Days earlier I thought about all the hands that tended this land before me. The previous owner, Helen harvested berries here, probably sharing some with the neighbor on the hill above - Paul's mother, Joyce. Fifty years ago Helen and Ralph Wilson produced enough food for five children and a dairy herd on what was then known as Riverbend Farm. If Ralph and Helen were watching this project from above, they were probably scratching their heads. Instead of clearing or suppressing the forest, we were creating one.
Imitating nature's pattern of succession (see illustration), we selectively substituted the customary succession plants with edible, medical and culinary plants. Annual vegetable beds excused themselves into the rightful place of annual weeds. Sorrel, asparagus, rhubarb, culinary herbs and medicinals relieved the perennial weeds and grasses from their posts. If all goes well, the shrubs and ground covers will bear currants, gooseberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, cranberries, strawberries, serviceberries, buffaloberries, honeyberries and elderberries. And our newly planted vines and trees will yield kiwis, grapes, apricots and paw paws. This is sometimes called "forest gardening", not that we are gardening in the forest but rather gardening like the forest.
As much as possible, resources were gathered from our own land (compost) or community (wood chips), including the resources of a young couple new to our area. We hired Eran Rhodes and Steph Consani of Sacred Earth Edible Landscaping to help us realize our vision in only 3 days.
I'll be posting photos as time goes on to show and tell about the progress. For now I will just close with sharing how good it felt to use my 'ripe' IRA holdings to invest in this project. I have confidence this will produce the highest yields over the short and long term.
A blackberry, blueberry, raspberry and honey berry bush in the foreground wait for the annual garden veggies to arrive.
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