally, cover crops have been used for agronomic purposes.

So this applies to farms.

So for the past few years, I've really been trying to take this agronomic approach and apply it to my residential landscape.

And it's been amazing the things that I've discovered with regard to my ability to improve soil, to grow legumes, to naturally fix nitrogen, to bring in plants that will attract beneficial insects.

It altogether makes my growing experience easier.

The one example that I love to use is the daikon radish.

I've become completely obsessed with daikon radish.

You would want to sow those seeds directly on the ground in September, and they will develop through the cool season of fall, and by the middle of December, you're going to have these large, dense roots that basically act as natural tillers.

I live in a former tobacco field.

I have a major root knot nematode issue, which really has created a big challenge for me growing my favorite crop, tomatoes.

What I read-- for commercial production, farmers who are growing tomatoes will use daikon radish as their winter cover crop.

And then they till the foliage in, and as the foliage breaks down, it releases a chemical that suppresses the nematodes.

So this year, I went all in on daikon radish, and I planted almost 3,000 square feet.

They grew all winter, and actually, we recently discovered the daikon seed is so delicious.

It's crunchy and fresh tasting, and it's the perfect addition to a salad.

But now I am taking a push mower, and I am mowing over all that daikon foliage, letting it decompose in place so that as it breaks down, it suppresses those nematodes, and I can once again grow heirloom tomatoes.

JOE LAMP'L: And that concept brings us back to the peanuts that Brie and I were planting earlier.

They're not only a great snack.

They make a perfect cover crop for part of the year.

BRIE ARTHUR: Crack the shell open, and actually take the raw nut out of the shell.

So you can see here, I planted these 10 days ago, and they're already germinating.

So I think that's a reasonable assumption to plant them as the raw nut.

JOE LAMP'L: Yeah.

BRIE ARTHUR: And then I'm not speaking in code.

When I say, just thumb it in, I literally mean you're going to plant it about the depth of your thumb.

So that's only about an inch deep, so peanuts do grow really well in loose soil, so you have hard compacted clay, you're going to want to add a little bit of compost, then plant the peanut in the compost.

JOE LAMP'L: OK. How many of these are they going to produce?

BRIE ARTHUR: So a healthy plant, you get more than 50.

JOE LAMP'L: Gosh, that is a nice return on the investment.

BRIE ARTHUR: Yeah, it is.

JOE LAMP'L: And then what about harvesting time?

Can you tell by looking at the plant when it's time to harvest?

BRIE ARTHUR: Yeah, they get ugly.

That's my rule of thumb.

When a plant gets ugly, it's time to rip it out.

And usually with vegetables, especially root vegetables, they're getting ugly as you're assigned that it is time to harvest.

OK, so typically, planting these sometime mid-May into June, harvesting around Halloween.

JOE LAMP'L: OK, cool.

Very cool.

BRIE ARTHUR: So in this obsession with cover crops, I've discovered a really important thing that farmers have known forever, but I think home gardeners never got the notification on.

If you rotate a grain and a legume, you take the greatest advantage of what the roots of these cover crops can do for you.

One of the advantages of grains is that they have very deep root systems.

Those roots act as a natural tilling service.

But they actually get so deep that they scavenge the nutrients from below the surface, and they draw those nutrients back to the soil's surface, ultimately feeding the other plants that you have in your garden.

So you do a grain in the winter, and then a legume through the summer.

The legumes naturally fix nitrogen, ultimately replacing the nitrogen that those grains absorbed.

JOE LAMP'L: And here's where Brie takes foodscaping to a new level.

She's not just mixing up the landscape beds with traditional vegetables, herbs, and fruit.

How about a small stand of wheat in your front yard, or using barley like an ornamental foundation plant, or sorghum, or rice?

These are crops that many home gardeners can't even identify onsite.

Brie not only grows them right in suburbia, but makes them an integral and beautiful part of her landscape.

BRIE ARTHUR: So my grain journey started about six years ago, when a great friend of mine handed me a bag of wheat seed and challenged me to grow it.

And literally, up until that moment, it had never once crossed my mind to grow grains.

And it was literally like a light bulb went off over my head when it occurred to me that I could grow barley for beer, or I could grow rice in the summertime, or that corn is an actual grain.

It really was a life-changing moment to open my eyes to all of the opportunities and know what I can cultivate carbohydrate sources 12 months out of the year right here in my residential landscape.

So on top of having this realization that grains are this vast array of plants in the Poesie family, the grass family, the most commonly grown plants on the planet-- everybody knows how to grow grass.

We all have lawns.

Duh.

They're really easy to grow, so when it occurred to me that I could incorporate these things in my landscape, both as sort of an edible meadow approach-- you know, I really like the cottage garden style, and grains lend themselves to that.

But I could also grow them just like we do ornamental grasses.

All the things that everybody already has included in their landscape, you can grow grains the same way.

You can just direct seed them in a clump, and let them germinate in place, and they look just as beautiful as Pennisetum or Miscanthus, or Pink Muhly grass.

Except the difference is you can harvest the greens to eat.

JOE LAMP'L: If Brie has inspired you to think about foodscaping in your own yard, rest assured that the steps to get started are really no different than planning out any new planting.

