You can have a beautiful garden and eat it, too!

Three master gardeners will give a free workshop on Edible Landscaping followed by a brief presentation on composting and a visit to the Central Coast Green Team’s Edible Landscaping Demonstration Garden on Saturday, January 25.

The workshop and presentations will be from 10 a.m. to noon on at the Elwin Mussell Senior Center, 510 Park Ave., Santa Maria.

The Central Coast Green Team invited the University of California Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners of Santa Barbara County to put on the workshop as a way to encourage local residents to create edible landscaping gardens in their homes. The Green Team also invites participation in their demonstration garden, which is located behind the Mussell Center in the Santa Maria Community Garden.

The presentation is cosponsored by the Central Coast Green Team, UCCE Master Gardeners of Santa Barbara County, Central Coast Gardeners, Central Coast Geranium Society and Engel & Gray, Inc.

Master Gardeners Diane Galvan, Karen McConaghy and Katy Renner will define edible landscaping, provide guidelines for a good edible landscape plan, and discuss planting, maintaining, harvesting and storing edible landscape foods safely. The workshop will help persons transform their landscapes into ones which are sustainable and provide fresh, healthy produce, herbs and fruit year-round.

A representative from Engel & Gray will give a brief presentation on the city’s composting program and how using compost is beneficial to gardens.

The Green Team invites participation in their demonstration garden, which is located behind the Mussell Center. Jeanne Sparks, Green Team executive director, will give a brief presentation about the demonstration garden at the end of the meeting then will invite attendees to visit the garden and become involved in it.

“We hope people will be inspired by what they learn at the workshop and start their own edible landscaping gardens,” Sparks said. “Growing food at home is rewarding. The vegetables are not only healthy, but tasty, since they can be harvested at their peak ripeness the same day they are eaten. We hope to promote more healthy lifestyles by getting people to grow some of their food at home. And they can do it in an aesthetically pleasing manner. They can have a beautiful garden and eat it, too!”

For more information, contact Jeanne Sparks at Jeanne@jeannesparks.com, or visit www.centralcoastgreenteam.org.