- Have you ever heard of foodscaping?

(bright music) I'm Natalie Hodge.

Like you, I'm trying to make some adjustments in my life that will help slow climate change.

Today, I'm starting my journey towards zero waste and I'll be talking to three foodscapers.

By listening to their stories and getting their advice, I'm going to learn how to foodscape on my own balcony.

My first stop is with Amber Steel, who has transformed her traditional lawn into a foodscaped garden.

Let's go check it out.

Hey, Amber.

- Hey, Natalie.

- So nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you too.

Welcome to my home.

- What is foodscaping?

- Foodscaping, to me, is incorporating edible plants into a more traditional suburban landscape.

- Is there a backstory to foodscaping in general?

Is this a new idea?

- Foodscaping is a really old idea.

So historically people have actually had their food very close to where they've been living.

You know, you think of things like kitchen gardens, even in like Colonial America, it was very common for folks to have their little gardens right outside their front door.

Maybe I'm not going to make rows and have it look like a farm, but how can I incorporate a fruit bush or two, you know, a fig bush, a blueberry bush, raspberry bushes.

In the long run this is a very low-maintenance way to landscape.

You know, a lot of my neighbors have traditional lawns, which are very resource intensive and time intensive.

You know, things like fertilizer, reseeding, aerating, herbicide, fungicide.

It's just a lot of energy and resources.

- And they can't eat anything from it.

- No, nothing can eat it.

Unfortunately, lawns are kind of like a food desert.

It doesn't feed the local ecosystem and it doesn't feed humans.

- So it looks like there's a lot of intention put behind organizing all of this.

How did you decide to put what where?

- So a lot of this choice was based on sun.

All of this was grass and lawn before we started working on it.

And the mulch really helps retain moisture, you can see.

So it makes a huge difference to the fertility of the soil retaining moisture, and it allows me to grow a pretty wide variety of crops.

- So it feels like mulch is a big secret to your success.

Where do you get all of it?

- It's actually chipped up trees.

So instead of going to the hardware store and buying bags of mulch, you can actually get freshly chipped trees from local arborists.

It's a huge help.

Not only is it free, but you're using a recycled material and keeping that organic matter in your neighborhood.

- Okay, so we saw Amber's decked-out front yard and now we're in the back and she's got a lot of cool stuff going on.

Look at this.

It's like milk jugs.

I have no idea what's happening, but she's going to let me know.

- So I'm using these milk jugs as mini greenhouses to start seeds.

- Oh neat.

- These jugs can be cut open, filled with soil, you plant the seeds on top and water them in, and then you seal it with duct tape and just stick it outside and you get a greenhouse effect and maybe a little bit of extra water if it rains.

And after you've got sprouts, you can open it up and plant it into your garden.

- What else are you repurposing out here?

- I've reused a lot of five-gallon buckets and containers to grow things like potatoes.

I do have a couple standalone rain barrels, so I'll collect rainwater during big storms and just dump it into the barrels for me to use later.

- Next, Amber is going to show me how to plant my own container garden.

First we have a space for the blueberry bush.

- Won't get much bigger than this.

It's pretty much mature size.

And because it's a perennial, it'll be perfectly happy.

- Next, we put in our strawberries.

- Strawberries are also super container friendly.

- Yum!

And finalize it with sorrel.

- You can use the baby leaves in your salad, or once you get some bigger leaves, you can cook them like spinach.

So what do you think?

- I'm pumped.

Next, I'm going to Asia's house where she has transformed her traditional backyard into a foodscaped garden.

This is amazing.

- Thank you.

- Okay, so let me ask you about like the foodscaping element of it, because there's a mix of food and flower.

- In order to grow our food, we need pollinators.

Pollinators move pollen around the garden for us.

If you, you know, let's say you're growing squash, there's a female flower and there's a male flower, we need that pollen to move around.

So if I can attract the pollinators, like the bees and the butterflies to my garden, then they'll help me while I'm helping them.

- Clearly, you have maximized this space with all sorts of delicious food and beautiful flowers.

What inspired you to transition your space into a garden instead of a traditional yard?

- When I started gardening and saw what I could grow in like one small garden bed, instead of just letting this space sit, I could grow food for my family, I could grow food to share, I could, you know, raise chickens, I could raise quail, and really learn a easier way of life.

This is still a green space, but it's given so much back to me.

(gentle music) - Okay.

What are these?

- These are calendula plants.

I always use to say calendula.

It's calendula but it's- - Calendula.

- Calendula.

Yes.

And so these are edible flowers, also can be used medicinally.

You could take the petals and use it in salads.

So it is a flower but also edible.

- Okay.

- And useful.

- And you just pull the top off?

- Yep.

- Right.

Just pinch it.

- Just pinch it.

Yep.

And you're good to go.

I love the yellow one the most, but I like them all.

- Asia has been able to maximize every inch of her space and she's been able to repurpose and reuse important materials.

Tell me what you reuse and repurpose in the garden.

- I reuse the soil, I compost, and I also save rain water.

- So why do you save the rain water?

- I'm conserving water.

If I can save the rain water and I can use that to water my garden with, and then I'm not having to use more water than I would need to.

'Cause you know, Mother Nature gives me water.

- It provides.

- It does.

