PLANT SELECTIONS FOR EDIBLE GARDENS AND URBAN AGRICULTURE IN XERISCAPE LANDSCAPING

Abstract: Due to the current climate crisis, water has become more important than ever before. Drought and the difficulty of accessing clean water have brought to light applications that reduce water consumption. Xeriscape applications are one of the applications that have begun to take their place among landscape architecture studies in this sense. In applications carried out with the xeriscape landscaping concept, plants with low water consumption are used, soil surfaces are covered with mulch applications as much as possible, and ground covers with high water consumption, such as grass, are avoided. These designs reduce water consumption, create spaces with aesthetic value, and enable the emergence of biomass that stores CO2 against the global climate crisis. The first question of the study is to investigate whether the mentioned Xeriscape applications can be used for purposes other than the mentioned benefits. For this purpose, the usability of urban agricultural practices and edible garden practices that came from the past to the present to maintain the productivity obtained from urban soil surfaces in water-limited applications, that is, xeriscape applications, was investigated. With this approach, the selection of plants that can be used as foodstuffs and the use of selected plants with the xeriscape approach were examined.