Inspiration Personified: Rosalind Creasy

Alternate title: My brush with the greatness that is Rosalind Creasy

Two years ago I was in a local used bookstore when I came across a book I'd always wanted but was no longer in print:

The Complete Book of Edible Landscaping by Rosalind Creasy (Sierra Club Books, 1982)

This book has had a profound influence on me and shaped me as a gardener because until I flipped through those pages, I never imagined landscaping with edible plants. I've read that book over and over and can look at my landscape in current form and credit Ros with specific things like our backyard orchard, which had previously been turf grass until we let it die and sheet mulched 18 months ago.

When I found out Rosalind Creasy was going to be speaking in Sacramento, I jumped at the chance to see her in person. A group of us went - myself, Carri (@betweenthelimes), and Kristi (@notsocraftycom) and we met up with Maureen (@plantanista) who is Ros' protege and we've been lucky enough to chat with via Twitter for some time now! (Aside: To me, 2009 will go down as the year of meeting people via Twitter who have changed my life in profound ways! Long live Twitter!)

We showed up at 10am and browsed the plant sale before the auditorium opened. Morningsun Herb Farm and Peaceful Valley were there, and I spent every little bit of cash I had on a few plants:

Captions above pictures

Sages (Salvia) 'Waverly' (white flowers), 'Indigo Blue' (bluish-purple flowers), and Globemallow (Sphaeralcea) 'New Haze Coral' (coral pink flowers)




'Sochi' Tea Camellia (Camellia sinensis)
I know this plant is persnickety to be polite about it. I know it might be sort of difficult to grow. But I forge head first into the challenge. Even Ros herself picked one up and spoke about her difficulty with them also! I feel in good company now. I remember first reading about this plant in her book, and it was sort of an aha! moment for me.




Pineapple Guava (Feijoa sellowiana)
I picked up two of these because of pollination purposes. That was before I realized that these are all over our subdivision as landscape plants! BUT those are often sheared before they flower, which is a shame.




I packed up the car with my haul and cracked the windows, and we ventured inside to get good seats for Ros' presentation and slide show. Maureen introduced Rosalind Creasy by telling the story of how Maureen stalked Ros they met and Maureen came to manage a garden that Ros had designed and created in the Bay Area. Maureen is still working in that same garden today, and loves every minute of it, crediting Ros for changing her life.

Rosalind Creasy captivated the entire room. Her slides chronicled her garden over time, and the different plants she recommends.

A few anecdotes from her presentation that I'd love to share with you:

On how she got into edible gardening
Her husband worked for IBM and whenever he traveled internationally, she tagged along and explored. She came to see how other countries included edibles in their gardens and had varieties of fruits and vegetables other than the 70-100 or so you typically see in the supermarkets in the United States.

It was a trip through the desert in Israel in which her guide lamented that the sand dunes that stretched as far as the eye could see used to be the most fertile land in the world. Through overgrazing and overfarming, the top soil became less and less and eventually blew away, leaving sand dunes behind. She likened this to what was occurring in the Santa Rosa (now Silicon) Valley which enjoyed 25 feet of alluvial top soil, where agriculture was giving way to row after row of tract homes. She along with a group of others were devoted to trying to save as much of the land as possible.

Upon her return to California, she had an epiphany that she shared with her Horticulture professor at Foothill College - the highest use of the land is to grow that which we eat, creating beautiful edible gardens. When he learned of her enthusiasm he replied, "That's called salad bowl gardening, and it's tacky." Insert laughs from audience! Little did he know that he planted the seed in Rosalind's mind for what became her work over the next 30 years.

On her amazing slide show
Our group was curious if she took her own pictures and the answer is yes. She's a gifted photographer - if you want a peek at what we saw, head over to her website www.rosalindcreasy.com.

On her amazing garden
Ros completely swaps out her garden twice a year - in September/October and April/May. I was tickled when she shared that all of the pictures in her slideshow were of her garden over the years - she was really the only person doing edible landscaping for a long time, and she needed it to seem as if she had visited many gardens that were doing it, so she was always redesigning and replanting! That cracked the audience up. Her commitment to the edible movement and her garden was inspiring.

On controlling "pests" in her garden
She volunteered that because her garden is an established ecosystem, nothing gets out of control. She hasn't had whiteflies, scale, or ants in years. Alternately, she hasn't seen a butterfly in years either.


On watering her garden
When she replants her garden twice a year, she also completely renovates her drip system. She became animated at this notion because she hates drip irrigation, calling it a necessary evil. Dave Roberts was in the audience and the discussion turned to Netafim - 1/2 inch and 1/4 inch drip tubing with in-line emitters. Ros is a 100% organic gardener and when Netafim was first developed 15-20 years ago, a strong herbicide was included in the plastic to be slow-released as to not clog up the emitters. This in-line tubing is now made by multiple companies and also comes without the herbicide. I heard Dave Roberts wax philosophical about this product in my Green Gardener class recently, and I'm sold. It's available at local irrigation shops, but typically not the big boxes.


After the presentation, our small group helped Ros pack up her items (squeeeee!) and we followed her to her book signing. When I presented her with my pristine original 1982 edition and explained how it came into my possession via used bookstore, she was floored.

Ros: "Have you seen how much these go for on Amazon?"

Me: "Not recently."

Ros: "Original hardback print editions of this book were going for $600 a couple years back. You should sell it!"

Me: "No way! I love this book. I bought it for $9!" as she signed it

Ros: "I don't even have an original copy of my book...You know my new edible landscaping book is coming out in the Spring..."

Me: "Yep, I've already preordered it on Amazon! Really looking forward to it."

I didn't really know what to say and was sort of stammering in the presence of greatness. She was kind, down-to-Earth, and drinking a beer. My kind of lady!

Left to Right: Kristi, Me, Ros, and Carri


















A day I'll never forget. And now ... a determination to reconcile our amazing landscape plan with edible landscaping!