Sackville Community Food Forest
Garden in Nature’s Image
In the summer of 2009 Community Forests International, with support from Evergreen and Renaissance Sackville, designed and planted a demonstration ‘Food Forest’ at the Sackville Community Garden.
Drawn from Permaculture, a ‘Food Forest’ is an imitation of a woodland ecosystem with an emphasis on edible and medicinal varieties of plants and fungi. Various useful species are arranged to fit all of the niches that exist in a natural ecosystem. The mutually beneficial relationships that arise from this assembly foster enhanced productivity, resilience, and a reduced reliance on external resources.
The Sackville Community Food Forest features two distinct zones; an apple-centered guild and a larger garden featuring native species. As the name implies, the apple-centered guild revolves around an apple tree, which in time will form the canopy of the food forest. This guild also includes edible and beneficial mushrooms; a herb layer composed of culinary, medicinal, and beneficial insect-attracting plants; and a shrub layer, which includes nutrient accumulators, mulch plants, and food-producing perennials such as currant and gooseberry. The native species zone includes these same functional elements, but does not rely on cultivated plants.
Participants gather near one of the butternut trees in a question and answer session after touring the native species plot.
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Featuring species native to the Acadian Forest Eco-Region, this zone includes:
Elderberry (Sambucus Canadensis)
Serviceberry (Amelanchier spp.)
Wild Rose (Rosa spp.)
Bayberry (Myrica pensylvanica)
Highbush Cranberry (Viburnum trilobum)
Choke Cherry (Prunus virginiana)
Wild Raisin (Viburnum cassinoides)
Hobblebush (Viburnum alnifolium)
Witch Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana)
Native River Grape (Vitis riparia)
Beaked Hazel (Corylus cornuta)
Ostrich Fern (Matteuccia struthopteris)
Bloodroot (Sanguinaria Canadensis)
Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense)
Oak Fern (Gymnocarpium dryopteris)
Butternut (Juglans cinerea)
Oyster Mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus)
Morel Mushroom (Morchella esculenta)
Turkey Tail Mushroom (Trametes Versicolor)
[...] clone and grow plants from cuttings, David walked the group of participants into CFI’s ‘food forest‘ for some hands-on [...]
[...] Whether it’s the construction of our new native species nursery, continual maintenance of our Food Forest, or publishing helpful resources, we’ve had plenty on our plates this [...]