You don't have to replace the soil in your beds every year.

Instead of taking the soil out of the beds, I just amend it.

So they call it loamy.

So you're seeing a few chips, but it's also very light.

And so this is what I do every year.

Instead of taking the soil out, I will just amend it.

I may add some compost to it, some granulated fertilizer, bone meal, blood meal.

And I'm very happy to see that the soil is much better than it was when I originally created this bed.

- Yeah, it looks very rich.

- Yeah!

- Asia is foodscaping in the heart of the city and it's really cool how she's able to use this non-traditional space to do the work.

So it's really about identifying what space you have and maximizing that space.

- It really is.

- Not worrying about having much more.

- Yeah, it really is.

- It's about what you have.

- Think, "How can I add just one more garden bed?"

Because that's what I'm always doing.

How can I add one more bed?

- I see!

(both laugh) - One more bed.

And then you know, as long as you are thinking about how you can use the space you have, I guarantee you'd have a nice little space of food to grow for yourself.

- Okay.

I'm looking forward to this on my balcony.

- Yeah.

On your balcony, you can absolutely do it.

- I'm blowing it out.

- I'm excited for you.

I'm excited for you.

(laughs) - Now Asia's going to show me how to plant a container garden for my balcony.

First, we filled the grow bag with soil.

- We're gonna fill it up to about here.

- Then we dug a deep hole for the tomato.

- We're going to plant it all the way down into the bottom of this pot.

- And then filled in with nasturtiums.

- The nasturtiums, it is like a peppery flower and also the leaves are edible.

And so you can eat both of those things, and it will bring the pollinators to you here.

- This is going to be cute.

- I think so.

I think you're gonna love it, especially the nasturtiums.

You gotta make sure you try and they are delicious.

- Next, we're heading to Lily's and she's going to break down how to foodscape on a balcony so I can do it on mine.

- So this is my kitchen garden.

- Oh.

- Out here on the balcony.

- This is cute.

- Thank you.

What I have growing here is parsley, chives, I've got two bean plants that are growing up the railing here, this is a poblano pepper.

And then in the middle of that box right there, I've got a tiny little strawberry going.

- Oh, I see.

- Yeah.

- Now is your poblano pepper drinking wine?

- You know, I think it wishes.

But this is actually a watering system so that, yeah, it gets so hot in here in the summer that this saves me from having to go out every single day and water it.

(bright music) - How are you repurposing and reusing stuff to kind of actualize what you're doing?

- One, it's cheap and then two, it's good for the planet and so I find that it's like double-whammy bonuses on all sides.

I have an unofficial rainwater catchment system with a recycling bin and I'll just turn it upside down and catch the rainwater and use that.

- Simple.

- I have yogurt containers and I'll cut them up and have the labels for the plants on that.

I'll use chopsticks from takeout for stakes.

So I'm always about trying to find a repurposed way of using things.

- It's stuff that you already, you know, are using.

- Yeah, I already bought it.

- Yeah!

- I have it so I might as well use it.

Yeah.

I've been vegan since I graduated college.

For me, the number one driver in that is the environment.

Supporting local when I do purchase produce, I feel healthy doing it and then it's really good for the environment as well.

- I love how you've maximized your foodscaping space on this balcony.

I wanna check out your other one to get some ideas for mine.

Lily is modeling zero waste by maximizing two separate balconies and wasting no space at all.

All right, Lily, what kind of plants thrive in a balcony space?

- That's a good question.

I haven't yet found a plant I can't grow up here aside from sunflowers, those need too much space.

Those are a little bit too big.

But everything else, as long as you have a pot big enough, like one of these giant ones right here, I found that balcony gardening is a lot more forgiving than I thought it was gonna be.

You can move your pots around and so whether it's chasing shade or quarantining a plant that has aphids, you can really customize your arrangement in real time for the plants to be successful.

- Okay.

Mobile.

- Yes.

- The mobility of it all.

- Yes.

- All right, cool.

- So over here I have eggplant, which is my first time growing this.

Yep.

Very exciting.

I also have borage, which is a edible flour.

I have tomato, Cherokee purple, marigold, variegated sage, and down over here I have ground cherries.

- Talk to me about your planning process with all of this.

- So the way that I really want to be thinking about it is I always want to have something coming up as something is dying.

- Cycle of life.

- Exactly.

Yeah.

Never-ending cycle.

- To help me get started foodscaping my balcony, Lily is going to show me how to plant climbing beans and marigolds.

Okay.

First we filled our pot with soil.

Next, we mapped out where we want to place the plants, we put in fertilizer and then we watered it and we used this really cool terracotta watering system that I'm really excited about.

- Nice, nice, nice, nice, nice.

And plunge it in.

There you go!

Perfect.

- There it is.

- Yep.

And now it's time to go back to my balcony and create a thriving foodscaping space.

(bright gentle music) I'm excited to take what I've learned and start foodscaping on my own balcony.

I'm a little bit nervous about getting it right, but I was inspired by all the foodscapers I visited.

Foodscaping can have a positive impact on climate change and benefit my health and pocketbook.

If you enjoyed this journey to zero waste, hit the subscribe button and turn on notifications so that you don't miss out on my next adventure.

(bright gentle music continues) (cheerful music)