Corn and Other Food Plants Flourish in Public Spaces

[thelakelander]

While we plant flowers that no one wants to maintain, Lakeland has been planting food bearing plants in their public spaces.  Maybe its something we might want to consider?

LAKELAND | The corn is as high as an elephant's eye, and it's not in Oklahoma but in downtown Lakeland.

A petite crop of vegetables, fruits and grain is thriving at Heritage Park at Kentucky Avenue and Orange Street. Indian corn, okra, peppers, kumquats and eggplant provide an unexpected agricultural filigree to the slice of city property.

Towering corn stalks also ring the perimeter of a circular planter in the parking lot at Lakeland's main library, and an assortment of ornamental peppers can be seen near the entrance to the Lakeland Electric building on Lemon Street.

City horticulturist Bill Koen said he started installing food-bearing plants at Hollis Garden more than a decade ago, and in recent years he has expanded the approach into other city properties.

"Many of these ornamental vegetables are just as pretty as flowers in the landscape," Koen said. "They're no harder to do than annual flowers â€" petunias or pansies or whatever."

The corn at Heritage Park and the library is producing ears and should be ready for harvest in about two weeks, Koen said.

The peppers and okra already appear nearly ripe.

"We don't actually harvest them to sell," Koen said. "We might give them away, but it's not a money-making proposition.

Basically, they're just being grown for the beauty of the plants."

Koen said his staff uses organic methods to control caterpillars and other predators, ensuring the produce is safe to eat.

Though the city doesn't invite passersby to pick the fruits and vegetables, Koen said he has noticed a certain amount of public harvesting.

Koen said he maintains a schedule of replacing food plants throughout the year. In the fall and winter, the city plants ornamental cabbages, Swiss chard and kale.

Full article: http://www.theledger.com/article/20110731/NEWS/110739888?p=5&tc=pg

[avs]

YES!  This is something Sustainable Springfield has been advocating for.  There are many municipalities across the US who are starting to plant more and more food crops in place of strictly ornamentals.  Chicago's mayor is extremely progressive on this, even adding honey bee hives to city hall.  Ornamentals planted with herbs and food plants help create a more bio-dynamic and healthy urban green scape, as well as providing a local food source for passers by.   

A great book on this topic and the policy part of it is called, Public Produce, by Darrin Nordahl

[Doctor_K]

Plant foodstuff gardens like this all over the place, harvest and give to the homeless shelters to add to their food stocks. 

Might not go very far in terms of volume, but it's a start.

[Garden guy]

You'd be amzed at home much food can come from a tiny about of dirt...it's called "french intensive gardening"...the key is to use every available spot for a plant...no room for weeds...i'm working on my second planting in the front yard of corn..not many...maybe 150 plants or so...it's beautiful and we'll get quit a few dinners out of it. Peas make a great edging..our lawns can be replaced by things like thyme..not everything grows well here but the things that do...we should be planting as much as we can...and believe it or not...tomatoes don't do that great here..especially the big sandwich tomatoes...some years are better...usually the lower the humidity the better tomatoes do and with it being humid so much of the year it's hard...I love the idea of temperary landscaping...with veggies our yards will be changing all the time..heck there's nothing prettier than a nice long row of lettuce that has been left to got to flower and seed...beautiful and yummy.