If you ask Christina Chung, the future of growing is multi-layered, filling all available garden space with mostly edible perennial plants. The result is a garden bursting with biodiversity, increased soil health, and much less maintenance than what has become the standard.
Chung is a passionate gardener and educator (@fluent.garden) living in Vancouver, Canada. She is also the author of The Layered Edible Garden: A Beginner’s Guide to Creating a Productive Food Garden Layer by Layer. The book is about leaving the long, straight, boring rows of pest and disease-prone vegetables in the past and looking to the future: an interplanted polyculture where layers of edible plants out-compete weeds, share resources, and grow beautifully together while helping people become more self-sufficient.
Taking a ‘plant this, not that’ approach, Chung emphasizes the importance of replacing traditional landscape plants with edible perennials. For example, boxwoods serve a purpose in a formal landscape but not a layered edible garden.
Chung encourages gardeners to research various plants and experiment from season to season, growing what they love to eat and what makes sense in their regions. Keeping it simple is crucial; nothing in the layered edible garden has to be exotic. Her book includes several examples of plants under each of the eight categories.
~~ Catherine Sherriffs