Foodscaping

Jeremy Cooper from Cooper’s Foodscaping talks about his path into foodscaping and shares his top tips.

Today on the podcast we talk about “foodscaping,” gardening that combines the ornamental with the edible, also known as edible landscaping.

Foodscaper Jeremy Cooper says he likes to work with plants that have multiple functions, including ornamental, herbal, medicinal, ecological, and edible.

Cooper worked in a number of jobs before focusing on foodscaping. In hindsight, he sees that he was circling this intersection of food, gardening, and the environmental before he even realized it.

Part of what he does as a foodscaper is to educate clients about smarter ways to garden. For example, many times he’ll find people battling plants that are edible. “That’s food!” he tells them, as he helps them see the plants in another light.

Foodscaping Tips

Cooper’s tips for gardeners interested in foodscaping:

• Don’t be afraid to dream about other ways to use a space and think about what you might like in the long term. “Don’t be afraid to dream…it doesn’t have to be a lawn,” he says.

• Grow foods you like to eat.

• Make sure the soil is healthy, and, if in doubt, dig into the topsoil and then down below the topsoil to see what is there. He points out that in many new subdivisions, gardeners are left with hard-packed soil and gravel beneath a shallow layer of topsoil.

Cooper’s Favourite Food Plants

• Serviceberry. Cooper says that while many people grow this as an ornamental plant, a lot of people don’t realize the fruit are edible. He points out that it’s an excellent understory tree that does well in partial sun.

• Amaranth. Beautiful, colourful. Edible leaves and grain.

• Currants.

• Bergamot. Flowers and herbal uses.

• Yarrow. Flowers and herbal uses.

• Squashes.