Growing Greener

A Landscape Good Enough to Eat — How to Get Started Growing Your Own Fruit

Fruit-producing shrubs, vines and tree create landscapes of beauty and good taste.

My daughter was sure that the ruffled purple cabbages in the fall planting outside a fancy hotel were not the same kind of cabbages that we eat: “But they’re so pretty! They don’t look like the kind of cabbage we put into soup.” (But in fact those elegant landscape plants are cabbages!) My daughter’s observation came about the same time our neighbors beautified the fence by planting vines with pretty heart-shaped leaves and long purple beans (which turn green when you steam them up to eat). Blueberry bushes started showing up here and there in cities and towns as decorative shrubs (with an extra perk – blueberries!).  Landscapers started planting cherry trees not just for their spectacular spring blossoms but also for their fruit for pies …

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Jamaica Plain Deck Garden Inspires Grand Prize at Mayor's Garden Contest

At Mayor Menino's Garden Contest, three JP gardeners were recognized.

The rain had stopped and clouds were neatly in place in the newly scrubbed sky; seats set out on the drying lawn of Boston’s Public Garden were filled. The Aug. 24 ceremony awarding prizes in the Mayor’s 2012 Garden Contest was proceeding according to the script laid out by the Director of External Affairs for the Boston Parks and Recreation Department. Contestants were urged to line up according to their category, first small yard garden, then medium yard garden, followed inevitably by the large yard garden category. Shade gardens, senior gardens, community gardens, storefront gardens, and vegetable gardens were called along with the Porch, Deck, Balcony or Window Box Gardens.   But then the man from Jet Blue took the podium. There was a …

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Minton Stable Leads for 'Best Community Garden' in Jamaica Plain

With just a few days left in this summer's Best of Patch Readers' Choice Jamaica Plain contests, Minton Stables holds the lead in the "Best Community Garden" category.

Jamaica Plain Neighbors Welcome Spring with Urban Farming

Lot at 195 Boylston St. will be used for urban agriculture.

Food supply is highly vulnerable to weather, oil prices, political events, water resources, and speculation, and an international movement to promote food security and self-sufficiency has been growing as a result. Food prices have risen dramatically worldwide and are at the heart of citizens unrest in several countries. The Group of 20 most industrialized countries discussed  at its most recent meeting in Paris ways to address the increase in prices of food and other basic commodities. Urban farming has been touted by urban planners and concerned citizens alike as a way to increase food availability and access. The slowdown in the housing industry has kept many buildable lots undeveloped and therefore as open land suited for urban …

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