20 March 2020- THE FIRST DAY OF SPRING
We are one week into our lives changing forever. Covid-19 will certainly never be forgotten by anyone who is alive in 2020. At this moment, it still feels surreal, and making a blog post feels silly and pointless. So instead of waxing poetic, which I am not good at, I will simply share photos from my home foodscape tonight.
I don’t have the answers on how to deal with life, at all. What I can offer is practical advice for growing A LOT OF FOOD in a totally normal landscape space. I started growing food for myself in 2006 when I bought a house with a subprime mortgage and literally could not afford to grocery shop. I was able to use my horticultural knowledge to design and manage a landscape that was beautiful and HOA approved, while also providing meaningful amounts of food.
Now, more than ten years later, I share this advice with audiences across the US through my two books, The Foodscape Revolution and Gardening with Grains. I hope you can find my experiences helpful for you and wish you all the best in your garden.
Life is short, and we are all scared of the uncertainty of the future. I am here to help you grow and find peace and inspiration from the land that you steward. We are in this together and I wish you boundless success for homegrown harvests.
#StaySafe #StayHealthy #STAYHOME #GrowFood
Sincerely, Brie @Brietheplantlady
A FEW GROUND RULES:
1) I think people can be bullies online, and I have a ZERO TOLERANCE POLICY. If you are an asshole you will be deleted.
2) I garden in USDA Zone 7B central (Raleigh) NC. I will be showing REAL TIME images from my HOME foodscape. Take inspiration and and figure out how to apply what I do where you live! THAT IS YOUR JOB!
3) I DO NOT BELIEVE LUMBER IS NEEDED FOR GROWING VEGGIES. Prepare yourselves, I will not be giving you advice on how to fail with raised beds. Stop wasting your budget on wood are start focusing on quality compost and plants.
4) We ALL have deer- and rabbits, groundhogs, squirrels, armadillo etc. STOP USING THAT AS AN EXCUSE. Get over it. We all have to deal with mammal browse. I will be offering Webinars on creative solutions. YES IT IS WORTH THE INVESTMENT TO LEARN!
5) Check Briegrows.com for online classes, virtual foodscape consultations and more in the coming weeks. Also, follow my YouTube channel for FREE tutorials.
Hi, I am Brie the Plant Lady and I am freaking out like everyone else about Covid-19.
Here I am standing in front of my front yard wheat wave that I sowed last December when everything seemed normal and growing wheat in a suburban landscape still sounded like something an insane person would do. Now, it doesn’t seem so crazy. Learn all about grains from my new book Gardening with Grains and watch my MANY YouTube videos on this subject.
This is what I call “Future Beer” aka Foundation Landscape Barley. Sown in late November the mild temperatures of the NC winter have allowed this to grow lush and green compared to past winters where temps were at least 20 degrees cooler. The long term goal here is to see HOW MUCH BEER we can get from this landscape bed? Any guesses? WATCH THE PLANTING PROCESS HERE
Another Grain experiment I am working on is HOW MUCH BREAD CAN YOU GROW IN 5 3gl Root Maker Grow Bags? The results will be tallied later this spring… stay tuned!
Grains are an ideal cool season grass texture for containers. Here, Barley has been growing since September looking dynamic with a mix of Carex and Tulips. This Barley will produce flowers and turn amber in the coming weeks. LEARN HOW TO GROW GRAINS IN CONTAINERS
I don’t just grow grains… I am a big believe in seeding winter hardy GREENS to reduce weed pressure and provide fresh salads from October-May. Here is a mix of self sown Kale and Mustard. The Mustard helps deter browsing mammals as its spicy foliage is not favored by deer, rabbits and groundhogs.
Winter cover crops, like Daikon Radish, are super important in my approach to growing and improving my native soil. I direct seed these in fall in areas to help suppress Root Knot Nematodes. This way I can cultivate susceptible plants, like heirloom tomatoes in this space through the summer. When you mow the daikon radish foliage back in place it will suppress RKN activity as it breaks down!
Of course ornamental plants are super important to me as a gardener and a horticulturist. That is the entire point of my book The Foodscape Revolution. I want everyone to understand how you can seamlessly weave edibles into the ornamental landscape. You can sow lettuce, kale, arugula and chard as a ground cover around winter blooming Camellias, like this variety ‘Nuccio’s Cameo’.
Speaking of Arugula…Did you catch my first “Foodscaping Tips” video? Here it is and explains WHY I LOVE THIS PLANT SO MUCH!
More than anything I hope to put a little joy and peace back into the world. Gardening is awesome and I hope the one thing that comes from this health crisis is recognizing how we can all be called back to the land and find purpose and goodness. One breathe of this fragrant lilac Syringa ‘Excel’ helps calms my anxiety- at least momentarily. May you find your place and steward it to the best of your abilities.