Backyard Gardening Plan

There’s no prettier way to make your home look more

welcoming than blossoming flora and a beautifully
manicured garden. It breathes life into an otherwise dull
home, transforming your haven into a peaceful refuge
where you can unwind and spend time with your family. I
designed a backyard garden to inspire you to get you to
finally rid those pesky weeds and replace them with a
landscape that beautiful home so much deserves.

Edible Landscaping
Edible landscaping (EL) is an important component of urban gardening. It is an innovative concept of
combining various principles of landscape design with existing technologies for small-scale crop production. It
utilizes vegetables, herbs, and fruit crops as major softscape materials. EL is not just about crop production
but has a complex activity of planning, design, implementation, and maintenance, as similarly done in
conventional landscaping. It has an added design component and usually situated in strategic location. Plots
can be of any form required by the design specification. Fruit trees can also be intercropped with other edible
crops and can be planted at various spacing in accordance with the design.

Since everyone is into growing their own herbs in their

backyard nowadays, I am joining the bandwagon and mix
up my typical ornamental garden plants with fragrant
herbs and colorful produce. It will not only give my home
a pleasant view, but it can also give you ready access to
fresh veggies (think of all the salad possibilities!), and a
means to a healthy lifestyle. The good news here is I do
not have to have a huge space, since my small pocket
garden will do. I will plant some rosemary, basil, oregano,
or mint to add a refreshing touch to my green refuge—
growing fresh produce is in every way, an inspiring and
rewarding experience.

Eco-friendly Gardens
If you think your garden cannot get any greener, think again. Environment-friendly gardens are now
becoming a hit with eco-conscious homeowners because of their many benefits. You do not have to go as
far as composting with worms. Aim to grow native plants and then mix them up with ornamental plants for
more appeal. Minimize the use of chemical pesticides or fertilizers. Watching your eco-garden grow can
definitely be a rewarding experience for everyone.

Advantages of Edible Landscaping

A. Better quality and safe food. The nutrient content and flavor fresh vegetables is high just after
harvest.
B. Higher return on investment. A traditional ornamental landscape only provides aesthetic
appeal, edible landscape will provide food and profit.
C. Increased food security. Growing your own food reduces your reliance on imported food
sources.
D. Lower food costs. Certain crops are more economical to grow at home than to buy. Save
grocery bills.
E. More accessible produce. Convenience of food right outside your door.
Tips on how to sustain the garden

A. Practice Integrated Pest Management

• Manual weeding and removal of infected plants of infected plants

• Pruning of old and infected leaves
• Fruit bagging to protect fruit vegetables like the ampalaya
• Companion planting can also be a pest management practice.
• Relay cropping where crops are not planted in the same area in the next cropping
season.
• Intercropping and crop rotation is also encouraged to improve soil fertility at the same
time manage pests and diseases.
• Repellent plants such as onion, garlic, and marigold are commonly used in companion
planting to repel insect pests.
• Use of traps such as small pieces of yellow board smeared with grease can be placed
among the plants to attract and catch insects in the garden.

B. Elements to consider

• Form/shape. This refers to the shape of the area and the plants used as soft-scape.
Site may vary from round, rectangular or square in shape. There are plants that looks
upright, spreading, rounded, etc.
• Size. Site and plant vary in different sizes.
• Color. Try to consider different colors of soft-scape materials.
• Line. This will depend on the shape and form of the site.
• Texture/feel/organization

C. Apply the Principles of Design

• Balance. For better production, design must be balance where all parts may have
enough sunlight, air, water, etc.
• Contrast. There has to be a degree of difference in the treatment of different elements.
Design in such a way that every part is highlighted.
• Harmony. A pleasing relationship between all the different parts of a design making
each object or component a part of the unified whole.
• Scale and Proportion. The Design must give a sensation of bigness or smallness within
a space.

Variety of plants that I am considering

A. Edible:

 Sitaw - These are long beans. They're great for making adobong sitaw.
 Bittermelons - They're called 'ampalaya'. You can grow this in the summer. These
are very good when cooking for diabetics.
 Eggplants - These are the long purple eggplants
 Hot Peppers - if you want it 'caliente'. Go for it.
 Bottle Gourd - the long ones. They are also called 'Upo'.
 Kamote - sweet red potatoes. Some of them even come in purple. They're similar to
yams. The tops/leaves are even more nutritious.
 Kalamansi - the tiny little round lemons.
 Okra - you know this one. Slimy but yummy!
 Kang-kong (River spinach) - These are excellent as kang-kong adobo
 Petchay a.k.a. Bokchoy - (pictured above) a favorite green leafy veggie
 Singkamas (Jicama) - looks like a potato, sweet and crunchy.
 Chayote - used for sauteing or making soups and the like.
 Malunggay - So many health benefits!

B. Ornamentals: