Our green show house in Brooklyn had a concrete back yard. It was three inches of solid impervious, heat making concrete. The death valley of back yards. Without the space.
So we tore up the concrete and sent it on it’s heavy way. Now we have rich dark soil ready for life.
We have big plans for the garden. We want an aesthetically pleasing garden with a nice layout and beautiful foliage that attracts fauna. A haven for humans and animals alike.
Thus The Concept Of An EDIBLE GARDEN
An edible garden is one that has all the nice qualities of an garden with the food bearing qualities of a farm. Well, not really a farm. More like a mini garden of Eden. A farm takes work. A garden of Eden is there with all its bounty while asking for very little work in return except the occasional mild pruning and affection.
An edible garden appeals to the gatherer (as in “hunter gatherer”) in all of us. The joy of going out with your daughter and a bucket on Sunday morning to pick blackberries for pancakes. The delight and drama of competing with the birds over cherries.
An edible garden is not a passive beauty to be admired from afar. It is not a museum piece. It does not contain plants that look like purebred poodles that aren’t of much use but to feed the ego of the owner.
An edible garden contains local flora that literally feed you. They feed the bugs, bees and birds. They attract squirrels, cats and ferrets. They provide food and homes.
In short an edible garden is an ecosystem
Eco Brooklyn is an innovative green building company but the funny thing is that a lot of our “innovative” tools are actually drawn from long standing, age old, time proven practices that “modern” society has temporarily pushed aside.
The edible garden is one of them. An edible garden is just a remembrance and revitalization of something very common and necessary in our world. Humans living in harmony with their immediate ecosystems is actually a very easy and attainable thing.
It starts with one plant and a handful of earth. It may end there too if you don’t know what the next step is :), but one step at a time…
We don’t plan on having to water the garden in the long term. But we will have a Grey water hose (water stored from rain, showers and sinks) to keep things lush and happy if need be in the short term.
We are still toying with the design. Below are some ideas.
The whole concept, design and implementation is being done by a real master in the field. His name is Mihail Kossev and his company is Edible Home Garden. Eco Brooklyn is honored to have him as a business partner and I hope to get lots of future gardening jobs with him.
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We’ve decided we want a lap pool. It is fun for splashing and exercise but it might also serve as a heat sink when we need to dump hot water from the solar hot water tank during the summer.
