As I wander through life I always come back to the same old question. Why am I here? The answer is for the children and their children and on and on…. Seven Generations! As some of you know we have been working hard to manifest an edible forest garden at The Farm School in Summertown, Tn and I am happy to say that it is not finished and never will be. Children of all ages will be able to help this garden evolve over lifetimes by planting trees, shrubs, herbs, groundcovers, roots, vines, and love.
Laying the design out.
The first phase of this garden took a crew of ten 6 days to construct. We had to cut down existing trees to make room for sunlight to enter the system. DISTURBANCE! We then started to layout the design with builders lime and flags. The fence also had to get contructed to keep out the deer.
Re- Evaluating the Design before we start construction.
On day two construction was underway. A series of swales were placed using a simple water level called a Bunyip Level. The Keyhole Flower Polyculture started to get double dug. The fence post holes were being dug and we were having a blast.
Digging the Twales! Swales and Trails anyone.
The Keyhole Flower Petal Polyculture. UNDER CONSTRUCTION!!!
The next few days were spent building the garden with a visit to Joe Dirt’s bioactive compost tea operation.
The famous Joe Dirt showing us his Awesome tea operation.
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- Tea Anyone??? 275 gallon of tea went on this garden. Welcome Microbes!
By day 5 the garden started to take shape. The fence was in and the sheet mulch was starting to get on the ground. The school children, expert sheet mulchers, helped us recycle The Farm Community’s paper and cardboard.
Principal and Students having fun with cardboard.
Family Fun! Mulching the Garden.
On the final day we finished mulching and started to plant the first phase of the garden. Yates Persimmon (donated by Edible Landscaping), Chickasaw plum, Nanking cherry, Jujube, Asian pear, Seckle pear, Aronia, Gooseberry, yarrow, coreopsis, jerusalem artichoke, paw paws and more. What a great feeling! We did it!
Wade and Sophie planting trees.
The Flower! Need I say more.
I want to thank The Farm Community and The Farm school for manifesting this for the kids. I also want to thank the crew. Sophie, Jeff, Shane, Brian, Matt, Jessie, Wade, Josh, Jennifer, Jess, Peter, The Farm School Kids, Kristin, Ben, Joey, Mark, and Jorge.
We hope to encourage all schools to build perennial forest gardens and demonstrate The Farm School’s Enchanted Edible Forest Garden as an example.
PEACE!