Fact Sheet: Edible Landscaping

If you’ve got a small inner city garden and want to make some productive changes and transform your garden into an edible landscape, it’s not that hard and the results are delicious.• BlueberriesIn Fremantle the coastal soil is alkaline and not the soil of choice for blueberries. But these blueberries will grow in hanging baskets filled with a potting mix. Blueberries are related to azaleas and need similar growing conditions – ideally an acid soil with a ph of between 4 and 5. A good tip is to line the hanging basket with fine coir fibre that’s been soaked with a seaweed solution. (It makes a great natural alternative to wetting gels.) Fill the basket with azalea potting mix, and plant. Because it’s Fremantle and a Mediterranean climate, which is a bit warm for most blueberry varieties, I’ve chosen a low chill type called ‘Nellie Kelly Blue’. Blueberries come from North America. • PepinosThe pepinos, as the name suggests, are Latino, or South American and related to the tomato. My garden is irrigated with grey water and the pepino is a sprawling ground dwelling plant so in this case I’m going to plant it in a pot so the fruit, for health reasons, is not in direct contact with grey water. Having the plant above ground and the fruit off the ground will also reduce the chance of slaters, slugs and snails damaging the thin-skinned fruit. Pepinos like fertile soil, so reinvigorate any old potting mix by adding 10 per cent compost, plus a dressing of pelletised chook manure – for fertiliser – and some rock dust for trace elements. Finally add some lupin mulch to keep the roots cool and moist. Once planted just water in the pepino. It tastes like a combination of ripe tomato and rockmelon.• Cape gooseberries These are also South American and like the pepinos are a quick growing and a fast to produce herbaceous shrub. They are popular in South Africa, hence the name, Cape gooseberry. Soil preparation is important. Just enrich the soil with compost, pelletised manure, rock minerals and pea straw mulch. Plant it straight into a garden bed. It’s an upright growing plant so the berries can be picked off the bush, so there’s no contact with grey water. Give them a deep watering and then within five or six months there will be gooseberries for fruit salads and jams. • The Peruvian ground appleThis plant oddly enough calls Ecuador and Columbia its home. In ideal conditions the plants reaches 2 metres high. It’s best to harvest, after flowering, when the plant has completely died down. But you can dig around the base and pull out small tubers at any time. There are two types of tubers – large round ones that look like a potato – which are the best to eat. The other type is the Yukon – the longer dark skinny ones - which are the propagules or what you plant. They do best in cultivated soil, planted at least 50 centimetres apart, with regular watering. But because they are a root crop, don’t use grey water. We’ve planted them in a raised vegie bed, so they get a combination of rain water and mains water, via a drip irrigation system. As an added bonus, the leaves are high in protein and make great chook fodder. The Peruvian ground apple tastes like a cross between sugar cane, apple and water chestnut.These plants - productive shrubs, fruit trees, vines and even edible aquatic plants - have all earnt a place in this edible landscape.