Foodscape Tour August 2020

GROW YOUR OWN Foodscape and organic garden in your frontyard.
foodscapingutah.org
In this video we take an early August tour of our frontyard foodscape. Our approach to foodscape design puts the food bearing crops front and center. They are the features. Featured in this video are beautiful squash and pumpkin covered cattle panel arbors, espalier fruit trees and an amazing grape arbor that is loaded with grapes. Amaranth is an ancient grain and another great edible ornamental. For vegetables, we show small carrots for fall cropping, beans, squash, pumpkin, cucumber, tomato, pepper , lettuce, spinach, and bush beans. Lot's of flowers are also mixed in: zinnias, marigolds, and borage.
More on planning your vegetable garden: foodscapingutah.org/2020/01/3...
How we foodscaped phase 2: foodscapingutah.org/2019/06/0...
To see how we build our Belgian fence espalier apples: foodscapingutah.org/2018/06/1...

[@wolfboychiwiener8849]

Chiwiener and I moved onto the street that this family lives on a little over a year ago. We've watched them "live" the life that they portray on their channel. It's refreshing to see in a time where there is so much video chicanery. We've learned a ton from just casual observation of them, let alone the very valuable information that they freely give here. I know that Chiwiener watches them all the time, but then she's a brainiac. I'm more of the in furson learning kind but Dad won't let me go over there, to have a snifari and mark some territory. Great Work and Keep Growing from Wolfboy and Chiwiener!

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Hi neighbors! Thanks so much for the comment and the support!

[@JohnnyAppleseedOrganic]

Your pear trees are so healthy looking! Gorgeous garden.

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Thank you!

[@isi7891]

Greetings from Germany, your garden is so beautiful!!!

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Thank you! und guten tag!

[@fionafairechild6272]

Looking great!

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Thanks!

[@airi777]

I love your garden

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Thank you!

[@wakjack7420]

So... Brilliant.

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Thank you!

[@CurtisBrandt]

Just came across your channel and it's excellent! Thanks for the consistently interesting and quality content. Grow food not lawns!

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Thanks! Glad it's helpful!

[@melcarter6422]

Just starting my permaculture/food s song yard. I’m in my first year of planting. I too have a front patio in progress. People often slow down in front of my house. It’s been very rewarding to bring my dream to fruition. Thanks for sharing.

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Our pleasure. Hope it goes well! It's crazy how frontyard foodscaping starts sparks curiosity and starts conversations with neighbors.

[@davincimen4495]

Wow. I’m a fan of the red grapes for sure. How fun.

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Yes! And they have more flavor when you grow them at home. We love them fresh, but also the raisins are surprisingly flavorful.

[@lenam2114]

That’s sooo cool! You’re such an inspiration to transform parts of my front yard into something useful!

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Thanks! So glad to inspire!

[@MrW3STON]

Wow, looks so great!!

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Thank you!

[@carriekamerath6182]

Your Bartlett pear looks AWESOME! Do you have a video of how you prune it?

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Thanks! We don't have a video showing pruning this particular tree but we do talk about pruning pears and apples a little bit towards the end of our class on summer pruning fruit trees: kzbin.info/www/bejne/b4XPaWSlfribeNU

[@brittneylamar9864]

This is goals!!!!! We just bought a house and we have so much yard. I wanted to do a combo of xeriscaping and foodscaping but thumb isn't green lol. I will search your channel for beginner tips because we a starting from zero. Your yard is beautiful!!!

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Great! Thanks. Hopefully you find some good tips here on our channel. You can also check out our website for blog post style tips and references to lots of other resources for getting started. Here's a link: foodscapingutah.org/category/getting-started/

[@Kay-xi9kv]

Thanks for your excellent videos! What zone are you in?

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Thank you! We are in USDA Zone 6b technically, but here in the mountain west we have hot dry summers, so I like to mention the sunset climate zones as well. Zone 3A for us in Ogden, UT.

[@charlotteralff769]

Your garden is great! Please discuss how you build your soil fertility organically and deal with alkaline clay soil. My borage and amaranth only got 12 inch tall. This is my first year gardening in this yard, which has been low growing weeds for 20 years.

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Thanks! We build our soil with compost and other organic matter added in the fall-mostly shredded brown leaves and coffee grounds (free from coffee shops) and juice pulp (free from a local juicery). We usually just add material to the surface and let rain, earth worms and other soil organisms incorporate it over time. In your case with tough alkaline clay soil, one option would be mixing your soil 50/50 with compost in raised beds and be off and running. Check out this page and the next about the magic of compost on our website: foodscapingutah.org/2018/01/15/getting-started-3-keys-to-success/

[@ajhayes7704]

Great video and garden. What zone are you in?

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Zone 6b, although we have been trending warmer. It's an intermountain climate though, with hot and very dry and sunny summers (90s with real low humidity, 0 clouds most of the summer).

