Photo courtesy of iStockphoto / Thinkstock
The Beacon Food Forest mixes forested areas with fruit Tree and shrubs , as well as horticulture plot .
resident of the Beacon Hill vicinity of Seattle come up with a plan to transform an unused parcel of land of land into an urban food forest .
Despite robust community of interests living , creating theBeacon Food Forest , a 7 - Accho public garden plant with fruit and crackpot Tree , Chuck Berry shrub , and eatable annuals and perennials — all loose for the pick — required more than wheelbarrows full of seedling and the willingness to work the land .
Seattle Public Utilities , owners of the in demand urban lot , needed to cede approval , and the labor need funding .
In 2011 , Beacon Hill residents got the news that the land was available for the project and two grants — $ 100,000 from a Parks and Green Spaces Levy and $ 22,000 from a minuscule and elementary neighbourhood grant — would turn the Beacon Food Forest from a concept into a world .
“ The Food Forest blurs the boundaries of traditional landscape conception , ” says Laura Raymond , project coordinator with Seattle Department of Neighborhoods . “ People want to bang if it ’s a timber , a park , a garden . It piques their curiosity . ”
There is no one - size - fits - all definition of what the Beacon Food Forest will be .
friend of Beacon Food Forest hired The Harrison Design Team to develop a landscape painting plan for the project . It incorporates forested areas planted with fruit - and ball - stomach Tree and shrubs as well as traditional gardening patches forcommunity veg horticulture . The group envisions a public scrounge area and community harvest days to encourage neighborhood involvement .
“ To some extent , how it ’s going to work is still evolve , ” enunciate Raymond . “ It ’s a conception that is definitely ride on the tails of a larger , growing sake in produce food . ”
Construction is slate to initiate in a few months with the first planting installed in the declination .
The response has been consuming . Neighborhood planning meetings , which typically appeal 30 or few Beacon Hill residents , have been standing - room - only .
The Beacon Food Forest has also attracted outside attention .
“ We ’ve get phone call from other city faculty who are concerned in the construct and want to screw how we ’re doing it here , ” Raymond says .
grant to Raymond , interrogation have come from across the United States and as far away as South Africa and Germany .
“ The Food Forest is an example of how people and cities are getting more originative about how to use urban spaces and how to tally gardens into an increasingly dense metropolis , ” she says . “ Community gardening has always been a dear part of what makesSeattle , Seattle . This is a really exciting example . ”
