Lazy Foodscaping 101 🥱

One of our all-time favorites! The sunchoke doubles as a beautiful perennial flower AND a food-source. 

Lazy?? One person’s “lazy” is another’s path of least resistance… or intentional chaos. So, what’s some good laziness in the landscape? We’ve been entrenched in the rigmarole of traditional landscaping and we forget that landscaping does not have to require deep, time-consuming maintenance. So, let’s get lazy!

Food That Volunteers Itself

Many weeds that we spend time yanking out of the ground are edible. Keep an eye out for these and consider letting them proliferate for an unlikely snack hiding in every corner of the landscape.

• Dandelions – We all know this one! But did you know that young leaves are great for salads, flowers can be used for syrups and fritters, and some folks use the roots to make a coffee substitute.
• Purslane – It grows in sidewalk cracks and through the holes in the landscape fabric... these resilient weeds are actually packed with Omega-3s and delicious raw or sautéed.
• Wood Sorrel – One of our favorite on-the-go snacks! You can find it anywhere, offering its lemony, sharp, and fresh taste.
• Violets – The flowers and leaves are edible, and they create a lush groundcover with no input from you. We especially like it in shady areas where groundcover can be hard to establish—it’s a volunteer that we love to see.

The effortlessly abundant dandelion. A wicked weed for many, but does it have to be? Give it a try!

Crops That Take Care of Themselves

If you plant something once and get food year after year with no extra effort, that’s peak good laziness. If you’ve got some space that you wouldn’t mind letting run wild and free, consider some of these plants and start your perennial garden.

• Sunchokes (Jerusalem artichoke) – The ultimate “plant and forget” sunflower. And as pretty as they can be above ground—underground they are producing nutty, starchy tubers that will grow back every year.
• Groundnuts (Apios americana) – Native nitrogen-fixing vines with edible tubers and beans. They boost soil health while feeding you.
• Arrowhead (Wapato) – Thrives in wet or poorly drained areas, turning a problem spot into a productive one.
• Asparagus – A long-game investment since it can take a few years for it to really take hold. But once established, it keeps coming back every spring with zero work.
• Turmeric – A powerhouse medicinal and culinary root that thrives in humid conditions with almost no upkeep. If you find these tubers at the farmer’s market—stick ‘em in the ground!
• Red-Veined Sorrel – A fresh , leafy green with a tangy taste. It’s great raw and serves as a nice addition to salads.
• Horseradish – Once planted, it spreads aggressively, giving you endless spicy roots for years. Again, if you find these tubers at the farmer’s market—stick ‘em in the ground!

A lesson in patience, asparagus may have you waiting 2-3 years for a solid harvest. But don’t fret, you very well could have decades of harvesting ahead of you.

Embrace the wild! We mustn’t forget that nature tends to like “messy”… Next time you’re being so-called “lazy” in the garden, you can rebrand it as a homage to Mother Nature.