Forest School for Children - Edible Landscape Design

Hello all! I’m new here and so happy to have found this forum! I need some advice. I’ve recently built a farm and forest school for children and need help with selecting the best plants for the landscaping around the property. My vision is for this to be like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory for the children but a natural and healthy outdoor version.

I’m currently working on the design around the main school house and walkway leading up to it. There’s a little slope going down to the driveway with the school up on a hill. Around the stone walkway, I’d like to plant edible plants that will also help with erosion. I’m newer to permaculture though and could really use some advice. Currently I’m thinking rosemary might be nice but I’m not sure what else I could add or if rosemary would even be a good idea.

We’re located in McDonough, GA just south of Atlanta. Plant hardiness zones 8A/8B.

Thank you so much for your help in advance!!!

I’m sorry I’m not sure what would be ideal for your climate, but I love what you are doing. I like to start by seeing if there are any native plants that will do what I need for a space.

Welcome to Permies, Ash!  

Great topic, btw.  Nature Deficit Disorder is a real thing, and what you are envisioning is so needed.  

Best Plants for your Edible Landscape:

In my opinion the best plants for your landscape will foundationally be the ones that are already there, or in your community.  The natives are great because, for many of them, they will thrive without having to do hardly anything for them.  If any of them have edible properties, then that is a major plus!  

I did a quick google search and found this free Georgia specific PDF: “The Complete Guide to Native Plants for Georgia”

https://secure.caes.uga.edu/extension/publications/files/pdf/B%20987_12.PDF

It looks like some really great permaculture-esque species! Sugar Maple, Black Walnut, Hickory, lots of Pines (any for Pine-Nuts?), lots of Oak species, Downy Serviceberry, Blue berry and other Vaccinium spp, Ogeechee Lime, Winterberry, and much more.  

To help the kids learn about how some things can only be found in very specific areas, such as yours, and how these can relate to the wildlife, which might have mutualistic or symbiotic relations with those plants?

“The Web of Life” game was one of our favorites to play with the kiddos when organizing Children’s Nature Programs. A great resource that I found myself going to to get inspiration for other activities was the book “Sharing Nature With Children.”  

https://archive.org/details/sharingnaturewit00corn

One thing that you will often run into with any suggestions found in these forums is..."It Depends".    It can be tricky to offer the "best" advice without really knowing the nitty gritty details of your unique environment, goals/intentions, and gardening style.  

Permaculture

What is Your definition, or understanding, for what permaculture is?  What has attracted you to this word, design system, and potential life-style?  

Nowadays there are so many “permaculture” teachers, and a lot of them have much different teachings and interpretations.  Is there anybody that you have followed that you really enjoy the work of so far?  

Other potential species

When the focus is kids, then anything sensational, in my opinion.  Variations of smells, tastes, and textures, or with as many relationships to your environment as can be expressed, and taught about.  

One of my favorite “weeds” to show kids was the Mimosa “Touch-me-not.” It is a plant that responds to touch by very quickly closing up its leaves.  

Venus Fly Traps could be fun to have around.

Any of the “weeds” that are being targeted by most homeowners, which often have poisons sprayed on them, such as Dandelions.  What are the Good things about having them?  What are the reasons to not get rid of them?  

You could also find out from the kids! What are their favorite plants, fruits, etc? If you have a suitable environment, get those species planted, and better yet have them help you plant them.

I have found that, sometimes, it is fun to let the kids lead the programs in this way.  To go with the flow of their interests and attention spans.  

Will you be doing any weaving or textile type activities?  It might be fun to incorporate species that have good fibre materials, such as Nettles for strings/threads, or Willow for weaving.  

Jam making?  Im sure there are dozens of berry species you could grow.  

"Paw paws" Asimina triloba would be one of my choices.  

Any of the food staples that have lots of history attached to them.  Maize/Corn, Millet, Potatoes, etc. Maybe even a small patch of Rice just to show the kids what it looks like in real life?  

Edible flowers.

Incorporating some non-invasive exotics could be a fun project too, and see if you get into the "Landrace" game, where over time you can cultivate your own varieties adapted to your own garden or edible food forest.  

Bananas, Jujube....  

Layers of a food forest.

Are there any seed libraries near you?  This could be a way to figure out what people are already growing near you, and can help you find varieties already adapted to your region.  

https://georgialibraries.org/seed-library/

Welcome to the forum, Ash!

I would love to hear about what you plan to teach the kids.

That is a cute schoolhouse.

