Our Tiny Urban Food Forest
In late November of 2019, weeks before the pandemic lockdown of 2020, Joseph and I moved into our first real home together after too many years as move-around renters. The house is tiny, 1281 square feet, because we love it that way. Cozy, and so much easier to clean! And it has a panoramic view. Most important to us was the fact that the lot boasted a few mature fruit trees and vines (grape, lemon, fig, and orange) to give us a head-start on our “urban food forest.”
The total lot is only 10,089 square feet. Once you subtract the house and the separate garage, plus a long, uphill driveway that makes a sharp right turn at the top, we were left with 2,880 square feet, about 1/10th of an acre of space for plants. Much of that is made up of steep banks. But we were determined. We built a retaining wall and planted on them anyway.
What with writing and publishing books, not to mention tasking ourselves with entering a ballroom dance competition as an amateur couple this spring (what?! Yes we did!) we are the kind of gardeners who like to see what happens and then pluck out the things we don’t like. In other words, time-strapped!
Many of these plants are perennials that come back every year. Others were what we call “fairy-planted.” They sprouted from fallen seeds, or seeds transferred by rabbits, squirrels, birds, coyotes, and other garden helpers. I’ve marked the fairy-planteds with a star*.
For instance, we let the red romaine go to seed last fall.
Here’s what came up this spring, mixed with scarlet pimpernel and calendula sprouts.
They mix of plants seems to be encouraging the lettuce to grow taller.
Fruit-bearing Trees:
Surinam cherry
Pomegranate
Loquat
Reed avocado
Olive*
Longan
Orange
Royal cherry
Meyer Lemon
Black Mission Fig
Mimosa (tea blossoms)
Bushes & vines:
Red Flame grapes
Blueberry
Native golden currant
Native elderberry
Raspberry
Strawberry
Herbs & vegetables:
Garlic chives
Onion chives*
Big Boy tomato
Red Dock
Garden sage*
White sage
Lemon balm*
Marjoram*
Lacinato kale*
Red romaine lettuce*
Cilantro
Calendula*
Rosemary
Thyme (3 kinds)
Oregano
Mint
Johnny Jump-ups*
Wild mustard*
Sunflower*