The Edible Front Yard

By Ivette Soler

People everywhere are turning patches of soil into bountiful vegetable gardens, and each spring a new crop of beginners picks up trowels and plants seeds for the first time. They're planting tomatoes in raised beds, runner beans in small plots, and strawberries in containers. But there's one place that has, until now, been woefully neglected — the front yard.

And there's good reason. A run-of-the-mill veggie garden, with its raised beds and plots, may not be the most attractive type of garden. Favorite edible plants like tomatoes and cucumbers have a tendency to look a bit scraggy, even in their prime.

Step-by-step instructions for:

• Converting all or part of a lawn into an edible paradise
• Specific guidelines for selecting and planting the most attractive edible plants
• Design advice and plans for the best plant placements, and combinations of edibles with ornamentals

Jump start your own edible garden with our exclusive Gift Seed Tin collection of Soler's favorite "supermodel" seeds that are show-stoppers. A great gift too, that can be used as the basis of a first vegetable garden.

Softcover. 213 pages. Timber Press 2011.