The Incredible Edible Landscape

by Joy Bossi, Karen Bastow

Do you want your garden to replace the grocery store? Learn how to landscape and maintain a yard that is beautiful, sustainable, and edible. Save time and money as master gardeners Joy Bossi and Karen Bastow help you grow fresh produce right outside your door. Keep your garden in peak condition as well as harvest, store, and preserve the delicious things you grow all around your house.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction

144 pages, Spiral-bound

First published April 10, 2012

About the author

Joy Bossi, best known for her popular Saturday morning talk show- “Joy in the Garden”, has been teaching and guiding Utah gardeners for over thirty years. With a degree in botany from Brigham Young University, credentials as a Master Gardener, Certified Nursery Professional, and years of experience working in nursery and landscaping, Joy is highly qualified to offer advice to both gardening novices and experts alike. Her garden consulting business takes her to homes along the Wasatch Front to solve landscaping problems and share design ideas. She is always much in demand for teaching gardening classes, workshops and lecturing for community and church groups along with local garden clubs. Her first book, “Joy in Your Garden” was published in 2010, the second book, “The Incredible, Edible Landscape,” will be released April 10, 2012.

Joy first appeared on television doing gardening segments on KUTV and then KSTU. For the past 9 years she has been a regular guest on Good Things Utah, appearing weekly to give timely gardening advice and suggestions to the viewing audience of this upbeat morning talk show. For over 18 years she has hosted an early Saturday morning radio talk show starting on KALL radio and continuing as a prime time broadcast on KNRS every Saturday from 9 to 11 am. “Joy in the Garden” is a lively potpourri where Joy fields questions on every aspect of lawn, garden and plant care from listeners all along the Wasatch Front. The show is frequently broadcast on remote location at local gardening events and has gone ‘on the road’ to Delta, Honolulu, Portland, Durango, Pittsburgh and Washington D.C.

Reviews

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of cute info, but not practical. This would work better as a series for different climate zones.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been picking up gardening books instead of just reading blogs because I want more in-depth, complete information.

The first chapter in this book had some good ideas and nice pictures about adding edible to your landscape. After that, the book trailed into a broad variety of garden topic -- how to grow a variety of plants, how to start plants from seeds, pests, weather, harvesting, storage, recipes. Mind you, the book is 132 pages, so none of these get any kind of treatment that would be more useful than skimming through Google.

Two redeeming features of this book:
* Holy crap, growing your own saffron! I don't know that I'll ever do this, but it had never occurred to me that it was possible.
*The book seems self-aware that it's mostly repeating well-worn information, and includes little shaded pop-out tip boxes with information that might not be as well-known, making it easy to skim later chapters for the good stuff.

Overall, this isn't so much a "landscaping" book as a beginning gardening book, and one that's rather shy on the details at that. I'd much, much recommend Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening over this, because he gives plenty of detail while still making gardening sound like the simplest thing in the world. I don't follow Square Foot to a T, but I really respect Mel for getting so many people diving into, and loving, gardening.

I didn't realize this was a Hobble Creek book when I picked it up, but I'm going to try to avoid them in the future. This is the 4th book of theirs I've read, and all have been very pretty and very slim on the nitty-gritty.

[Annajune · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is great for ideas of how to make a garden work anywhere. There is also the traditional talk of where to put a garden, cold boxes, what to do with the produce, etc. My favorite was ideas of where to put different plants. Info like pepper plants don't like extreme heat, so give them some shade from another plant. Or use carrots as a border plant. Want to add a tree, why not a nut tree? Great book for ideas and regular info.

[Anita · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great gardening reference book, especially for the intermountain area. Easy reading with lots of good tips and great ways to incorporate edibles into an attractive landscape. It even has some recipes that I will try as I live off the fat of my land. I will refer to this often during the season.

[Marlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

If possible, I enjoyed this book more than their first book, "Joy in Your Garden". There are tons of helpful hints and guides to help any gardener. It was also really fun to meet the authors and visit with them.

[Betty Pearson]

Packed full of new ideas I hadn't thought to do in my garden. I am going to use this book as a resource and try to pick through it during the Winter, then decide which ideas to implement in the Spring.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

First Reads

I won a copy in the giveaway!

I absolutely LOVE this book. My husband loves to garden, and I love to cook; it's the perfect combination!!!

I would recommend this to anyone who wants to make a beautiful, practical, and functional garden.

Thanks!!!

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really about landscaping layouts. It was mainly just a gardening book about what grows best when.

[Elise Swenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

She gives hope to the hopeless - Grandpa Cliff is turning over in his grave at the sight of my gardens (using the term loosely).

[Kitty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, great writing. Good things to know for our area.

[Bobbi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good vegetable planting instructions. Good introduction chapter to plant fruits and vegetables among flowers, but I was hoping for more designs and ideas.

[Nora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written by a couple of local gardeners turned author with many nifty hints & tips! Definitely a keeper!