Nôtre Potager

People living in urban and suburban areas are disconnected from agriculture. The food that we consume is grown many miles from our homes and we have little knowledge of how that food travels from seed to plate. Incorporating edible landscapes into public land in cities brings us into direct contact with the food we eat. Edible landscapes are neighborhood scale sites with the specific purpose of producing food. Edible landscapes were typically developed with a focus on food production and little attention to aesthetics, the general public often thinks of these landscapes as messy and farm-like. Through quality design edible landscapes can be productive and aesthetically pleasing. The combination of these ideals creates exciting and unique solutions that differ from the edible landscapes of the past. Attention to site and community design principles as well as growing conditions results in a new type of public landscape that can enhance a community’s appearance while feeding its residents.