One of the most precious resources in an urban ecosystem is space. Multi-purpose landscapes, often referred to as foodscapes or edible landscapes, are a powerful tool for making the most of limited home landscapes and urban greenspaces. Vikram will discuss best management practices for integrating fruits and vegetables into landscape design ideas, as gardeners strive to save water and resources, beautify their urban environments, and address food insecurity.

Vikram Baliga is a horticulture professor at Texas Tech University (TTU) in Lubbock, Texas, and the Assistant Dean of Outreach and Engagement for the TTU Davis College of Agricultural Science and Natural Resources. He has a Ph.D. in horticulture and teaches hundreds of college students every year about plant science and the environment. His research and educational interests are in water conservation, urban agriculture and landscapes, and resource sustainability. Vikram is the author of Plants to the Rescue, a non-fiction book for middle-grade readers about the ways plants and plant science are helping in our fight against pollution, hunger, and climate change. He’s also the host of the Planthropology Podcast and active online science communicator. When Vikram isn’t telling people about plants, he spends his time hanging out with his family, making cool things in his woodshop, or taking pictures of stars, bugs, and beautiful landscapes.