Food Forest

Food Forest - The Beginning

When we were first planned the High River Community Gardens we wanted to include something for all our gardeners to share.

The Food Forest was the answer. At the Riverside site a large area was reserved for a food forest and at the start it looked pretty bare, but it was a start.

The food forest has undergone some incredible changes since it’s original inception in 2016.  Most of the plants have gotten themselves established, but winters are harsh and a few of our plantings had some major set backs.  The romantic cherries had some degree of winter kill, and the pears and Evans cherries winter killed to snow level.   The spring of 2020 teased us with warm spell which gave them a false start signal to start growing, and was followed by a deep freeze.  The plants have started suckering though and we will hopefully be able to train new trees off these suckers.

Developing some of the perennial and annual beds this year have been started, and will continue each year.

Food Forest - 2016
2020-Food-Forest-Web
Food Forest - 2020

Continuing Progress

Plant height and their relation to the South facing sun was considered, prevailing winds and exposure were examined, and ease of access to the produced fruits was hypothesized.  A new layout was put together in situ, and away we went!

The initial plantings required frequent watering, and an adopt-a-plot scheme was developed where a gardener would volunteer to water a small group of trees/shrubs over the season.  All of our trees/shrubs survived their establishment years thanks to this program.  The ground however was left barren…we didn’t have any sort of ground cover the first two years.

That would change with the purchase of new mulch for the pathways.  All of the gardens old pathway mulch was scraped up and redistributed over the food forest area as a means of deterring the hot summers baking off of soil moisture.  A large contingent of volunteers spent the day raking  and loading wheel barrows to move the old mulch and distribute new mulch over the garden paths.

The pergola was a beautiful addition to the garden in 2018 along with the tool shed.

Finally, in 2020 we developed the food forest walking path, and established native cover grasses mixed in with nurse crop grasses.  Our current garden iteration requires some perennial beds to attract pollinators and finish off the landscaping in respect of the surrounding residences.

The Final Major Developments for 2021

We’ve been at the final developments of the Food Forest for 2021.  We finally completed the perennial beds along the back fence line, along with the establishment of some perennial wild flowers.