Senga Lindsay has just published Edible Landscaping: Urban Food Gardens That Look Great, an incredibly detailed and comprehensive guide for the urban gardener. We asked her for some advice and, of course, a favourite recipe.
Whats the most common mistake urban gardeners make?
Many gardeners particularly when starting out tend to get over ambitious and create large planting areas that may require more maintenance or time than they originally envisioned. The best advice is to start small with a 4 x 4 plot of land and work your way up to a larger area the next season if you feel you have more time and resources to maintain your garden to your satisfaction.
How much planning is necessary?
A little preplanning is good to ensure you do not make any unnecessary errors that may be difficult to change. This applies particularly to elements in your design such as hard surfaces or structures. If your space allows for elements such as this you would want to plan your design the season before fall/winter is a good time to glean through magazines and get lots of ideas and put together a plan and plan of attack prior to spring construction.
What would you say to the person who thinks their house/condo/balcony is too small for a garden?
No space is too small to grow edibles. The trick is to think outside the box and utilize your floor, wall, railing and ceiling (if you are in a stacked condo with a balcony overhead) ceiling spaces for growing edibles that climb or trail. One section in my book is devoted to the urban gardener who has only a tiny balcony space in the middle of a tower. Using the opportunities listed and a bit of imagination even a balcony space of 10 × 7 ft. (3 × 2 m) can yield about 60sq.ft. of food-producing plants and still have room for a café table and chair set for dining outdoors. This is food that will allow one to two people to be able to pick something from their space for dinner each day during the growing season.
Whats your favourite thing to cook with food from your garden?
I love cauliflower and have a recipe that is to die for a hit at any dinner party and a repeat request time again from family and friends. You can even make it on the BBQ in individual dishes.
Cauliflower Recipe
Time to prepare: hour plus 45 minutes in 400 oven.
2 heads large cauliflower (or equivalent of partially bolted is okay as long as not flowering)
1 leek (equivalent of 1 cup) diced
medium onion (equivalent of cup) diced
1 tbsp butter
cup flat Italian parsley chopped
cup Panko bread crumbs
1 cup aged chedder cheese shredded
1 egg
4 garlic cloves
cup whipped cream
cup Parmesan cheese
Salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste (1tsp each)
In frying pan: Melt butter and sweat off leeks, onions and garlic. Blanche and food process: Cauliflower in salt water and then plunge into bowl of cold water and put into food processor to finely grated texture
Mix in bowl (topping): Add cup of parsley with 4 tsp melted butter, bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese
Mix in second bowl: onions, leeks, garlic, egg, whipped cream, cauliflower, cheddar cheese
In greased Pyrex pan (7 x 11 x 2 or equivalent): Add mixture from second bowl pack lightly in pan. Add topping.
Place in preheated oven and bake for 45 minutes.
