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Organic Edible Gardens, LLC is a sustainable garden design+build company servicing the Northern Virginia and DC Metro areas. We specialize in creating edible and ecologically-sustainable landscapes that sustain and regenerate local ecosystems while providing material and aesthetic benefits to people. Established in 2010, Organic Edible Gardens is a vibrant response to the lack of individuality, productivity and sustainability typical of Northern Virginia landscapes. We look forward to working with you to create your own personal Eden!

Rainwater Collection Using the Earth, Not Rain Barrels

Rainwater Collection Using the Earth, Not Rain Barrels

By Danylo Kosovych and Organic Edible Gardens LLC

When it comes to rainwater collection the first thing people think about are rain barrels but you don’t need a barrel to collect rain water. Rain barrels are useful if you want to store water and use it for irrigation but for storm water management they are dwarfed by amount of rainfall that falls in the average storm. Once inch of rain falling over a 1000 square foot roof produces 600 gallons of water. A 50 gallon rain barrel only catches 1/12 of the water. A 600 gallon water tank is not only large and obtrusive but also expensive.

Not to worry, rainwater collection can be achieved in multiple ways without using a container at all. Below are examples of multiple ways we have collected rainwater using the earth as the container.

You can catch rain water in a swale:

IMG_2511Roxbury Apr 30 #4 east to west

 

A swale is a depression in the earth, dug on contour and linear in shape, therefore adept at catching runoff. This client had runoff problems from their neighbor. We created a swale along the property line to catch and infiltrate the runoff before it entered their property. The Elderberries and Aronia benefit from the additional water.

You can catch rain water in a rain garden:

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A rain garden is a bowl shaped depression that works well to catch stormwater from a downspout. We later planted this one with Aronia, Low- Bush Blueberries and native perennial flowers. The soil in the center is deeply tilled and the water infiltrates rapidly, while the plants benefit from the additional water.

Or you can use perforated pipe to leach rain water into the soil:

IMG_2892IMG_2920

 

This is a vegetable garden which we created on contour and directed the roof runoff into a perforated pipe and buried the pipe in gravel. All of the water from the roof infiltrates into the soil and waters the vegetable beds.

IMG_2542Columnar Apples

 

Here we used the same principal with the infiltration pipe but planted columnar apple trees on top of the pipe. Now the water from the roof irrigates the apple trees.

Ecologically Friendly House and Landscape

Ecologically Friendly House and Landscape

Copyright Organic Edible Gardens LLC 2015

 

Organic Edible Gardens LLC just designed the landscape of this recently constructed energy efficient home. The house was designed and built by Enviro Home Design complete with large planters to catch most of the rainwater coming off of the roof.

For the landscape we designed a two tiered retaining wall planted with native Sedum and grasses to correct the steep slope on the north east corner of the property. The sunny front yard allowed for an Asian Persimmon tree paired with native red twig dogwood, a  Purple Leafed Plum paired with a gold leafed variety of Ninebark. In front are Half-High Blueberries and New Jersey Tea to the sides. Liatris spicata, white Echinacea, Baptisia australis and Comfrey are a few of the perennials.

In the shady back yard we chose Redbud and Serviceberry (Amelanchier laevis) as the understory trees paired with Arrowwood Viburnum and Catawba Rhododendron shrubs. Beneath the shade of the understory trees we chose a dark and mysterious Snakeroot cultivar with purple foliage paired by a light and airy yellow leafed spreading St. John’s wort.

For the part shade and part sun side yards we chose Honeyberries (Lonicera caerulea), Crandal American Black Currants, and Virginia Sweetspire.

Edible Landscape in Sun and Shade

Copyright 2014 Organic Edible Gardens LLC

Edible Landscape in Sun and Shade

An edible and medicinal understory and pond designed for a shady back yard full of mature hardwoods. A small sunny patch in the front gave way to edible ground covers, perennials, berries and fruit trees. The front downspouts are piped into two rain gardens, one in the shade the other in the sun. The rain garden in the shade is full of moisture loving woodland medicinals, while the rain garden in the sun contains native insect attracting perennial flowers. Species include: Pawpaw, Fig, Peach, Aronia, Spicebush, Clove Currant, Elderberry, Blueberry, Yarrow, Anise Hyssop, Wild Ginger, Asparagus, Black Cohosh, Strawberry, Goldenseal, Ostrich Fern, American Lotus, May Apple, Giant Solomon’s Seal among multiple other soil building, insectary, and native plants.

