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Sustainable Irrigation

He has been installing water-efficient drip-irrigation and hardscapes for many years and can easily do so for your garden; his fees will be offset by your water-saving costs (costs will increase; they have to). Perhaps more important, your decision to install an efficient drip system will give you the satisfaction of knowing that you are helping with sustainability and preserving this planet for your children. He is certified as a "Qualified Water-Efficient Landscaper" and will give you a beautiful garden with minimal water use.

Very attractive vegetable plants are available that provide a lovely landscape and supply good crops. You can have a spectacular looking edible garden that will ease the pain on your budget and give you fresh vegetables, herbs and fruits year after year. They will grow in containers or on window ledges. By selecting mostly perennial vegetables that return each year, there's less replanting.

These perennials will die down during the colder months, but come springtime they'll shoot up again and produce another great crop. In additional to ornamental vegetables around your garden, consider planting perennial herbs instead of shrubs or ground cover. Also recommended are highly decorative fruit trees. If you're short on space there are many dwarf varieties of fruit trees that are not only pretty but prolific producers of fresh fruit, and grow easily in containers. Meyer Lemons and Key Limes are perfect examples of these.

Mix edible plants with other plants to form beautiful combinations and different colors and textures. Try planting a herb such as curly parsley amongst your lobelia, pansies, strawberries or dianthus. Sage, rosemary and oregano look sensational and also adapt nicely to container gardening.

What about a bed of all the new and different types of lettuce? A mixture of all the spectacular colors and leaf variations would add texture and variety to your garden.

You won't have to sacrifice beauty or design to grow your edible garden: Sugar snap peas have gorgeous white, pink or purple flowers, and they produce delicious peas.

Sage and salvias have delicate blue and purple flowers. Nasturtiums flower in orange, red and yellow and the blossoms are edible.

Dill have gorgeous yellow colored blooms and fava beans produce white and red flowers. The chive plant has sensational purple globe-shaped flowers. Perennial vegetables and herbs include ginger, dandelions, asparagus, rhubarb, fennel, broccoli, garlic, sorrel, sweet potatoes, and artichokes.