Here are some threads about edible plants for kids:

https://permies.com/t/permaculture-playground

https://permies.com/t/172954/Garden-Baby-Explore

https://permies.com/t/110778/plants-stimulate-multi-sensory-experience

https://permies.com/t/110753/Talking-school-edible-landscaping

https://permies.com/t/110842/Children-Community-Garden

I like the suggestion of having some native plants, but I also wouldn't shy away from domesticated plants that could be part of the school lunches. Many kids seem to think that grocery store food just magically appears from the back room, rather than being grown on plants with needs. Along those lines, growing some classic annuals between trees and berry bushes, would introduce the concept of polycultures and the layers of a healthy forest and allow them to discover how much better "real" food tastes.

As a child, I was obsessed with identifying (and capturing) plants and animals. I LOVED moss and animals like lizards, newts, turtles, and even snakes… we would go out to the local national park reservoir almost every day in the summer (my mother was a teacher) and besides catching 100 eastern red spotted newts in one day (and then releasing them), I built a lot of “islands” and “dams.”

Once, I tried to dig up a sassafras tree so I could replant it and then make sassafras tea… unfortunately it was growing from a runner from the main tree twenty yards away and after digging for an hour I gave up.

A really thrilling moment of doing garden-type stuff myself came at age 10 after I read a book about vermicomposting. Off I went into the yard and started my own worm compost bin in an unused terrarium.

For a kid like me, a forest garden for kids would have been heaven. I wish I’d had someone to show me how to harvest and forage among wild plants. And I’d have loved to build things… be involved in projects… like collecting stones and building a habitat for lizards and snakes… building swales and small hugelkukturs (if I had known what those were—I built dams and forts instead)… playing in mud, and so on.

I have a friend who works with Montessori kindergarteners and part of her job (which she loves) is taking the kids outside and teaching them to play in the mud.

I’m rambling a bunch, but to answer your question more specifically… what about culinary herbs and spices? Aromatic flowers and leaves that can be pinched and crushed and sniffed? Rosemary fits that description! Also plants like sage, coriander, dill, parsley, fennel, bee balm, lemon balm or other mint species, lavender, oregano… mixed with some ground covers, perhaps, thyme or strawberries or violets… maybe some edible shrubberies. In our area, that would be something like box huckleberries or creeping blueberry. I don’t know what’s native to Georgia. Or what the soil is like in that spot.

Possibly also consider plants that are vigorous and wouldn’t mind wandering feet crushing them from time to time, especially if you’ll be beginning a kid’s forest garden experience nearby.

Of course, as others have said, “it depends” and no one can tell you what decision to make, but these are just some of the plants I’ve been considering near some of my paths here in Virginia.

Oooh, what a fun question!

A lot of culinary herbs would do well in Georgia and are great fun for kids to touch, taste, and smell. And the seeds are fun to collect.

Strawberries are a good one. You might have some pest and disease pressure in Georgia but kids love strawberries and ever bearing varieties give kids a daily hide and seek game. You'll get strawberries year round in your climate. They are fun to mix in to whatever ground covers you use. Creeping thyme would be a good companion.

Figs would be great as a shrubby border. Keep them pruned in a bushy shape. You'll get two crops a year, plus the leaves are fun for kids' play. And they are easy to propagate.

Grapes are a no-brainer for your area, especially the native muscadine. They will make a lush thick wall wherever you plant them. You could easily train them into making a tunnel or a playhouse. And you'll have enough fruit to send bags home with your students.

Blueberries are good if you get the right variety for your climate. Buy them from local growers, not mail order.

Mulberries are fun for kids to eat and to play with.

Plums, pawpaw, persimmons are all native too (and fun tongue twister).

Please keep us updated on your project!

Make some room to grow peanuts and cotton too! You've got a wealth of education in those two crops. You have to get a permit in Georgia if you grow cotton so you don't accidently get some bug or disease that spreads and wipes out the commercial crops. But cotton is a beautiful plant and so sensory rich, as well as all the history, culture, environmental stuff to talk about.

R West wrote:

I have a friend who works with Montessori kindergarteners and part of her job (which she loves) is taking the kids outside and teaching them to play in the mud.

Playing in mud is the best. Kid sized shovels and set some perimeters, give them a trickling hose if the ground is dry and hard. You'll never have to dig another hole again. My kids plus the neighborhood kids have dug a lot of my fruit trees holes. They get a little annoyed when I stick a plant in their hole to China but then they just get started on a new spot. They are currently digging me a root cellar (that'll keep them busy for a year or two). 😂

I showed them how to make cob bricks and they have plans for this spring to build some walls for their fort currently made of logs and brush and old pallets.

