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love that idea,” said DeSantis. “In fact, when we talk with commercial property owners, we might suggest edibles around areas where employees take their lunches or breaks. It gives people the opportunity to interact and engage with the landscape rather than standing back and just looking at it,” he said, adding that even homeowners are getting into the act. He said his company has designed and installed berry vines and blueberries on several residential landscapes, at the owners’ requests. Demand for edibles within landscapes is growing rapidly, said DeSantis. Landscape architects are warming to the idea of food gardens in urban landscapes, as well. When the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) surveyed its members, nearly one in five (19 percent) said they are replacing part or all of traditional grass lawns with food/vegetable gardens. “Not only do you benefit from fresh produce, but these gardens offer lower maintenance time and utility costs compared to turfgrass while substantially increasing the sustainability of a home,” said ASLA President Angela Dye, FASLA. “Plus, there’s nothing more convenient or sustainable than homegrown food.” While many vegetables are annuals and may require a lot more maintenance, some perennial plans are lower-maintenance and are quite attractive, depending on their placement in a landscape. Some great examples include new and colorful varieties of cabbage and asparagus (especially the purple passion variety), as well as blueberry bushes, blackberries, and rhubarb. Fresh and healthy produce Herbs can make for an especially sustainable food garden, as many prefer hot and dry areas of a property with chives, sage, or tarragon returning every year. Also, there are many varieties of mint and some, such as chocolate, marshmallow, and fruit salad, have flavors that match their names, which may be intriguing to your customers. Including edibles in landscapes many appeal to clients for a host of reasons, not the least of which is that they will provide fresh herbs, vegetables, or fruits at the peak of their ripeness and goodness. Beyond that, many com mer cially available edible vegetable plants are as colorful and attractive as tra ditional ornamentals. Also, newer varieties of fruit trees produce beautiful blossoms in spring and yield plentiful fruit in season. Dwarf varieties, of course, are easier to maintain and may be more appropriate for smaller properties. Don’t limit your choice of edible plants to the landscape itself, but consider add ing them to decorative planters or containers, which may be easier to maintain and can be moved for best performance and display within a property. 74 Green Industry ECOnomics
As a landscape professional, you have or can easily acquire the knowledge to provide clients with this new landscape service, realizing that these plants may require extra care in terms of pruning, pest controls, and disposing of excess fruit. The list of edibles that can be incorporated into a landscape is lengthy and includes plant materials for use as groundcover, vines, bushes, trees, and colorful ornamentals. The Internet offers many sites with great information about edible landscapes, but a good place to start is the Web site of the National Gardening Association (NGA) (garden.org) and reading up on the subject from expert Charlie Nardozzi, senior horticulturist and spokesperson for NGA. If you want to know what’s new concerning beautiful edible plants, check out his article “20 Top New Edibles,” in the January 2008 online issue of Edible Land scaping With Charlie Nardozzi. Chapter Summary: 1. Edible landscapes not only provide fresh produce, but also offer lower maintenance time and utility costs compared to turfgrass. In addition, many commercially available edible plants are as colorful and attractive as traditional ornamentals. 2. Landscapes featuring edible plants seem to be catching on because of several converging factors, including publicity focusing on sustainability, the public’s concern over food quality/safety, and the state of the economy. 3. Garden.org is a good place to start researching edible landscapes. Case studies 75
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Green Industry ECOnomics Innovating
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© 2009 by PLANET Professional Land
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Section 5: Sustainability and the i
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Heaviland is the owner/operator of
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Preface cat·a·lyst [kat-l-ist]
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Acknowledgments 2009 Crystal Ball C
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community, and the world. This sect
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Chapter 1: Sustainability Is a Tren
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usiness plans. You will, however, f
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• Practical: This 13 percent of t
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ment that it’s happening. The ear
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Chapter 4: The Emergence of Leaders
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“With the New Construction catego
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Chapter Summary: 1. LEED is a rapid
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Chapter 5: Life Cycle Assessments A
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Chapter 6: The 3 P’s of Sustainab
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Planet • Design and provide lands
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Chapter 7: Slow and Steady Does It
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Page 40 and 41: cially if these services cost them
Page 42 and 43: There’s no question that the publ
Page 44 and 45: Chapter 9: Time to Move Forward It
Page 46 and 47: Find those people in your company t
Page 48 and 49: added. “You make little changes i
Page 50 and 51: As part of the initiative, to reduc
Page 52 and 53: Chapter 11: Turfgrass Turfgrass is
Page 54 and 55: determined that it wouldn’t be
Page 56 and 57: Grewal. The key is using the correc
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Page 60 and 61: Doing all they can to conserve pota
Page 62 and 63: organizations, and agencies have jo
Page 64 and 65: • Mulch heavily all flower and so
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Page 72 and 73: Section 4: Case studies In the long
Page 74 and 75: Compost’s Many Pluses Research co
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Page 80 and 81: “Yes, there will always be people
Page 82 and 83: Chapter 16: Green Walls and Green R
Page 84 and 85: Why Green Roofs Ecological benefits
Page 86 and 87: Chapter Summary: 1. The green roof
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Page 92 and 93: tered by the recognition but he sai
Page 94 and 95: Leaner and greener Solar panels on
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Page 98 and 99: Chapter 21: Focusing on Fossil Fuel
Page 100 and 101: “We’ve cut idle time 41 percent
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Page 104 and 105: More research needed “More fundam
Page 106 and 107: Chapter 23: Audacious Stretch Goals
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Page 110 and 111: Making the public aware of the comp
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Page 114 and 115: standards a company embraces in its
Page 116 and 117: Crystal Ball History Early in 1970,
Page 118 and 119: Recommended Reading Edible landscap
Page 120 and 121: Osmundson, Theodore H. Roof Gardens
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