Co-op Class: Edible Landscapes

Learn how to transform your backyard into an edible landscape, featuring native plants.  Join us Thursday March 13th for our monthly food and wellness lecture we call “Beers to Your Health”.  Why do we call it that?  It’s located in a space generously offered up by our neighbor, Fort George brewery.  For this month’s lecture, we’re collaborating with North Coast Food Web to bring Farmers Scott and Dixie Edwards from Watershed Garden Works here from Longview, Washington.  They will share their expertise, and even have some plants available for you to check out and purchase if you wish.

Here’s our poster:

edible landscapes

More information:

Dixie and Scott’s main business at Watershed is growing and selling northwest native plants for stream and wetland restoration, but the farmers also grow plants and produce for farmers markets. You can find their edible and ornamental plants, fruits, vegetables, jams, jellies, and pickles in Astoria at the River People Farmers Market. The farmers will share their expertise with a focus on edible landscaping.

“Edible landscaping can mean a lot of different things such as aesthetically pleasing vegetables in your flower beds… all the different types of common edible plants that would fit in with the existing landscape and how to create zones in your landscape where you’re trying to produce food year round in our unique climate,” Scott said.

Farmer Dixie Edwards also plans to touch on local ethnobotany, the scientific study of the traditional relationship between people and plants.

“Wapatos were a staple food for a large population of people here before Lewis and Clark. Wapato, Camas, berries and how they were used also fits into the landscaping because those plants are adapted to our climate,” Dixie said. A Wapato is a small potato that grows in marshes. Camas was another root vegetable food source for native people.

Our co-collaborator for this event is North Coast Food Web, a local non-profit aimed at connecting local people with local food. The lecture is free and open to all ages.

The details:

When: Thursday March 13, doors open at 6 p.m. for food and drinks.
Lecture is 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Where: Fort George Lovell Showroom, 1483 Duane St. Astoria