In the garden: “It doesn’t have to look like a farm” 

Edible herbs and flowers can be used in tinctures, teas and all manner of dishes.  Photo by Wild by Nature

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When sisters and new co-homeowners Meagan and Sarah Gartlan first laid eyes on the front yard of their semi-detached house near Bloor Street West and Dufferin Street a few years ago, there wasn’t much to love.  

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“It was a parking spot,” Meagan says, covered in “ugly paving stones and very stubborn grass.” So the sisters tore it up, brought in a truckload of organic compost, bought some herb seedlings and within a couple of seasons had skullcap, yarrow, anise hyssop, rhubarb and wild ginger growing where the stones and grass used to be — plus a few shiitake mushroom logs hidden among the greenery and a patch of lettuce and kale tucked into the middle and hidden from street view. 

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“It’s not perfectly tidy,” admits Sarah. “There’s a lot going on.” One neighbour was more direct about it: “Sarah, the whole neighbourhood is wondering what you’re doing with your garden,” she quoted her as saying. 

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That tension — between wanting a productive garden that grows food and not wanting your yard to read as neglected — is at the centre of a gradual shift happening on urban residential streets. Homeowners are increasingly trying to have it both ways: maintaining the curb appeal some neighbours expect, along with a garden that can feed them. The claim, according to the people who design these gardens for a living, is that it’s possible. 

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Chris Wong, who owns Young Urban Farmers, a company that designs edible gardens for homeowners, has watched the old hesitation around food gardens erode. The front yard, he points out, is often the only patch of a property with enough sun for vegetables to thrive. “It’s prime food-growing real estate,” says Wong. “But it doesn’t have to look like a farm. Food and beauty are not mutually exclusive.” 

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Maria Solakofski runs Wild by Nature, an urban botanical farm, out of her front and back yards. Photo by Wild by Nature

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Maria Solakofski runs Wild by Nature, an urban botanical farm, out of her front and back yards.  

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“People really care what is on the outside of your house,” she says of the social pressure around curb appeal. Her front yard is filled with flowers stretching to the sidewalk — arnica, echinacea, peonies, lavender, St John’s Wort — a bounty that is entirely edible. Her plants are the raw material for teas, oils and tinctures that she produces and sells at Evergreen Brickworks in Toronto, yet the bed still looks like a flower garden. 

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“I wanted something beautiful to look at, but it has to stay wild in my way,” she says. Solakofski grows a bit of everything in her gardens: there are herbs, edible flowers, vegetables, berries, fruit trees and even an almond tree. “I think it might be the only one in Toronto,” she says.  

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It tracks that Solakofski, an herbalist, would have more than 70 varieties of herbs in her garden. But she recommends that gardeners carefully consider their own motivations for growing an edible garden. Is the goal saving on grocery bills; making organic teas; or having fresh greens for salads? Once they know the why, they should consider how much time they’re willing to commit. Will they be in the garden every day, or are they more of an hour-on-the-weekend gardener?