edible, or productive landscapes

What is an “edible landscape” - why and how should we use them? As a concept, this has been little explored in the UK, with the exception of some permaculture and agroforestry practitioners, yet in a sense, it is a logical extension of the traditional cottage garden - a landscape that is beautiful yet which produces food. As a growing method, it has a potential for far greater use and I believe we have the need for a wide ranging practice and culture of edible landscaping. At the very least, harvesting unusual fruit and nuts from your garden or place of work is rewarding and fun!

An edible landscape can be described in simple terms as one where many or all of the plants chosen have an edible product - usually fruit or nuts, but can also be flowers, leaves, bark or sap. Some of this is just good, old fashioned gardening, but it goes beyond that too. The other difference is that much of the edible produce comes from perennials, shrubs and trees, rather than traditional vegetables. For example, public parks could be planted with many nut bearing trees which look beautiful but also give high yields, which people could harvest. What better way to regenerate usage of urban space, than to have freely available edible nuts and berries? Corporate landscapes could provide exciting, nutritious food straight from the place of work, served fresh in the canteen or picked by staff to add to their lunchbox.

The beauty of this approach to food production is that it can be agricultural, park-like or a personal garden but they all have similar properties: low input - high yield, with multiple crops produced at different times of year, good for the environment (no tillage involved, so no soil loss), diverse, increased biomass (the lungs of the world) urban temperature and air quality control, rainwater retention, etc. etc. You can kick a ball around under such trees, plant crops, run sheep or pigs, grow understory plants and soft fruit. All the while, you are creating beautiful, protected, productive space which has good ambiance and good ecology. What reason more could one want?

All environmental problems are global in nature and the fact that supermarket produce travels an average of 1200 miles, tells you most food comes from abroad. Global agricultural output is falling at alarming rates (China's grain yield has recently dropped by 30m tonnes - more than Canada's entire output), while the world's population continues to grow exponentially. Biofuels are beginning to add to the problem, as they compete for the same crops as we eat and will be afforded by richer countries over poor. As agricultural systems become overwhelmed and fuel costs spiral, food scarcity will become more frequent. Whilst in the developed countries we may never actually go hungry, food diversity will certainly diminish and home produced food will become both desirable and essential.

There is tremendous scope for edible, productive landscapes in both rural and, especially, in urban areas and huge focus will be given to this area in the coming years, as a central feature of sustainable living.