(upbeat music) - [Natalie] Today I'm heading into the heart of the city to meet Phaedra.

She's transforming her lawn into a feast.

She's taking foodscaping to the next level, utilizing every square foot of her yard to grow edible plants.

Let's find out how she's doing it, and what it takes to turn an ordinary lawn into a food lover's paradise.

- Hi!

- Oh.

- So nice to meet you.

- So nice to meet you as well!

Okay, you've got a beautiful yard here.

There's a lot going on.

Talk to me about what you have here.

- I call it edible urban landscaping.

Some people call it foodscaping.

And I grow, try to have a pretty yard that's landscaped, but also edible.

Mostly things that I could eat.

- You're making sure that every element of the yard is covered with something that has a purpose.

- Yeah.

I try to reuse as much as I can.

And I try to do zero waste.

I try to make sure that I'm not wasting any resources that I have, but also space, because in an urban environment, space is at a premium.

- That part.

- So I try to have zero waste.

- [Natalie] So you mentioned the term, "urban landscaping."

What's different about that?

- What I try to do to make an urban environment more sustainable, more climate-friendly, is plant as many plants as I can to kinda soften that hardscape.

And the plants capture the rainwater that runs off of these hard surfaces, and it cools the space down a little bit, especially if you have trees and shrubs growing.

- [Natalie] What is your favorite thing to grow?

- I really love growing Mediterranean herbs.

They're pretty hardy.

They're foolproof.

They're hard to kill.

And as I walk, - That's what I need.

- Yeah!

When I walk through the garden in the morning, I like to just smell them.

I like to just reach out and crush a leaf, and it smells so wonderful.

That's sage.

- Oh, my gosh!

- Yeah, isn't that great?

- [Natalie] Yes!

It's very strong.

- And I just walk through the garden, doing this, and smelling and it's wonderful.

So these small flowers are violas.

And they're very pretty, and they're also edible.

You can put them on a salad or as a garnish.

- Okay.

- Go ahead and try it.

(bright music) - It's very subtle.

There's a slight pepperiness to it.

- [Phaedra] Right.

- Yeah, I can see how - - It doesn't add a lot.

- [Natalie] Yeah!

- But it's very pretty to garnish something with.

- But certainly, if you're having a salad, and there's a mix of flavors, this will add value.

- Yeah!

- And you're eating most of this.

- I come out every morning, I have a little basket with me, and I just pick things.

And every day we eat something from my yard.

- Can I eat something from your yard?

- Yes!

Let's go eat my yard.

- [Natalie] Please.

(bright music) What is this?

- This is my ground cover.

- [Natalie] Mm hmm.

- So a lot of people will grow a lawn.

I don't believe in lawns.

Instead, I grow arugula, which is sort of a spicy lettuce for salad.

- I love arugula!

- Well, let's try some!

- It is spicy.

It's spicier than when I get an arugula salad at a restaurant.

- Exactly.

More flavor.

- Ooh.

I'm into this.

- Mm hmm.

That's why I grow my own food.

- So it has like a little bit of a radishy flavor to it.

- Yes, it is in the radish family.

So think wasabi, or those little red radishes you get at the grocery.

Spicy like that.

- Yeah.

I love that.

Is it a different strand of arugula?

- It's partly it has this much flavor because you're growing it.

It's not like what's in the grocery store, but it's also a different variety.

This is called rocket, which is a little narrow leaf, and it's got a spicier flavor.

It's a little more pungent than a different other strains of arugula.

And it's more traditionally Italian.

- I've never tasted arugula like this.

I'm pumped.

(bright music) - [Phaedra] So this is our community seed library.

- [Natalie] Oh, nice!

- [Phaedra] And we've all seen the Little Free Library that has books.

- [Natalie] Right.

- There's now, sometimes you can find a Little Free Seed Library.

Frequently a public library will have one.

- What kind of seeds do we have in our library today?

- Well, that's a good question.

It can be a little random.

- Okay.

- So let's just take a look and see.

Right now, so we've got some beans, which are really great to plant in the summer when it's so hot, like now.

It looks like there's some peas here.

It's a little hot for peas right now, but these would be great for the fall.

Some buckwheat.

This is a really good ground cover that really nourishes the soil, and it makes little white flowers.

And some flowers too.

So we've got marigolds.

So it's a mix of vegetables and flowers, and that's what we have today.

Probably will be very different next week.

- Aside from free seeds, are there any other benefits to having a seed library in a community?

- I find that it really builds community.

So for us, we have a community of gardeners who sort of formed around this seed library, and we know who the people are who will leave seeds.

And we talk about what we're collecting.

The seeds we're collecting, and we're leaving.

So we've just connected over this, where we've gotten to know each other, and I've made friends in the neighborhood who are other gardeners.

- Oh, awesome.

(bright music) Okay, so we're in the back.

And this is another cool way that you've maximized space because there's great stuff all the way down.

So just gimme the rundown of what you have back here.

- Yeah, so you can garden anywhere.

- Right.

- And this is a tiny, I don't even know if it's a foot.

It might be one foot wide, but it goes all the way down my fence line.

It's a tiny space, it's a very narrow driveway, but I knew that it got full sun, so that I knew that whatever I plant here is gonna do pretty well.

- Okay.

- So I can crowd a lot into this little space.

So I've got these huge sunflowers.

- Interesting.

- And then I've got some herbs and vegetables mixed in with them along the border.

- Oh.

- So we've got basil growing here.