Dog Friendly Landscape Design

 

Dog Friendly Landscape Design

©2014 Organic Edible Gardens LLC

The homeowners have two large dogs in a small back yard in Arlington.  We designed the landscape to allow the dogs to run the perimeter and guard their territory. Plantings are in slightly raised beds surrounded by stone. Species include Apple, Serviceberry, Swiss Stone Pine, culinary herbs, Prickly Pear Cactus and various soil building and insectary plants.

Fall Gardening and Organic Lawn Care

Fall Gardening and Organic Lawn Care

©2014 Organic Edible Gardens LLC

 

Fall, in general, is the best time of the year for planting. With temperatures slowly cooling down and an increase in precipitation, newly installed plants have a good opportunity to establish themselves. Fall is the best time of year to plant cold hardy perennials, trees and shrubs. They will set their roots over the winter and come back strong in the spring. When it comes to the month of September specifically, this is a good time for planting cool weather vegetables like lettuces, arugula, spinach, beets and carrots. It is also the best time of year to perform a lawn renovation.

 

Here at Organic Edible Gardens we perform this lawn renovation organically. First we control weeds without the use of chemical herbicides. An organically fertile soil requires organic matter; it is the food that the microbes eat in order to produce nutrients for the plants. Most lawn soils, especially chemically treated ones have low percentages of organic matter. In order to improve this, we apply a top-dressing of well matured compost. We follow this with an aeration in order to improve soil porosity, work the compost into the soil and to provide a good seed bed for the grass seed. Seed selection is important as certain varieties are best adapted to our climate. Finally we apply organic fertilizers whose composition and quantity is determined by a soil test. A short time later, after a little help from Mother Nature in the form of rain, you can have a more drought tolerant, lush green lawn for your children to play in without the health risks of synthetic pesticides or contamination of the watershed.

 

 

Master Gardener Presentation

We had a great  time last night giving a presentation on organic landscaping practices and permaculture to the Arlington Master Gardeners!  The Q&A session afterwards was one of the best we’ve had!  Thanks so much to the Arlington branch of the Virginia Cooperative Extension and the Master Gardener program for inviting us to speak!

Ecology vs. Native Plant Bias

Ecology vs. Native Plant Bias
©2014 Jonathan Storvick and Organic Edible Gardens LLC

 Author’s note:  This article is likely to really upset some people, as it challenges assumptions that many take for granted.  Our purpose in sharing this information is to add some different perspectives to the debate and perhaps open up new avenues of thinking about our fragile ecosystems as a whole.

There may be no more hotly contested topic in the plant world than that of “invasive” plants vs. “native” plants.  The idea that we should only plant species that are native to an area has become one of the most popular ideas in the horticulture world.  Books such as Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants, by Doug Tallamy (a great book with some really great ideas, by the way), have spread the idea that “non-native” plants are damaging to ecosystems, reduce biodiversity, and destroy wildlife habitat.

Some individuals have latched onto these ideas with an almost fanatical enthusiasm, viewing the eradication of  invasive plants as a near-religious crusade.  Some go even further, saying that not only native species should be planted exclusively, but these native species should be of a local genotype – a genetic lineage based in the immediate area and nowhere else.  According to this ideology, a specimen of False Blue Indigo (Baptisia australis) that grew from seed collected locally is fine, but a specimen grown from seed collected 50 miles away is not, and should be viewed as “invasive.”  This is eerily reminiscent of other ideologies throughout history that have insisted on the eradication of certain species or “races.”  It is not my intention to invoke Godwin’s Law here, but there does indeed exist a link between “invasive” plant eradication and Nazism.  David Theodoropoulos has critiqued invasion biology for some time, and gives some interesting information on that connection in this video.  This is understandably controversial, and I present it here simply as information to be judged on its own merits.

So what is really the deal with “invasive” and “native” plants?  Entire books have been written on this subject, and a full discussion is beyond the scope of a simple blog post.  In my opinion, we need to really think about what we mean by the words “native” and “invasive.”  As a lifelong student of ecology, the definitions as used by native plant fundamentalists seem arbitrary to me.  A long-term, ecological view shows that plant populations migrate of their own accord and change drastically over time.  Permaculturist Toby Hemenway has an excellent article explaining this, as well as the idea that non-native plant “invasions” occur as a result of human disturbance of landscapes, rather than as some kind of evil plan on the parts of the plants themselves.

