Suburban Dryland Forest Garden
Details
- Commenced: 01 May 2009
- Submitted: 21 Feb 2011
- Last updated: 06 Jul 2011
- Location: Boulder, CO, United States
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Suburban Dryland Forest Garden
Project Type
Urban, Residential, Demonstration, EducationalProject Summary
A rainwater harvesting food forest in Boulder, Colorado, USA.
Project Description
I love the forest, but I live in the city. Since I don't get to the wildlands nearly enough, my goal has been to create an edible forest throughout the city where I live.
To me, it only makes sense to grow food where people live, and since a gargantuan number of people live in cities, it's due time to get urban food systems established. Having worked in large scale annual agriculture I'm much more inclined to grow food in the semblance of a perennial forest. To avoid the back-breaking labor and horrendous hours in shadeless fields, several years ago I decided to get to work creating a lush, food-filled urban atmosphere. This project is one example of the lifetime of work ahead of me beginning to take root and yield results.
There were many challenges to contend with for this garden. First was a mature black walnut that succumbed to thousand canker disease.
Dead Black Walnut and Bluegrass Lawn
The city required that the tree be taken down as soon as possible to stem the spread of the disease. Black walnut isn't a very appropriate tree in this high altitude and semi-arid climate, which might explain the disease pressure they face. We had to assume the level of juglone, a walnut allelopathic chemical in the soil, was high, which dictated our planting scheme to choose juglone tolerant species. Walnut is a classic example of allelopathy, using plant chemicals to reduce competition underneath its canopy, where only certain plants can withstand the toxicity. A few such species included in this garden are Amelanchier alnifolia/juneberry, Ribes sp./red and golden currant, Sambucus nigra/elderberry, Prunus domestica/plum, Caragana aborescens/pea shrub, Baptista australis/indigo, and Ribes uva-crispum/gooseberry.
We sheet mulched this area heavily, up to 18 inches in places, as adding organic matter is reportedly the best way to lock-up and break down allelopathic chemicals. We used cardboard from the local bike shop to smother the bluegrass lawn, cow manure from a local ranch for fertility, leaves the client had collected over the years, and cast-off strawbales. The soil is now a nicely assimilated, dark and crumbly consistency.
We harvested the runoff from nearly half of the house roof surface to gravity feed through four infiltration basins as the sole irrigation source. While most landscapes in Boulder are over-irrigated with municipally treated water, this garden harvests almost 10,000 gallons of rainwater annually to passively infiltrate into the soil, requiring zero municipal water post establishment. Boulder's average annual precipitation is 16-18 inches with a very high evaporation rate. We mulched the basins heavily with woodchips from a local tree trimmer to absorb the rainwater, reduce evaporation, and to prevent creating mosquito breeding habitat.
Harvesting Rainwater in Action
Previously the water ran down the driveway and into the street only to evaporate in summer or ice up in winter. After three months of hand irrigation for plant establishment this garden now thrives strictly on harvested rainwater.
After first digging the water harvesting earthworks, then planting the trees and shrubs, and following with sheet mulch, we planted various other useful plant species for nitrogen fixation, nutrient accumulation, pest confusion, and beneficial insect attraction. Most of the species have edible or medicinal qualities as well. Some of them are: white and red clover, yarrow, monarda, blanket flower, daylily, comfrey, chives, garlic chives, egyptian walking onions, potato onions, echinacea, asparagus, sorrel, salad burnett, culinary sage, and oyster mushrooms to name a few. The client also has made use of the sunlight gaps to grow things like tomatoes, pole beans, peppers, and tomatillos. As time goes on, the level of sun hitting the soil is less and less, but planting annual food crops in the sunny spots is a great way to maximize the yield of food in the early years.
The last part of implementation we did was to protect the more susceptible trees and shrubs from the large neighborhood deer population. Being so close to the rocky mountains, the local deer have become part of the urban/suburban animal kingdom along with rats, pigeons, and raccoons. Due to the voracious deer with too little habitat, protecting the young plants was essential the first year. We went with a simple and cost effective chickenwire fence that wove in and out of the most important plants, close enough together that the deer wouldn't jump in, but far enough apart so they couldn't reach much of the foliage.
Inexpensive Temporary Chickenwire Fence
As you can see from the photos below, the fencing was moved once and has since been removed altogether as the deer are now proving to be beneficial pruners of the monstrous elderberry bushes!
The growth in this garden is fantastic, and even better the homeowner has become a sincere advocate for rainwater harvesting and forest gardening. It has been two years since the garden was installed and it is encouraging to see the abundant results of needing no irrigation, producing food, creating wildlife habitat, being a great place to bring students, and simply being beautiful. This garden is an awesome place to eat, observe, and be! The scale of the garden is only 750 sq. ft. and is therefore easily and affordably replicated. With extremely low maintenance and no continuous irrigation cost, this garden has attracted other city dwellers to extend the edible forest ecosystem to other yards and neighborhoods. Perhaps the greatest yield from this garden is the food forest revolution that it has inspired!
Summer Solstice, 2009, After planting
Summer Solstice, 2010
Summer Solstice, 2011
This garden was originally written about in the Permaculture Activist, Water Issue, Winter 2010.