The much-anticipated book Edible Landscaping from gardening guru Rosalind Creasy has just landed in stores. And we’re pleased to announce that Rosalind sat down recently with Nest in Style co-hosts Teresa O’Connor and Jayme Jenkins to share some gardening tips and talk about her new book. And we’re giving away a free copy of this just-released book!
Listen as this landscaping legend explains why she first started mixing vegetables, fruit and herbs in her Northern California front yard nearly 30 years ago … and why it’s the perfect time to release this revised edition of her renowned The Complete Book of Edible Landscaping, published in 1982.
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Nest In Style Guest
Rosalind Creasy is a highly respected garden writer, who coined the phrase “edible landscaping” back in the early-1980s. She is the author of 18 books, including the award-winning bestsellers The Complete Book of Edible Landscaping and Cooking from the Garden. Her home garden in Los Altos, California has become a edible landscaping showroom and creative laboratory for global food and garden leaders alike, including famed restaurateur and cookbook author Alice Waters.
On the Internet: www.RosalindCreasy.com. Photographs copyright © by Rosalind Creasy
Edible Landscaping Book Giveaway
We’re so excited to give away a free copy of the hot-off-the-press book Edible Landscaping… and there are many easy ways to enter.
Photographs copyright © by Rosalind Creasy
- Submit a review of the Nest In Style Podcast on iTunes. Just click the view in iTunes button to open your iTunes program. Worth 7 entries, one time only.
- Leave a comment on this podcast page. Sample topics: Share your stylish edible and ornamental combinations; name the edibles that give you the greatest joys and biggest headaches; list your favorite edibles to cook with on a week night, or here’s a big one … do you think city ordinances should be allowed to ban front yard gardens? Worth 3 entries, unlimited.
- Retweet this blog post. Just click the green retweet button located in the upper right corner of this post. Worth 1 entry, unlimited.
- Make a comment on Nest In Style Facebook Fan Page about how many times Jayme says, “like Teresa said.” Worth 2 entries, unlimited.
One winner will be randomly selected and announced on Friday, November 19. Stay tuned and good luck!
More on Edible Landscaping
- Read Teresa O’Connor’s book review on her Seasonal Wisdom blog.
- Read Jayme Jenkins’s book review on the aHa! Home & Garden blog.
- Buy Edible Landscaping from Sierra Club Books online.
What’s Coming Next? The holidays will be here before we know it. That’s why we are already planning podcasts to help you enjoy the holidays in style. Stay tuned for more details.
behind-the-scenes: interview with Rosalind Creasy at the Garden Writers Association conference in Dallas.
I have seen more and more folks in my neighborhood plotting fruits & veggies plants in their front yard. Years back I saw someone whose entire front yard as well as the curb-side areas were chock full of edibles.
These gardens are more beautiful to me than lawns.
I hadn’t heard some cities may ban these endeavors. How stupid can a city get?
Well put Kathy. Edible Landscapes, if designed well and taken care of regularly, are beautiful indeed. I’ve seen some ugly front yard gardens, but can’t say the trucks parked on front yard lawns are much better. I can see a home owners association pushing strict rules on the front yard, but city-wide ordinances? Give me a break.
My favorite podcast so far- Nice work ladies!
The greatest joy I have experienced from our edible is seeing my kids enjoy the fruits of our labor – then cooking together with the food as a family. They especially love the root crops and say it is like finding buried treasure!
Favorite combos – this is hard questions because it changes all the time with rotations and companion plantings. Its all about texture in edibles for me- I like to line my walkways with grass like textures from onions, garlic or chives then have big bold textures (squashes, cabbage, some kales rhubarb) near by.
Wait – seriously – cities wide bans?! Sometimes the front yard is the only place where there is any sun… unbelievable!
Thanks for the nice compliment Jessi! We were super excited to interview Rosalind in Dallas. What a classy lady!
I am so like your kids! I love harvesting potatoes and carrots. It reminds me of how excited I would get searching for Easter eggs as a kid. And for the combos…two green thumbs up! I love texture and I love grasses. That’s why herbs are some of my favorite border and walkway plants.
Here is my favorite way to use edibles in a combo pot! Gourmet Lettuce and Violas.
http://personalgardencoach.wordpress.com/2010/05/25/container-style/
The pic is about half way down in the post!
I love to use violas with my lettuces too Christina! More specifically, I love to combine herbs, lettuces, arugula, spinach and violas together.
So glad to hear Rosalind on your podcast! I was a young person (in my 20′s)at the time Rosalind’s first Edible Landscape book came out. I was Living in the Bay Area and attended her presentation on the new concept of front yard edibles. I had not long before graduated from a community college Horticulture program. I would honestly say that she influenced the way I have gardened the rest of my adult life. Figs, Pomegranate, citrus – always part of my perennial beds. Beautiful things and so useful at the same time. There is nothing like eating a warm sweet juicy fig right off the tree. She started a revolution in my gardening world! I will surely be looking forward to seeing the new edition of a book that has been a treasured gardening companion to me for many, many years.