This may not be what you are looking for, however I taught a year of preschool and although it was in far north Montana, and NOT in the summer,  I love the idea of making a kid-sized reading teepee/green bean trellis where kids could pick and eat fun veggies while they read or look at books  in nice weather. I would grow purple green beans because they are cool, and also interplant cucamelons because who doesn't love tiny watermelons that taste like lemony cucumbers?  All things mini are my choices for kids' spaces. Also, I found that purple cauliflower gets eaten by kids who 'hate' cauliflower, which may be able to grow at the feet of sunflowers for fun.  Strawberries and seedless grapes, like others mentioned, are amazing and thornless raspberries and blackberries as well as dwarf apple trees everywhere, are my other choices.  Because I'm crazy like that, I would probably plant pink and yellow dandelions in a smart location and lots and lots of red/purple clover, teaching all the bennies of eating them but not just from anywhere (chemical sprayed places, etc).  For instance,  I eat my 'lawn' that is now 90% edible grasses/weeds much to the neighbors' dismay...they think I've lost my mind but are glad when I've picked the dandelions before the seeds blow toward their manicured and weed-n-feeded landscaping. I love your beautiful school!  Have a blast with all of your projects!

Re' Burton wrote:This may not be what you are looking for, however I taught a year of preschool and although it was in far north Montana, and NOT in the summer,  I love the idea of making a kid-sized reading teepee/green bean trellis where kids could pick and eat fun veggies while they read or look at books  in nice weather. I would grow purple green beans because they are cool, and also interplant cucamelons because who doesn't love tiny watermelons that taste like lemony cucumbers?  All things mini are my choices for kids' spaces. Also, I found that purple cauliflower gets eaten by kids who 'hate' cauliflower, which may be able to grow at the feet of sunflowers for fun.  Strawberries and seedless grapes, like others mentioned, are amazing and thornless raspberries and blackberries as well as dwarf apple trees everywhere, are my other choices.  Because I'm crazy like that, I would probably plant pink and yellow dandelions in a smart location and lots and lots of red/purple clover, teaching all the bennies of eating them but not just from anywhere (chemical sprayed places, etc).  For instance,  I eat my 'lawn' that is now 90% edible grasses/weeds much to the neighbors' dismay...they think I've lost my mind but are glad when I've picked the dandelions before the seeds blow toward their manicured and weed-n-feeded landscaping. I love your beautiful school!  Have a blast with all of your projects!

Yes to everything you said!
My kids love the purple green beans. There are purple snap peas too. Oh and there are beautiful peas with vibrant flowers and extra curly tendrils, all of which are edible and super fun texturally and tasty-wise.

Radishes and then eating the radish seed pods later are another kid favorite. The same with kale and kale seed pods.

Baby gherkin cucumbers and lemon cucumbers are my kids' favorite cucumbers.  In Georgia, you could also easily grow a wide variety of melons. There are so many crazy fun varieties out there.

Sunflower houses are fun and maybe even easier to grow since you don't need a trellis.

The mention of cauliflower made me giggle as I remembered why my cauliflower never makes it in the house. The first time I planted it, I thought the deer were eating it until a kid showed me how they were just bending over and taking big chomps out of it.

Ash Ragen wrote:Hello all! I’m new here and so happy to have found this forum! I need some advice. I’ve recently built a farm and forest school for children and need help with selecting the best plants for the landscaping around the property. My vision is for this to be like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory for the children but a natural and healthy outdoor version.

I’m currently working on the design around the main school house and walkway leading up to it. There’s a little slope going down to the driveway with the school up on a hill. Around the stone walkway, I’d like to plant edible plants that will also help with erosion. I’m newer to permaculture though and could really use some advice. Currently I’m thinking rosemary might be nice but I’m not sure what else I could add or if rosemary would even be a good idea.

We’re located in McDonough, GA just south of Atlanta. Plant hardiness zones 8A/8B.

Thank you so much for your help in advance!!!

I think I have a thread around here somewhere about edible things my kids love munching on. But, here's some of them:

Short, perennial edibles plants:

Chives! They're a bit spicy, but pretty and edible. Both my kids have always loved munching on them. My son also loves eating

Sorrel! Sheep sorrel French sorrel, oxblood sorrel, wood sorrel. All are fun and sweet and tangy. The oxblood sorrel also makes pretty edible flowers.

