Emily Anderson

I was wanting to make some tea from a patch of beebalm/horsemint, whatever it's called. But it's not flowering yet and I want to be sure. The leaves are very fragrant and are stemmed. I know there's a stemless variety but that's about it.
Thank you.

I think what you have planned will work. Here's what I learned the hard way with my first woody bed: Put a lot more dirt/compost on top. I only had about a foot of dirt to put on top of a 5 foot stack of wood. (18" of the stack is in a trench I dug.) So I topped it off with about 6" of mucky hay from the goat barn. The bed got really warm and moist for the first few months, but farther into summer it dried out because the hay worked like roof thatching! So I tore the top layer apart by hand and left it in clumps to let rain through. My second set of woody beds are made of about 2 feet of dirt on top of one foot of wood/wood chips. And very little straw/hay on top to prevent erosion until a cover crop is established. So I think they'll be ready to use a lot quicker.

dj niels wrote:My niche is not a community garden or park, but a 2-acre piece of mostly bare land on the edge of our little town that I purchased 2 years ago. It is zoned commercial, but I was able to get approval from the town council to start a market garden. It is still in the beginning stages, but last year (the first year we really got much of a harvest) I raised several hundred dollars worth of produce, and even had a few locals come buy veggies. My long-term goal is to put in a few swales and "Kratur-beets" (sunken instead of raised beds, which dry out too quickly here), and start growing fruit trees and berries and other perennial crops, in a more ecological way, with guilds and Dynamic Accumulators and Nitrogen fixers, etc, and eventually be able to serve as a kind of demonstration plot and education center to help others learn about more natural ways of living and being more self-reliant as a community.

We don't have any agriculture or even market gardens here, but I know people who plant gardens and have fruit trees and berries, so it is an interesting challenge for me to pull all these elements into a productive "food forest."

Wow. You're doing great. It's hard enough here in Missouri to keep everything hydrated. Hmm...I wonder if sunken beds would work here. Our springs are really wet, so I could only use them for plants that like to be wet, or later crops like bush beans, peppers, etc. So far I've been experimenting with woody beds on contour, because a lot of our land is rocky/steep. (And I try to avoid digging.)

David Goodman wrote:I've been trying to get my fellow Master Gardeners here to consider the idea. They've already given me quite a bit of leeway and find my outsider perspective on agriculture interesting. I may get a chance to work on a demonstration "urban farm" plot in the near future and I'm definitely going to work the food forest angle.

Sometimes it's hard to get a community to go along with things like this. There's a reason we remember great individuals, rather than great teams of people. If you're able to build your own food forest somewhere, then share that with others, inspiration may follow. Groups tend to be conservative in their approach, unless you can really turn on the charm and lead them forward.

I'm hoping that my personal food forest plot later becomes a model for community plots.

Just keep your chin up and keep getting the info out there. Enthusiasm is contagious!. Good luck!

I think you're right. I may spend this year working out kinks in my growing abilities at my parent's farm. There's a lot to learn. And the solo approach would be much simpler. Thanks for the input!

I'm building woody beds to rehab a rocky slope as well. Hopefully blueberries will like it in a year or two. It will be interesting to see how your solid rock foundation transforms. Thanks for sharing.

Marcella, me too! I get this feeling that in fifty years, what we are trying to pull off will be the norm. But I'll be 78 then. So I have to hope that persistence can speed it up a bit. Otherwise, I'll feel like I missed my purpose in life.

Very inspiring videos. Thank you. The only way this is going to work is if I can organize a team like in the beacon clip. Everyone I know is busy with their own families. Maybe highschool/college students would be interested in participating.
Time to think some more.

My town has two community gardens. Both only use annual row crops. I've been in contact with my city planner, and the next step is to convince the Master Gardeners who currently care for the plots. If all goes well, then I want to try for seed donations from local nurseries.

Has anyone already accomplished something similar? If so, what advice do you have regarding selling the idea to others and finding help with costs?

I want the food forest to be kid friendly; a refreshing oasis for everyone.

Emily

Very useful, thanks!