We need a lot of plant cover to block out weeds, retain soil, attract pollinators, and provide habitat for native birds and insects. Perennial plants like rosemary, sage, thyme, echinacea, agrimony, and sedum will help create a productive, and beautiful, forest garden.

The Outback has an ideal climate for growing berries, and we’d like to cultivate tasty fruit like blueberries, raspberries, huckleberries along with native plants like salmon berry and thimbleberry. We would like to offer lesser-known varieties too, like goumi and autumn olive.

We’ve identified areas for adding fruit and nut trees to the food forest. Some common fruits like plum, apple, and pear will be joined by special trees like quince, shipova, and cold-hearty fig. Filberts and chestnuts help bring in protein sources and diversify the forest.

In permaculture terms, a “guild” is a group of plants intentionally grown together in a way that benefits them all. It’s like companion planting on a larger scale! It’s common to have a guild around a tree with plants performing different roles, like a pest repeller, a nitrogen fixer, a ground cover, a pollinator attractor, etc. At this donation level, we would be able to cultivate an entire family of plants.

All this work requires tools! At this level of support, we would be able to acquire important tools to facilitate our planting and maintenance – including shovels, loppers, snips, and a new wheelbarrow.

An exciting new development on the farm is preparing space for the inoculation of a mushroom cultivation garden. Mushrooms are luscious, nutritious, and fascinating to grow. They’re also in high demand from students facing food insecurity, and we believe we can provide a seasonal supply of a variety of mushrooms – but we need to purchase growth medium, spores for inoculation, and containers for harvest and distribution.

Are you able to support the farm in a larger way? We’d love your support to convert two hillsides into productive, attractive, and regenerative forest gardens! One hill is hot and dry, allowing us to explore plants that might thrive in a more Mediterranean climate like Artemisia and fig. The other needs multiple guilds and berry patches.