A pear ripening at the food forest in Hazelwood
Click here to read our Hazelwood Food Forest blog entries.
On Oct 16, 2009 Juliette Jones, Hazelwood resident, and Michelle Czolba, a native Pittsburgher, co-founders of Pittsburgh Food Forests, received a Seed Award from the Sprout Fund. This monetary award was used to plant a Food Forest on Second Avenue in Hazelwood in the spring of 2010, thus transforming four adjacent vacant lots into productive green space. The total site size is 90’ x 100’ or about ¼ acre.
A Food Forest is a garden with fruit and nut trees, in addition to the flowers, vegetables and herbs found in traditional gardens. They are beautiful places for people to gather. Food Forests are designed to grow the way that nature intended, with the plants each serving a purpose or multiple functions for humans, animals and other plants. They grow vertically, as a forest, with tall trees growing above shrubs and low-growing plants. These spaces are sometimes called Forest Gardens, as nearly all of the trees and shrubs planted grow edible fruits or nuts.
Some of the trees and shrubs included in the Hazelwood Food Forest design and planted on site include Hazelnuts, Pawpaw, Mulberry, Pears, Plums, Elderberry, Blueberry and Currants. This is not a complete list, but gives an idea of the variety of food that can be grown in a food forest. Herbs are included in the design along with wildflowers that attract beneficial insects, butterflies and bees. As young fruit trees do not produce fruit right away, it will take a few years before the plantings can be harvested. Yet once established, the Hazelwood Food Forest will provide an abundance of food and be a permanent fixture in the community.
A detailed design layout for the Hazelwood Food Forest (click to enlarge).
Two workshops were held in April, 2010 so that community members could learn more about food forests and how to grow their own, while helping to prepare the soil and plant the fruit and nut trees. The first workshop was on April 17th and involved learning about soil and compost and participants helped to prepare the soil for planting primarily by sheet mulching.
The April 24th workshop involved planting the trees and learning more about food forests. Participants that attended both workshops received strawberry plants to take home. These workshops were free to the community thanks to the Sprout Seed Award.
Click here to visit the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article.
