Adèle Maisonneuve

THose look great! I get the Itch to play in the garden too. Our spring’s been very fickle this year and we’ve had a few winter relapses keeping me from digging in the dirt. We had a high of -8 C today! Your planters took like a fun way to scratch that itch while waiting for the ground to thaw.

I teach mostly grades 3, 5, and 6. I think education might be why in such an early childhood development geek

I love the tree idea, but unfortunately due to space restrictions and underground utilities, I think  the most we could do is replace one of our ornamental trees with a small cherry or plum, but that isn't in the budget this year. I have done something similar in the past, though. When my niece Rose was born, I bought my sister a rose bush to plant on her acreage and I plan on buying my brother and his fiancee a tree of their choice as a wedding present, since their land used to be a field and is currently treeless. I think a tree or a bush is a beautiful way to celebrate the start of something that you are looking forward to watching grow strong.

Thanks for the help! I've had my own garden for a few years and had great success, especially lat year, with my small, more conventions (though still pesticide and fertilizer-free) garden patches. When I was a kid, we had a huge garden where we, under my grandma's watchful eye, grew all our carrots and potatoes for the year and where I fell  head  over heels in love with green beans.

As for time, in a part time teacher, so I have relatively free afternoons and two whole months in the summer with no major plans. Out in the yard is a great place to spend that time

Thanks for the advice on mulching the whole area and  building beds as I go. Edmonton offers free wood chips to anyone who can pick them up, so that looks like an easy, cost effective way to simplify things.

Are you on the west coast? Your garden looks beautiful and reminds me of my husband's aunt's place on Quadra Island.

Also thanks for the welcome and resources on gardening with kids! This looks like a very knowledgeable  and friendly community

Hiya permies!

I live in Edmonton Alberta (zone 3). My family moved into a house with a nice big yard (by city standards) and I'm now waiting out the winter by planning the lovely things we'll grow. We lived in a condo up until this fall and had a little patch in the community garden for a couple years. Watching my daughter explore the plants and critters among them has been lovely, so one of my goals is giving my a colourful, edible, food jungle My kids can explore. My son will be 17-21 months and my daughter will be 3.5ish during the growing season.

Our yard is divided into rough quarters by a path from the house to the garage and a step/flowerbed/Cottoneaster hedge that separates the higher area of the yard from the lower area. One of these quadrants gets lovely south sunlight, is sheltered by the garage on the east, bordered by a white fence on the north, and sheltered by the hedge on the west. We've decided to get rid of the lawn in that whole section, which would allow for 4-5 decent sized beds. Another quadrant houses an apple tree (I'm over the moon excited about this) which I intend to plant a guild around. We also have two tiered 2X3ish metre beds in the front yard with what looks like a creek bed running through them. I haven't had the chance to observe how water interacts with it, but I think it's meant to channel rainwater.

My ideas for the "garden quadrant" beds are as follows:

1) a "friendly forest" of relatively tall vegetables (kale, brussels sprouts, orach, broccoli) and fun, possibly edible flowers (sunflowers, snap dragons, maybe giant alliums) with a path or two leading to
2) a living tipi or wigwam of scarlet runner beans, peas, and nasturtiums that the kids can play in and around
3) a few squash, including pumpkins
4) Cucumbers against the fence  
5) a "toddler's choice" garden in the flower bed that divides the high/low parts of the yard
6) other colourful and fun annual veggies in the space that's left
7) lots of (preferably edible and absolutely non-toxic) flowers dotted here and there to invite pollinators and other friendly insects

I was thinking these beds (save perhaps the cucumbers, which need a good bit of babying in Edmonton) can be moved around from year to year if I make paths between the beds with an appropriate mulch. I think this will be best to give the benefits of the nitrogen fixing plants and prevent disease and nutrient depletion, plus it would allow me to modify as I learn what works best in my yard. I love the idea of a living mulch like clover or thyme, but I'm worried it would spread into the beds or come back the next spring and not allow for modification of bed shapes and placements.

I also have plans for pots of tomatoes and cauliflower, plus salad greens and herbs in the front yard.

Is my plan doable for a first year? Have any suggestions? Which mulch would be best for paths and/or amongst and between plants? Which insect-attracting flowers work best in such a garden?

Serviceberry, like saskatoon? They're definitely not saskatoons. The berries aren't as round, they have kind of a flat bottom that seems to curl inwards like a fig (if that makes sense) and they don't have the same kind of frill or little petal like structures on the blossom end like saskatoons and blueberries do. Plus the leaves have smooth edges, not toothed ones. A saskatoon hedge  would be delightful; they're probably my all time favourite fruit. The wild ones that grow around here are tall and narrow, though, and wouldn't quite work the way this hedge does.

Thanks Simone! I googled it and it looks like you're right. Since its attractive to birds, we'll probably be keeping it. I'll find another spot for berries

Hello all! I'm a novice gardener with big permaculture /edible yard plans in  Edmonton AB (zone 3b, I think). This is our first winter in a house with a yard and I plan in creating a food  jungle for my kids to explore.

I'm taking stock of what's currently growing and making a long term and short term plan. We have a hedge that separates our apple tree "quadrant" from what will be our annual veggie patch and I'm wondering what it is. It is about 4-5 feet tall and has dark green leaves in the summer that turn a beautiful bright red in the fall. Are the berries edible? If so, are they tasty? Should I plan on replacing the hedge with something else, like raspberries? Thanks for the advice!