A couple of years ago, I picked up a very interesting book titled Wild Urban Plants of the Northeast: A Field Guide, by a gentleman named Peter Del Tredici.  Dr. Del Tredici is a senior lecturer at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and teaches plant ecology in the Landscape Architecture program there.  He is also a senior research scientist (and former Director of Living Collections) at Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum.  What immediately interested me about this book was how it presented certain plants – specifically, plants commonly considered as invasive weeds – in terms of their ecological functions and strategies.  When ecosystems are severely disturbed – especially in urban areas, where human-caused disturbance has radically altered the landscape – Nature has a way of coming in and trying to “fix” the problem.  Many of these weeds have ecological functions that, over time, heal degraded landscapes.  One of the most popular sayings in science history has been “Nature abhors a vacuum.”  We could also say that Nature abhors bare soil.  Many of the plants in this book are referred to as “disturbance-adapted colonizers of bare ground” – essentially, they grow where most of our native plants cannot – in poisoned, compacted soils, etc.

Originally my point was to post a link to a single article – The Flora of the Future: Celebrating the Botanical Diversity of Cities by Dr. Del Tredici does much more to illustrate the concept of the positive ecological functions of “invasive” plants in disturbed landscapes than I can elucidate in a short blog article.  I would strongly encourage you to read the piece and consider its implications.  I think a more holistic view of the subject would lead to more efficient strategies for healing our landscapes.

Here at Organic Edible Gardens, we wholeheartedly support the use of native plants.  In our designs, we almost always utilize native plants unless there is a compelling reason to do otherwise – and typically the non-natives we use are edible or functional in other ways.  We never use plants that are known to be aggressive or known to escape cultivation and compete with natives.  That being said, we think a rational discourse is necessary and we look for any and all effective means to regenerate landscapes and create a happier, healthier planet.  We welcome comments from all viewpoints and look forward to continuing this discussion.

 

Join Organic Edible Gardens at the Green Living Expo

Join Organic Edible Gardens at the Green Living Expo!!!

Danylo Kosovych and Jon Storvick of Organic Edible Gardens will be hosting a booth at the Arlington Green Living Expo and Earth Week Community Fair.  We will also be giving a presentation on organic lawn care and edible landscaping!!!

Join us Saturday, April 26 from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm at the George Mason Arlington Campus, Founders Hall, 3351 Fairfax Dr., Arlington, VA.

For more information, please visit http://www.arlingtonenvironment.org/expo

We hope to see you there!

Join Organic Edible Gardens at the Green Living Expo

Mulch: Materials and Strategies

Mulch: Materials and Strategies
By Danylo Kosovych, Owner
Organic Edible Gardens LLC

There are many benefits to mulch, including improved soil moisture retention, weed suppression, increase in organic matter and aesthetic quality, but like most things, a sound approach goes a long way,  if applied too thickly, it can create problems like root collar disorders in trees, anaerobic soil conditions and killing of tender perennials. There are multiple material options to consider as well as the ideal time of year to apply mulch.

The best time of the year to apply mulch to your garden beds is the early spring before perennials emerge. It is best to wait until most of the snow has finished, if applied too early, the mulch will be flattened and weathered come spring time. Perennial garden plants will emerge through mulch if not applied to thickly. Attempting to mulch after perennials emerge requires significantly more care because recently sprouted perennials can be damaged if covered by mulch. Mulch applied in spring prevents annual weed seed germination in garden beds and can smother already emerged perennial weeds.

There are many mulch materials available, but the most widely available are shredded bark, leaves and wood. The best mulch resembles most what nature produces. Nature’s mulch is a combination of leaves, downed twigs and trees, therefore one could assume that leaf mulch from the county facility is the best option. While it does produce rich dark soil when used over a number of years, it contains a lot of weed seeds and can counteract the weed suppression benefit of mulch. Bark mulch is high in tannins which over time lowers the ph of our already acidic soil. There is never such a high concentration of bark around plants in nature; it is always accompanied with wood and leaves. No material is perfect, but out of the three, wood mulch is my mulch of choice because it keeps weeds down, looks attractive and has balanced nutrients.

If you would like to smother a section of weeds or lawn consider using a compostable material like cardboard. Weed fabric should be avoided in garden beds. It never breaks down! If not removed annually, perennial weeds begin to seed themselves on top of the fabric, growing roots throughout the fabric, making it more difficult to remove the weeds. It also stratifies soil, not allowing the organic matter of broken down mulch to mix with the lower layers of soil. As a result, roots remain at the surface. Over time, the fabric becomes clogged with organic matter, preventing water from infiltrating into lower layers of the soil. Cardboard, on the other hand can be left in place because it breaks down over time, improving the soil.

Mulch: Materials and Strategies

Ten year old weed fabric with a thick layer of weeds growing on top

Mulch: Materials and Strategies

Cardboard also smothers weeds but breaks down over time