No, cities should not be allowed to ban front yard gardening, they should encourage it!
Absolutely Victoria! Many cities are catching up to the benefits of growing front yard edible gardens, but there are still some cities that are behind. We posted a couple of articles on our Nest In Style Facebook page about cities who have recently relaxed the ban on front yard gardens.
Isn’t Rosalind an amazing woman? Although edible gardening is relatively new to me, I can’t imagine my yard without them. Sure ornamentals are beautiful, but to create beauty with edibles is challenging AND rewarding. What kind of figs do you grow Diana? I’m wishing I would have bought the Black Mission Figs I hear Rosalind speak so fondly of. I’m dying to make a grilled pancetta and fig arugula salad with tarragon vinaigrette. So I need to get my figs producing fruit and plant tarragon next season. I can’t wait!
Jayme, It takes a couple years to get the figs up to the producing sage, but definitely worth the wait! I no longer live in the bay area. I am now in Oregon’s Willamette Valley near Dallas. Black Mission is no longer on my menu here. Just not quite hardy this far north and it takes a long season to ripen.
I have my best luck with Atreano (sweet strawberry colored flesh) and Peter’s Honey (Amber colored flesh). I tried Spanish Black & Stella here but last December’s arctic blast was unkind to us gardeners and it froze those two back to the ground. They actually re-sprouted, but are set back and depending on the weather in the coming winters, they will either recover, or continue to be set back, in which case I would hesitate to recommend them in this climate. Brown Turkey is another reliable one, but if you get it, get the Vern’s Brown Turkey, which is said to be superior, and is by the way named after The Oregonian’s “Hungry Gardener”, Vern Nelson.
I found this to be a very engaging podcast featuring Rosiland Creasy.
Many times over the last two decades I have had clients mention her garden as a point of reference to use in how they would like their own garden to be sculptured after.
It always gives me great joy to be able to craft the hardworking architectural bones of a long lasting potager garden knowing that the homeowner will step in after I am long gone and continue to plant, nurture and harvest the seasonal fruits of their labor from their own garden.
Create an enduring garden and they will come – year after year – harvest after harvest.
I’m in Eugene Diana! Thanks for the suggestions about which figs grow well in the Willamette Valley. Unfortunately, I have two figs in containers and have no idea what varieties they are. One of them has a beautiful leaf, strawberry colored flesh, but tasteless. One of our local markets still has black mission figs, so I’ll still make the pancetta wrapped arugula salad. I posted the recipe on our Nest In style Facebook Page if you’re interested.
Awesome Michelle, we love words like “engaging.” Have you seen an increased interest in edible landscapes in the last couple of years?
Jayme, Speaking of Arugula…
The last time I was at one of Rosalind’s lectures she recommended a perennial Arugula called “Rustic”. I quickly googled that and sent away for some seeds. Sure enough, it has wintered over for me here in the mid-Willamette Valley. I just potted some up in my greenhouse and now I will have it all winter in there with my leaf lettuce salad garden. I love that nutty flavor, so happy now to have it year around.
In the past, I’ve tried Purple Basil and tiny yellow pear tomatoes. For 2011, I’m thinking Fish Peppers for their lovely varigated foliage.
I will have to check out that variety Diana. I made the prosciutto wrapped fig arugula salad last night and I didn’t like the variety I planted earlier this fall (of course I can’t remember the variety). It was not very tender and almost seemed woody. Earlier in the year, I planted the Roquette variety (sold them on my website) and it was pretty tasty. However, I planted way too much and many of the plants bolted before I could eat it all.
I love purple basil for accent color in garden beds, great choice Joyce. I’ve never heard of Fish Peppers. I’m going to Google it right now!
Thank you for the inspiring and practical information! Our front and side yard have been productive and beautiful this year. Also began raised beds behind the house on the alley.
Gardening should be beautiful and useful.
Thank you for this great and inspiring book!
Deanna Ramage
This is a great podcast! Some of my favorite edible combos I have in my yard would be strawberries, chives and borage bed. Also the sweet alyssum and asparagus border is beautiful and smells great!
The Empress. The Goddess. I kneel at her feet.
Edible landscaping is not a possible way to garden now, it’s a necessity. What a gift to have creative guidance on how to do it right. Decreases the frustration for new gardeners and keeps them in the process. Thanks for this podcast!
Thanks for hosting The Queen. It’s a thrill to hear her talk with you.
Rosalind and I went to Foothill Jounior college together back in the day. She was a great landscape designer back then with a emphasis on edibles. When her first book came out I got a signed copy and only wish the best for Rosalind. When I went to Cal Poly for further studies, she helped me with weekend jobs so that I wouldn’t be a starving student. A very good friend.
James C. Woodhead (Woody)
My favorite edibles in the landscape – rosemary, dandelions and honeysuckle blossums…cheers!
Okra, for the flower (although I like to eat them to). In my opinion if you grew this only as an ornamental and someone didn’t know what okra looked like (imagine my family from upstate NY, etc) they would also love it just for the beauty of the flower.