Fresh New Fruit Landscaping completed an edible garden design and installation project in San Diego, CA, in September 2026.

San Diego backyard edible garden with decomposed granite paths, a cedar pergola and corrugated-metal raised vegetable beds

Site Conditions

The backyard had a lawn, while the side yard had bare dirt. A large stand of invasive Arundo donax (giant reed) grew along a side fence, with roots about 4 feet deep. The property also had a mature passion fruit vine on an old wire frame, a rotting and leaning wood boundary fence, and a leaking front-yard drip line. Existing palms, hibiscus and other mature plants were retained and incorporated.

Problem

The homeowners wanted to replace the backyard lawn with a lower-water, more usable edible garden. They also needed to address the bare-dirt side yard, the invasive Arundo donax, the deteriorating fence and the leaking irrigation, while keeping the mature passion fruit vine.

What We Did

Fresh New Fruit Landscaping removed the lawn and dug out the Arundo donax, including its root system, then leveled the yard. The team installed drip irrigation for the front and back yards on an automatic timer and repaired the front-yard leak. Landscape fabric went down first, then curving paths were shaped with staked black edging and covered with decomposed granite.

Landscape fabric and staked black edging laid for curving decomposed granite paths during installation in San Diego

A cedar pergola, about 6.6 by 6.6 feet, was built and placed to keep the mature passion fruit vine. The vine was trained onto the pergola in its own bordered planting ring, and a replacement passion fruit vine was added in September 2026. Two large corrugated-metal raised vegetable beds were installed along a brick planter wall and filled with organic garden soil. The side yard and all planting beds were planted and finished with wood-chip mulch, and about 80 linear feet of new fir fence was built on the homeowners' side.

Cedar pergola covered by a mature passion fruit vine above decomposed granite in a San Diego backyard

Materials and equipment included:

Decomposed granite
Landscape fabric (weed block)
Black edging
Cedar pergola
Corrugated-metal raised beds
Organic garden soil
Wood-chip mulch
Fir fence
Drip irrigation with an automatic timer

Passion fruit vine in a bordered, mulched planting ring at the base of a cedar pergola in San Diego

Plants

The planting used 38 one-gallon, 3 five-gallon and 5 fifteen-gallon plants:

Landscape beds: lavender, mirror plant (coprosma), black aeonium and golden euonymus
Raised vegetable beds: kale, collards, strawberry, oregano, berries, squash, melon and heirloom tomatoes
Butterfly and hummingbird garden: butterfly bush, firecracker plant, Chilean strawberry, amaranth, lantana and bee balm
Epiphyte feature: tillandsias (air plants), bromeliads, an orchid and aeoniums mounted on palm trunks and bamboo
Drainage area: prostrate oregano and Chilean strawberry
Fruit: passion fruit vines on the cedar pergola

Epiphyte feature of tillandsias and bromeliads mounted on palm trunks beside a new fir fence in a San Diego garden

Mulched bromeliad and succulent bed with black edging next to a decomposed granite path and cedar pergola in San Diego

Result

The homeowners use the raised beds, which are now growing cabbage, tomatoes, kale and chives. The passion fruit vine is producing heavily and has already covered the pergola.

Wood-chip mulched planting bed with existing hibiscus and palms along a new fir fence in a San Diego backyard

Service Area

Fresh New Fruit Landscaping is a licensed California C-27 landscaping contractor (License #1097486) serving San Diego, CA, and San Diego County.

Edible Garden Design & Installation in San Diego, CA