I have cat mint, which pollinators love.

This is my Cherokee Purple tomato.

It's an heirloom variety.

It grows big beef steak tomatoes.

So here we have another climbing bean, and you can see it's just gonna go up, and it's gonna go crazy.

And pretty soon we'll have flowers and beans coming off of this.

- This is a perfect example of zero waste.

Because you've really maximized a tiny portion of space, but you've used it in a very interesting way.

How much space have you used in the backyard?

- Yeah, if I include this narrow strip here, and then I do have a vegetable bed over there next to it, it's about 120 square feet.

And I keep track every year of the amount of produce that I pull out of this garden.

And it's about 150 pounds.

- Wow.

- Every year, that I'm able to get from that 120 square feet.

- Wow.

That will save you a lot of trips to the grocery store.

- Yes.

Plus it tastes better.

- Mm hmm.

It does, indeed.

(bright music) Okay, this is a new area.

- [Phaedra] This is my vegetable bed.

- All right, nice!

- This is where I grow most of the vegetables.

- [Natalie] Oh, what's this deal here?

- This is actually my worm farm.

- Oh!

Okay.

- It's an in-ground worm farm.

These are just some old tiles I have that are covering it, but I have a round, ceramic pot.

I actually had a friend of mine who's a potter make it, and it's just a cylinder with holes in it.

And I throw my food scraps in there, and my gardening scraps.

I'll pull a leaf off of the plant, a dead leaf, and throw it in and the worms eat it.

And then the worms are traveling through the bed and spreading fertilizer, worm fertilizer as they come through.

And it's just an easy, small-scale way to compost.

- So you don't have to do anything, but just throw food scraps in there, and the worms do the rest?

- Absolutely, yep.

They break it down.

It has been to the top, and they just eat everything and it goes down to the bottom.

- Tell me, what is the process that the worms create value for?

Like how did they create value there?

- So the worms create worm poop, basically.

And it's called worm castings.

But it is highly nutritious for plants.

And you can buy actually worm castings just by itself.

It's a really rich fertilizer.

But my worms are making it and spreading it through my garden right here, without me having to buy anything, or really even do anything.

- I'm excited to see that there is a market for worm poop.

- [Phaedra] Yes.

(bright music) - So above the worm condo, you have some strings here.

What are we doing here?

- Yeah.

So this is a way to take advantage of vertical space.

Which is how, - Okay.

- You have zero waste in terms of your footprint in the garden.

When you're in the city, and you have a small area, an urban area, going up frequently is your best option.

So that's how I can make the most out of this bed.

- Right, so in your planning, you really have to think strategically about the space you have.

So there's a way to kind of mix in different things.

- [Phaedra] Yeah.

- You wanna go up, not out if you have limited space.

- Yes.

And if you notice, I've only got this trellis along the back here with the strings.

And that's because the sun comes from that direction.

So I don't want the tomatoes here in the front, because they will block the sun for anything else.

- [Natalie] Oh.

- So I have my lower green beans here, and then I've got my taller trellis things in the back.

- Oh, I love the way you've mapped all of this out.

This is just like strategic, the whole thing.

- [Phaedra] Yes.

- How do you water all this?

- Great question.

Because this part of Virginia gets very hot and dry in the summer.

So let me go show you my rain barrels.

- All right, cool.

Let's go.

(bright music) All right!

We're at the rain barrels.

- We are.

And as you can see, I have two rain barrels.

They're connected.

- Okay.

- So this one fills up.

It comes from my drain spout.

- [Natalie] Right.

- [Phaedra] When this one fills, it overflows into this one.

- [Natalie] To the reserve.

- [Phaedra] Yes, yes.

- And then you have a system where it comes out into your watering cans, or your... - Yes, exactly.

So I've got a spigot at the bottom and I use watering cans.

You could also use a drip hose.

- [Natalie] Okay.

- With it.

Which I have done that before also.

And this is, gosh, I think 50, 60 gallons.

I don't even remember.

But it's a huge amount of free water.

- Yeah.

We like free!

- Yeah.

And the other thing is plants prefer rainwater.

It has vitamins and minerals in it, and it's also slightly more acidic than tap water, which plants like.

And so they really thrive on rainwater.

The city actually gives you an incentive for capturing that rainwater.

- Ooh.

- Because they don't want the sewers to back up anymore than we do.

- Clearly not.

- So you can apply to get a little bit of money off on your water bill when you put a rain barrel in place.

- Oh, this is so cool.

This is like all upside.

- Yes.

Yep.

- Next, Phaedra's gonna teach me how to do some container gardening of my own.

First we started with our soil to get the base there.

The next thing is that we mapped out which plants we wanted to put in the pot, so as not to overfill.

- It really is starting to look a little crowded to me.

- Right, yeah.

- It's a little, so we wanna edit.

- Okay.

- So I think we're gonna edit out the rosemary.

- And once we edited those plants down, we started to place.

First, with Thai basil.

Next, our borage.

Then we put in our oregano and our lemon thyme, and filled it out with our marigolds.

- I think we have a really good variety of edible herbs, some edible flowers.

We've got the borage flower, which is edible.

The Thai basil has a beautiful purple flower.

And then these edible marigolds.

- And it looks cool.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- It's beautiful.

Good job!

- I'm proud of it.

- I'm proud of you too!

- Ah!

(bright music) If you enjoyed this journey to zero waste, hit the subscribe button, and turn on notifications, so that you don't miss out on my next adventure.

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