BRIE ARTHUR: So the first steps in developing a foodscape-- and I challenge everyone to do this-- is to think critically about what you eat all the time.

So I usually will pose the question, what vegetables have you eaten in the last week?

Write it down, and look at the things that keep recurring, because not only are these things that you enjoy eating, but you're comfortable cooking with.

And I want you to focus on growing those five things, and grow them in a meaningful way so that you change a habit at the grocery store.

So when I posed that question to myself, I recognized that grains were a really big part of my regular diet.

And though grains in my lifetime have never been part of a home gardener's repertoire, there really was no reason for them not to be included.

I just had to be really creative about figuring out where to grow them, and then how to harvest and actually get them into a stage where I could bring them into my kitchen and cook with them.

So the next step in foodscaping is to just walk around your property and start evaluating the sites that you have.

So those vegetables need to grow in more sun than shade.

Not really seeing a lot of farms growing in the forest, right?

There's a reason for that.

So you need to identify your sunniest areas, and then I want you to really focus on the areas that you walk past on a regular basis, because that's going to be your zone where you can grow high maintenance things like tomatoes or zucchinis.

JOE LAMP'L: In fact, Brie had some planting for us to do today, so I could get a hands-on look at how planning out a foodscape works.

BRIE ARTHUR: We're here, and we're standing in what I call zone 1, because there's a hose right here.

You know, this makes it so I can easily water it.

I park my car right here.

This is the area that is on my radar.

JOE LAMP'L: Right, you see it all the time.

BRIE ARTHUR: I see it every day multiple times.

So I need to put my highest maintenance plants here, because this is going to be the easiest place for me to manage these.

JOE LAMP'L: Yeah, so we've got an area right here that obviously is ready for planting.

What's going there?

BRIE ARTHUR: Well, we're going to do tomatoes and peppers, and well, I have a whole array of things developed-- 50% edibles, 50% ornamental, so that it's a true foodscape.

JOE LAMP'L: Perfect.

BRIE ARTHUR: That way, no one in my neighborhood can think that I am disrupting our infrastructure.

I'm accommodating the need for beauty and bounty simultaneously.

JOE LAMP'L: Perfect.

[gentle instrumental music] Well, I'd say, Brie, in 11 seasons or in the works of 11 seasons, this is the most fun I've ever had, because I'm the dirtiest I've ever been, other than my own garden.

BRIE ARTHUR: I thought you were going to say this is the most work you've ever-- JOE LAMP'L: This is not work.

This is fun, and what an honor to do it in your garden.

But this is that classic-- I mean this is really a foodscape bed, because you've got the ornamentals-- BRIE ARTHUR: And the edibles.

JOE LAMP'L: --edibles.

A nice balance.

BRIE ARTHUR: And pleasant center.

You know, like, think of the amount of productivity here that most people would associate with growing in rows.

JOE LAMP'L: Yeah.

BRIE ARTHUR: And when you plant them mixed together, it seems less vegetable gardeny.

JOE LAMP'L: Correct.

A vegetable garden that seems less vegetable gardeny-- for a couple of horticulture professionals, that may seem to be a counterintuitive end goal, but encouraging more people to include edible crops in their home landscapes might be the single best way I can think of for all of us to start growing a greener world.

So when you think about it, maybe it really should be the ultimate goal.

BRIE ARTHUR: At the end of the day, it's just being logical with our allocation of resources and our land stewardship and just getting the most out of the space that we have.

And I don't understand why it's not already totally mainstream, that everybody grows vegetables and flowers together.

I think the most empowering part about foodscaping is the reality of growing enough food that you feel like you are changing some habits.

And I think this is an opportunity for everybody to feel like you are contributing to the world in a meaningful way just from using your own little yard.

Everything that you grow that you eat really does shake out to make a difference.

JOE LAMP'L: Growing your own food can be one of the most rewarding aspects of gardening, and yet between the perceived and actual limitations on where to grow that food in your own yard, that can create some real challenges.

But hopefully today, you gained a fresh perspective and some new inspiration on how to make that happen with tips for incorporating edibles into your existing landscape beds.

And if you'd like to learn more on foodscaping, we'll have that information on our website under the show notes for this episode.

Website address-- it's the same as our show name.

It's growingagreenerworld.com.

Thanks for watching, everybody.

I'm Joe Lamp'l, and we'll see you back here next time for more Growing a Greener World.

MALE ANNOUNCER: Growing a Greener World is made possible in part by-- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: The Subaru Crosstrek, designed with adventure in mind, built in a zero landfill plant, so you can roam the earth with a lighter footprint.

Subaru-- proud sponsor of Growing a Greener World.

MALE ANNOUNCER: And the following-- the US Composting Council, Milorganite, and Rain Bird.

[gentle instrumental music] ♪ MALE ANNOUNCER: Continue the garden learning from the program you just watched, Growing a Greener World.

Program host, Joe Lamp'l's Online Gardening Academy offers classes designed to teach gardeners of all levels, from the fundamentals to master skills.

Classes are on demand any time.

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Courses are available online.

For more information or to enroll, go to growingagreenerworld.com/learn.

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