Edible Landscaping with Rosalind Creasy

[caption id="attachment_391" align="alignleft" width="900" caption="Pomegranates, lemons, and persimmons make up my fall harvest."][/caption]

Fall Lecture Schedule 2009

October 1^st, 2009

Lecture for the Florida Nursery, Growers, and Landscape Association Tradeshow in Orlando. I am the lunchtime speaker from 11:45 to 1:00PM. The topic of my presentation is “The Power of Edibles in Today’s Landscape Industry.”

October 25^th, 2009

Lecture for the Association of Professional Landscape Designers in Sacramento, CA. The title of my lecture is Edible Landscaping: The New American Garden.”

December 12^th, 2009

Lecture at Prusch Park in San Jose, CA for the California Rare Fruit Growers: “Edible Landscaping: The New American Garden.”

Tentative Spring Lecture Schedule 2010

My spring lecture season starts in January this year with presentations at the Los Angeles Botanical Garden and then a few weeks later—at the largest organic farming conference in the country—EcoFarm, in Asilomar, CA.

In February I will be speaking at Powell Gardens in Kansas City, MO and in March I have a speaking engagement planned at the San Francisco Landscape Show and a few days later at the University of Illinois Extension Service in Champagne.

More lectures are in the planning phase and I will update all pertinent information with specific times and titles as the season nears.

Hope to see you soon,

Rosalind Creasy

[caption id="attachment_380" align="alignleft" width="900" caption="Tomato Harvest. Celebrity, Early Girl, Enchantment, Green Zebra, and Sungold varieties."][/caption]

Summer is drawing to a close here in my edible landscape and I’ve been busy harvesting the last of the tomatoes. We all have an elegant sufficiency of tomatoes sometimes…so, what to do?

I suggest you throw a “garden pizza party”. You supply the pizza dough and veggies from your garden such as eggplant, zucchini, peppers, and tomatoes (of course!). Add in some fresh herbs like basil, cilantro, thyme, oregano, and rosemary and you’re ready. Set up your kitchen assembly line style and let your friends design their own pizzas. To get you started, here is one of my favorite tomato pizza recipes with a Mexican flair:

Mexican-Style Pizza with Cilantro

This unusual pizza marries the best Southwestern seasonings with Italian basics. It’s dynamite! You can use any homegrown great tomato for this recipe but paste (roma types), if you can get good ones, are quite meaty and make your pizza less soggy. If you want you can substitute pepper Jack cheese that is pre-seasoned with jalapenos and leave out the minced jalapenos.

Serves 4.

[caption id="attachment_381" align="alignright" width="900" caption="Mexican Pizza"][/caption]

• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 3 large cloves garlic, pressed, divided
• 1 uncooked 10″ pizza shell, your own or a commercial one
• 1/3 pound (1 1/4 cups grated) Monterey Jack cheese
• 1 to 6 teaspoons minced jalapeno peppers, to taste
• 3 to 4 ripe tomatoes, sliced
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 3 to 4 finely chopped tablespoons of fresh cilantro
• 1/3 teaspoon cumin seeds

Preheat the oven to 400°.

Heat a medium skillet, add olive oil. Add the onions and two cloves of pressed garlic and sauté them over low-to-medium heat until the onion is soft and translucent, about ten minutes.

Place the pizza shell on a baking sheet. Grate the cheese and distribute it evenly over the pizza shell, reserving about 1/2 cup of cheese for the top. Spread the onions and jalapeno peppers over the cheese. Slice the tomatoes and place on top of cheese and onions. Grind black pepper over the tomatoes. Mix the chopped cilantro with remaining clove of pressed garlic and distribute mixture over the pizza. Sprinkle cumin seeds and reserved 1/2 cup of cheese over the pizza.

Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling and the crust is light brown. Cut pizza into 8 slices and serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Last August, I gave Paul James, the host of the HGTV show Gardening by the Yard, a tour of my garden and showed him how you can have a beautiful as well as edible landscape. The show (Episode 1906) will be airing on August 23rd at 7:30AM (PST/EST) on HGTV. Mark your calendar and set your DVR so you don’t miss it!

Prior to coming to my garden, the producer wanted to make sure I had enough edibles growing. So, I did a quick tally and here’s what I had (watch for them as Paul and I tour the garden):

* 8 different types of fruit
* 20 kindsof vegetables, including 15 varieties of peppers.. and
* 28 different herbs and seasonings

Gardening by the Yard website

The picture below gives a little preview of what my front garden looked like. You can see the cherry tomatoes just ripening on the arbor over the front steps and my containers of figs, kumquats, and lemons-a welcoming edible landscape!

[caption id="attachment_366" align="alignleft" width="900" caption="My front garden last August "][/caption]

The last weekend in June I was at The New York Botanical Garden’s opening of The Edible Garden, their summer long exhibition. Saturday morning I gave a lecture on heirloom vegetables and antique flowers and how to incorporate them into your edible landscape. Then, I was in the Seed Savers Garden for the rest of the day, answering questions and teaching people how to save their own seeds. The New York Botanical Garden will offer many more events featuring edible plants throughout the summer, such as their Edible Evenings: A Celebration of Wine, Beer, and Food featuring well-known chefs, demonstrations, and food and wine samplings. You also may want to check the progress of my Seed Savers Garden and attend some of the other edible landscaping presentations like the Home Gardening Center Demonstrations on Saturdays and Sundays. If you are particularly interested in seed saving make sure you visit the Seed Savers’ website and if you want to get started right away, the gift shop at The New York Botanical Garden has a large selection of Seed Saver seeds.

The following photos show the initial planting of the garden I designed in March and how it looked on opening day. I will update you with photos of the same garden as it grows throughout the season.

[caption id="attachment_345" align="alignleft" width="900" caption="Signing books on Saturday afternoon - © TalismanPHOTO, The NYBG"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_346" align="alignleft" width="900" caption="Laying out the chives in a geometric pattern to add some edible landscaping style - © Ivo M. Vermeulen, The NYBG"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_348" align="alignleft" width="900" caption="Three raised beds with curly kale, young basil, Bull's Blood beets, new teepees for cucumbers and tomatoes - © Ivo M. Vermeulen, The NYBG"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_347" align="alignleft" width="900" caption="The raised beds on the opposite side include the chive diamonds, triangles of basil, Bull's Blood beets, and tomatoes - © Ivo M. Vermeulen, The NYBG"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_339" align="alignleft" width="428" caption="Sign describing the Seed Savers Garden - © Ivo M. Vermeulen, The NYBG"][/caption]

On both days, Saturday and Sunday, I’ll be giving a lecture at 11AM on Heirloom Vegetables and Flowers. Following the lecture, I will be at the Seed Saver’s Vegetable Garden in the Home Gardening Center from 12:30 - 1:30PM. I would love to meet you, show you around, and answer any questions you may have about saving seeds. After that, I’ll be signing books in the Perennial Garden with author Amy Goldman. If you aren’t already familiar with her work, you can check out her fabulous books and recipes HERE.

Here’s a break down of my schedule:

Saturday, June 27th and Sunday, June 28th:

11AM - Lecture Hall Presentation “Heirloom Vegetables and Flowers”

12:30-1:30 - Q&A in the Home Gardening Center

1:30 - 2:30 - Booksigning in the Perennial Garden with Amy Goldman

**And, as a special discount for my readers, follow this LINK for 50% off of a second adult ticket. Enter EGDIG09 when asked for the promotional code.**