[@athome7605]

Looks like you haven't been active on youtube in a while, but on the off change you see this comment, can you please tell me how wide of a space you need for a grape trellis? I am really struggling with knowing where to put grapes in my foodscape. Thanks for being such an inspiration! Your foodscape is beautiful.

[@RealMrQ]

Hi John, Looking awesome. Thanks for the tour. I really like the grape arbor, but don’t have space for one. I watched your other videos that you built single T and double T trellis system. I am debating between the single T and double T system for my Red Reliance and concord. In your experience, Between the two which one is your preferred trellis system?

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Thanks! One thing to consider on whether you want two wires or one is whether or not you will spur or cane prune the vines. Red Reliance is usually spur pruned, so I'd use a single top wire and prune back to spurs every year (you could have another wire lower just to keep it more tidy). We don't have concord, but I think it is usually cane pruned? (you could confirm on google), for which I would use two wires, so that you can select four canes when pruning, one for each wire, each direction from the vine in the middle.

[@zionSYable]

My mind is blown 😭thank you so much for sharing what you do. We are building a house on a small lot in the city of Akron, OH. I believe we are in the same zone or similar-6a. How big is your front yard??? I am inspired.

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Glad the video is inspiring! We have about 1750 square feet of front yard space. 38x28 on one side of our driveway and 35x25 on the other. Foodscaping is the best thing you can do with the space you have. Hope it goes well!

[@zionSYable]

@@foodscapingutah5239 Wow, it looked so much bigger than that! I guess it comes from maximizing the space. Thank you so much for your reply. I was concerned that we wouldn't have enough space.

[@ke3347]

When do you harvest the amaranth? Do you cut the whole tassel off and shake it in a bag? I’ve got love lies bleeding as well and it is my favorite thing this year

[@foodscapingutah5239]

It's easiest after the plant starts to dry out and die, but a little tricky to time it before seed starts falling off on its own. Yes, we cut the whole long tassel off, shake or sort of rub it off, but then also we winnow it to separate the grain from the chaff. It's pretty easy with a fan.

[@tamkud5989]

I'm interested in the materials you used to build the Espalier trellis with the galvanized poles. You didn't show that in this video but I've seen it in others. What type of wire did you use? What items did you use to hold the wire? Do you prefer the wood supports over the galvanized poles? I will be building mine in the backyard so aesthetics aren't a top priority for me. Thank you for your great videos and your wealth of knowledge!

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Yes, the trellis in the back is made from 10 foot galvanized steel posts and then we attached the wires to the posts using chainlink fence type materials: tension bands and bolts, etc. Then we put a turnbuckle on to the bolt on one side and then just wrapped the wire around the on the other side. I believe the wire is 12 gauge, if I remember correctly.

[@foodscapingutah5239]

We like both the wood and the posts. I would say the wood was little easier maybe but if you have easy access to chainlink fence supplies, the steel could be fairly easy too.

[@shannonmccallum8221]

Is sidewalk or driveway salt in the winter a concern for the health of the plants and soil that border those areas? How do you handle that?

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Good question! We don't typically use salt for our driveway or sidewalk unless it really needs it. That said, we did leave 12" border with pea gravel between our raised beds and our driveway and the side walk as well. A lot of salt would definitely be a problem. A little probably wouldn't be a big deal.

[@tomiciarussell]

Hey there! I've been slowly foodscaping my front yard as well! I currently have 2 4x12 boxes with a 4-foot walkway in between them and I'm thinking about putting an arbor up between them for trellising plants, like you've done. My concern is that I won't be able to reach the inner 2 feet of each of the boxes with the arbor in the way. How do you handle that? Do you just reach through the arbor material to get to lower fruits on those plants? Same goes for accessing that area to plant in. Thanks!

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Awesome that you are foodscaping your front yard! As for the cattle panel arbor in these beds, they are actually set back into the bed about a foot. It wasn't too bad either reaching through the large spaces in the cattle panel or reaching from the end. In your case it would be harder to set the arbor back into the beds depending on what you used for the arbor and how large it is.

[@calvinblack2976]

I remember peanut plants from a video last year. How did that turn out?

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Pretty well! They were so fun to harvest and fun to eat. Overall, they don't produce a lot of food for the space they take up, but definitely worth trying if you have a similar or warmer climate. Here's a link to our Facebook post after the harvest if you want to check it out: facebook.com/foodscapingutah/posts/441965469781395

[@Invictum594]

Any pest issues with the grapes?

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Not much. They’ve had a few leafminers, but not enough to affect health. Others in Utah may have had grape leafhopper, but we haven’t. We do get some paper wasps that like to drink the grape juice if the ripe grapes are pecked by birds. We just avoid them and harvest in the early morning or evening. If that gets bad, bird netting would be the way to go. We used netting one year.