Pansies--edible flowers and leaves

Strawberries--can't go wrong with those!

Mint, especially chocolate mint. The flavor is intense, but delicious

Kale and other brassicas. My kids love munching on kale leaves, and really love eating the kale flowers as well as wild mustard flowers and radish flowers

Sweet Cicily. It spreads, but my kids like eating the licorice-tasting pods and flowers

Rhubarb. I loved munching on this as a kid!

Dandelions--my kids love eating the flowers and blowing the seeds!

Herbs, like sage, rosemary, thyme, parsley, lovage (which tastes like celery). My kids don't usually much too much on these, but they do every so often.

Taller edible shrubs, in rough order of when they ripen:

Honeyberries. Not as tasty as blueberries. But similar in flavor and often ripen before even strawberries

Salmonberries. Not as tasty as pretty much anything else. More watery. They spread and have thorns. But, kids eat them and the hummingbirds love their flowers, and they ripen as early as honeyberries. Bright yellow, orange, and red berries.

Red Huckleberries. These are native to the Pacific Northwest and probably wouldn't like your area. But, the tangy red berries ripen pretty early and are tasty. It's hard to pick a lot, though, because they're so tiny!

Trailing Blackberries. These are native to my area, but they are delicious and can be grown on berry trellises, and ripen really early

Mulberries. The black ones are messy, but they are tasty and often grow in places where blackberries don't grow. My kids don't care for them, but my husband loved them when he was little.

Raspberries! There's black ones, red ones, yellow ones, gold ones. Get all the fun, delicious colors if they grow well there!

Blueberries

Domesticated blackberries

My kids do NOT like black currants. We don't have any red currants, but those might be good? Basically, any berry is a hit with the kids!

If you're looking for a food forest sort of thing, here's some ideas off of the top of my head:

Things with taproots "dynamic accumulators":

Rhubarb

Sweet cicely

Dandelion

Lovage

Sorrel

Things that attract pollinators:

Salmonberries

Sweet cicily

Chives

Flowering kale and other brassicas!

Dandelions

Bulbing/clumping plants to help prevent weeds spreading:

Chives

Leeks

Elephant garlic

Hostas, which are actually edible

Daylillies--have edible flowers

I hope that helps some!

Maybe a lowbush blueberry too. I don’t think anyone mentioned that yet

Mark Beard wrote:Maybe a lowbush blueberry too. I don’t think anyone mentioned that yet

I take that back. Doesn’t look like any of low bush species are good for your climate.

In addition to the above, two very easy to grow plants that thrive in my zone 8 garden that are great for interesting kids are tree collards and fennel.

Tree collards look like Dr. Seuss drawings and are very nutritious and tasty perennial alternatives for other brassicas. They also grow prolific potential cuttings for giveaways to grow in their own gardens.

Fennel can create an umbrella of flowers buzzing with dozens of species of pollinators (mostly stingless, and even ones that could have not stung me walking through them). They are also extremely easy to grow and propagate from seeds or divisions. The bulbs are excellent in soups and along with the greens make an excellent pesto many would not be able to distinguish from basil pesto.

These are both early succession plants as well, and can help create a faster forest feeling garden, especially for little kids. Fennel has been a good nursery plant for heat/sun sensitive perennials with its dappled shade from feathery foliage that is easy to cut back for chop and drop mulch.

Strawberries were also any easy early win at the Crescent City Food Forest I designed with kids and the public in mind. They love hugelkulture beds.

Good work, welcome and best of luck! For better future answers and your own convenience, the zone and location info in your post can go in your profile or signature and we can all be more helpful and contextual for you.

Jenny Wright wrote:Make some room to grow peanuts and cotton too! You've got a wealth of education in those two crops. You have to get a permit in Georgia if you grow cotton so you don't accidently get some bug or disease that spreads and wipes out the commercial crops. But cotton is a beautiful plant and so sensory rich, as well as all the history, culture, environmental stuff to talk about.

I love this suggestion.

I have seen a potted cotton plant and it was really pretty as Jenny suggested.

Peanuts have a history also to maybe that is Texas history.

Responding to the post about a Forest School:

Jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes) are native to that part of Georgia. They grow about 11 feet tall, have beautiful yellow flowers similar to a sunflower, but smaller and the tubers (harvest in fall and all winter) are delicious (taste like Irish potatoe) and a good source of fiber and inulin (sp?). They are invasive, and will thrive even if you try to harvest all the tubers. Inevitably, some small chips will come off the tubers, or you will miss a small tuber and you will have more artichokes next year.

