The Layered Edible Garden: A Beginner’s Guide to Creating a Productive Food Garden Layer by Layer

Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, edible garden consultant Chung (former coordinator, UBC Botanical Garden’s Horticultural Training Program) shares how to create a beautiful, sustainable edible garden in layers—canopy and sub-canopy trees, shrubs, herbaceous perennials, climbers, annuals, ground covers, and root crops—using mostly edible perennial plants. Her book opens by sharing the benefits of this type of garden, which include biodiversity, soil health, and lower maintenance, and detailing its eight layers. Chung offers instructions on how to plan, prepare a site, and plant. She also covers maintenance of the garden, propagation, and pruning. She suggests the best way to layer and recommends specific plants to include, many of which will be unfamiliar to the average vegetable gardener. Each entry includes a brief description of the plant, several beautiful color photographs showing different aspects of it, and a sidebar highlighting edible parts, mature size, light requirements, native range, flowering/fruiting times, hardiness temperatures, ecological benefits, pests and diseases, propagation, and pollination requirements.