Mastodawn

Hippy Steve

@DoomsdaysCW

It's a beautiful landscape. But I see a LOT of non edible plants. Succulents, ferns, Japanese Maple tree. And ferns tend to be water hungry.

DoomsdaysCW Feb 16, 2025

@exador23 Oh sure. I think it looks better than a lawn. And I adore bungalow-style houses. I grew up in a neighborhood that had a couple of those houses, and friendly neighbors inhabiting them. They let me look around, which was very cool. Both houses had lots of original features -- unlike my grandparents' house, which was Arts & Crafts style, but had a lot of modifications, and only a few original features.

@DoomsdaysCW

It looks great. And I tend to do drought tolerant rather than edible landscapes in SoCal. It's just surprising to see a space designed by a company that specializes in 'edible gardens' get featured as a 'food forest' when they skimped on a bunch of opportunities.

The japanese maple is particularly curious. I would expect a fruit tree of some sort. There are even purple leaved ones like https://steemit.com/food/@donkeypong/purple-leaf-plums-more-than-a-pretty-leaf

And up against the house could be cooking sage, peppers, yarrow, blueberry bushes, ... all sorts of edible stuff that looks good and would justify the water usage at a SoCal home.

Purple Leaf Plums: More Than a Pretty Leaf — Steemit

Ornamental versions of fruit trees often disappoint me. Most of them are grown for the beauty of their blossoms, but… by donkeypong

Steemit

@exador23 @DoomsdaysCW Those Japanese maples are infamous for findiing sewage pipes, LOL (ask me about my parent's house ha ha)... The ferms are no good in Southern California, because they get fried in Santa Ana conditions. Nice, though, i had a few for a short bit... until a good Santa Ana torched them.

@ai6yr @DoomsdaysCW I'm not a fan of ferns in SoCal. They look really cool and prehistoric, it just doesn't feel like they fit here.

@exador23 @DoomsdaysCW I'm an edible planting person too of course, so biased. I'd swap a different kind of low edible plant for the bird of paradise (which are tough but really just a waste of space and PITA). I know they're looking a "tropical" look, people like that. I'd swap an (edible) pygmy palm (Phoenix roebelenii) instead of the fern, similar look/feel but you actually can eat the fruit (and if you were desperate, the heart of the palm). They grow very well in Southern California, there are tons of people who have them as landscaping who don't know the dates are edible. I'd substitude Hawaiian Ti (Cordyline fruticosa) for that bird of paradise. Edible as well.

@exador23 @DoomsdaysCW Ti leaves typically used for cooking fish, or they are what are used to wrap Hawaiian Lau Lau (pork or butterfish wrapped in ti leaves with taro leaves--or sometimes spinach substituted) and steamed.

@ai6yr @DoomsdaysCW

Liquid Amber trees are the same way. I don't know why people plant them. All the leaves and those damned spiky balls that drop and stick to the bottom of your shoes if you step on them.

@exador23 @DoomsdaysCW LOL Liquid amber is a bicycling hazard around here. I'll tell you what DOES like liquid amber trees here... the (non-native) parakeets that have moved into the Santa Monica mountains, they LOVE the seeds out of those.

Sarah E Bourne Feb 17, 2025

@ai6yr @exador23 @DoomsdaysCW Some Sensitive Ferns decided they wanted to live by my front steps in Maine. OK guys, but you know this is Maine, right? Within a few tenths of a degree F of freezing, they turn brown and totally give up - the "sensitive" name is for a reason. But they come back year after year and hooboy do I get where they're coming from.

Hisstogramma Feb 16, 2025

@exador23 @DoomsdaysCW @ai6yr I am a fan of pomegranate trees in dry climates.

@hisstogramma @exador23 @DoomsdaysCW Ah yes, they are very drought tolerant. I have three, which is probably two more than I need, LOL... (the largest, Wonderful, shades the south side of my house in summer but lets the sun in during winter).

@ai6yr @hisstogramma @DoomsdaysCW

They're great trees or hedges even for SoCal. Require quite a bit of pruning when young to get nicely shaped tree though.

@exador23 @hisstogramma @DoomsdaysCW I haven't figured out the pomegranate pruning... my trees are random hedges, LOL.

@ai6yr @hisstogramma @DoomsdaysCW

A friend has a nice 50+ old one shading the entire back yard that was pruned really well when young. It makes a very handsome and interesting tree and doesn't require much pruning in maturity then. But yeah. most people just let them be hedges. You get plenty of fruit regardless for little to no input in terms of water or fertilizer.

@exador23 @ai6yr @hisstogramma @DoomsdaysCW

DB Schwein Feb 16, 2025

Of course if you do prune them their yield jumps!

@deirdrebeth @ai6yr @hisstogramma @DoomsdaysCW

Hippy Steve Feb 17, 2025

Turns out there are pomegranate varieties that are cold hardy down to 0F. Maybe I should get some going up in camp.