You may also want to consider blackberries, which will give you fruit in early June. Good source of a lesson to show the perspective that thorn bushes can have delicious fruit, not the perspective that berry bushes have thorns (I stole this from someone on another permies thread).

For a quick hit with kids, have them start a few nasturtium seeds on the first day. They germinate quickly, have brilliant colors and the flowers are edible. It could work into your curriculum nicely. It’s so important for kids to learn about growing their own food. I love what you’re doing!

What fun!  I just got nervous when I read an early post that suggested winterberry; I have quite a few on my property, but the pretty berries are poisonous.  I don't know that I would risk it in the areas where kids will be frequenting, especially if they are taught that so much is edible.  
I would also try to concentrate on planting things that span the largest timeframe: late winter/early spring through fall and winter.  I think it would also be fun to plant some grains that kids could harvest, thresh and cook.  Are there any bodies of water on the property?  That could introduce a whole other biome.  
I just checked about something like Ostrich ferns for erosion, but the information said their hardiness range was only 3-7.  Too bad, I love to pick fiddleheads in the spring, and I bet kids would too.  Any edible ferns in your area?  I looks woodsy there, so you'd want a shade tolerant planting on the slope.  I also checked wintergreen, but it, too, is 3-7.  Anyway, kudos to you for what you're doing! I live in zone 4/5, so zone 8 is out of my realm of understanding!

Sounds like a lot of fun!

SO think dimensionally. Start below the ground with mycelium and food/healing roots. This encourages thought and makes things even more magical because kids will start thinking about what living things they may be walking on. Move to forest floor where the action of seeds and nuts happens, then upward.
Above ground is the easy part.
Maybe an area of your project can be devoted to the poisonous/noxious plants and mushrooms. Not to play with but to learn to identify for safety purposes.
Of course you will need an area where they can move dirt with impunity and prospect for what dwells beneath.

So much is learned from observing nature.
I have always loved maple syrup time because being in the bush as a child taught me the order things wake up in, and in the fall while hunting I learned the order they go to sleep.
Dad taught me about mushrooms and tracking and foraging from the time I could keep up on the trails.

Nature has stiff rules. You can count on them.
A child will never forget what they learn in the bush.  

Best of luck!

Hey Ash, welcome!

I love your idea, and would like to 'yes, and' you into considering SKIP as an additional curriculum your site could host and/or a means to accomplish some of your goals. Permies.com/SKIP

Regarding rosemary, and any other definitively edible plants, you may consider taste tests with the age groups with which you plan to work. My son when he was seven, found rosemary leaves much too strong for his liking (the same ones that I was worried were too bland to cook with).

Lastly, on knowledge resources, I think a book on foraging specific to your biome/growing zone would be helpful, too. Thomas Elpel writes a great one for the Rocky Mountain West, I'm sure there's a similarly great one for your semi-continental warm georgia area.

Welcome again!

Welcome to Permies!

You have a great idea and gorgeous space.

Here is a link to a teaching song about plant parts.
It even has hand motions.

For perennial food plants I would  start my focus on understory shrubs and trees: Dogwood, Spicebush, Chinquapin, Appalachian PawPaw, Blueberry, etc.. Then Id shift my focus to canes and vines: Wild Grapevines, Blackberries, wild Raspberries etc.. Then Id look at starchy tubers and yams.

The first thing that comes to my mind would have to be Peaches...

plantain for healing

So much enthusiasm!  This just sounds like so much fun.  I think some one may have said local weeds.  Around here we have prickly lettuce, lambs quarters, cheese weed, plantain, dandelions all nutritious and some medicinal …. Good chance to teach about not eating if you don’t know what’s been happening to the plant before you got there… poisons,  or if it’s growing where there’s a lot of car exhaust.

Kids like to do silly things.  If nettle grows there, a patch of nettle could provide kids a chance to daringly eat a nettle leaf (fold the leaf spiny side in and chew before it can unfold.  Another thing kids like to do is test the limits.  A warning that “this plant stings, don’t touch it” is an invitation to some kids to go ahead and touch it, and they will, or they weren’t paying attention, touch it by accident and get stung.  Both valuable lessons for kids with that kind of learning style.  And I would have to check this first, but plantain juice might sooth the sting….  The nettles haven’t come out yet here so I won’t be able to test that for awhile.